By MONIQUE VARELA

Taylor Swift’s international Era’s Tour at SoFi Stadium on Aug. 6, 2023. (MONIQUE VARELA/ Ethic News photo)

2023 has been a big year for Taylor Swift, with the start of her international ‘Eras Tour’, her new movie ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’, and so much more. Her year has made her millions of dollars, mostly from her sold out tours worldwide.

The Era’s Tour was announced by Taylor Swift on Nov. 1, 2022 on her social media accounts. The announcement was a shock to fans as Swift has not toured since 2018. The tour was set to start on March 17, 2023 and end in December of 2024.

“Lover” opened the August 6, 2023 concert of The Era’s Tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Performers ran out with colorful flags to kick off the show. (MONIQUE VARELA/ Ethic News photo)

Swift has toured all over the United States and will be touring to other continents such as Latin American, Asia, Australia and Europe through the end of 2023 and into 2024. According to Time Magazine, the tour has made an estimated five billion dollars.

Harkins theater was one of the many theaters which showcased “Taylor Swift: The Era’s Tour.”  (MONIQUE VARELA/ Ethic News photo)

On Aug. 31 Swift announced The Era’s Tour movie which would be released on Oct. 13. The movie is a  movie concert from the three nights of her SoFi Stadium shows in Los Angeles during August. The movie did not show the entirety of her set list from the tour because it has 44 songs and goes over three hours.

Songs that were removed were “The Archer” from Lover, “no body, no crime” (featuring Haim) from evermore, “Long Live” from “Speak Now,” “Wildest Dreams” from “1989,” and “cardigan” from folklore. Though “Long Live” did make it into the movie for end credits.

The movie gained popularity before it was even released and gained over 37 million dollars in pre-sales overnight. After its release, it has made over 160 million dollars. Something special that was included in this movie was a collectables cup and popcorn tub that theaters were giving out. The cup and the tub only cost 22 dollars together and are also being sold outside of theaters by Swift. Adult tickets cost $19.89 which is a tribute to her album 1989 which she released on Oct. 27 of 2014 . For children, tickets cost $13.13. This is another tribute to Swift’s favorite number, 13.

This was the collectible item that fans were able to buy when seeing the movie. It cost $22 and was an item that was available when going to see the movie. (MONIQUE VARELA/ Ethic News photo)

The movie is directed by Sam Wrench who has also directed movies for Billie Eilish and Lizzo. He has also recently produced some of Swift’s recent projects. Swift has also made other movie documentaries in the past such as “The Reputation Stadium Tour,” “Miss Americana,” and Folklore: “The Long Pond Studio Sessions.” 

What is Taylor’s Version

These were the four albums Swift has released under the name “Taylor’s Version” these recent years. Taylor’s Version is a reminder to fans that they are listening to her version of the album. (MONIQUE VARELA/ Ethic News photo)

Swift began re-recording albums in April of 2021 when she re-recorded her 2008 “Fearless” album. She started re-recording albums due to the fact that her first six albums belonged to the record label when she started her career. But later, the albums were sold to a private equity firm, which Swift went against. 

Now as her career goes on she has begun to re-record her albums to have ownership of the songs that were sold. After she re-records an album she adds Taylor’s Version after the original name to remind her fans that they are listening to her version. Ever since then she has begun to re-record “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” “Red (Taylor’s Version),” “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and most recently “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” Fans speculate that she may be releasing two more album re-writes of “Reputation” and her debut album “Taylor Swift.”

“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”

Earlier this year Swift announced the re-rewrite of her album Speak Now on May 5, this album was her third album and was originally released on October 25 of 2010. This album made fans very excited as Swift had just released her tenth album Midnights a few months earlier, the album re-write was officially released on July 7.

 In every one of Swift’s re-recorded albums she includes vault tracks that she wrote during the era of the album and includes “(From the Vault)” to the songs. This is exciting for fans as it’s new content they have never heard before. Some of the vault tracks that were released on this album were “Electric Touch”, “When Emma Falls in Love”, “I Can See You”, “Castle Crumbling”, “Foolish One”, and “Timeless”. 

After the album’s release fans noticed that there was a lyric change to the song “Better Than Revenge”. The song was speculated to be about Swift’s ex boyfriend Joe Jonas. Swift’s reason for changing the lyrics was due to controversy of “slut-shaming” Camille Belle in the song, who Swift blamed for taking her boyfriend. She later put out a statement about it to “The Guardian” saying “I was 18 when I wrote that. That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realize no one can take someone from you if they don’t want to leave”. Swift realizes it is a mistake for saying that in her song and fans later praise Swift for this lyric change.

1989 (Taylor’s Version)

This is the set up Target had made for the new release of Swift’s “1989” rewrite that came out this year. The set up contains her vinyls and CD’s she is selling for this album. There is also tangerine vinyl that she is selling which is a Target exclusive vinyl. (MONIQUE VARELA/ Ethic News photo)

“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” was finally announced on Aug 10 at SoFi Stadium after much speculation from her fans. Though the album was officially released on Oct 27. 

The album got a lot of mixed reviews from fans, some were saying it sounded really different from the original album and did not like it, but other fans seemed to enjoy the album. The album had five vault tracks and a feature from Kendrick Lamar on “Bad Blood”, which was included in the deluxe version of the album. The vault tracks that were included were “Slut!”, “Say Don’t Go”, “Now That We Don’t Talk”, “Suburban Legends”, and “ Is It Over Now?”. Fans were surprised that the album did not have more vault tracks as her other re-recorded albums included more. 

With the release of this album Swift has also released some merchandise to promote the album. Some of it being a new “1989” cardigan, exclusive tangerine edition vinyl, and so much more. The release of this album came with suspicions of possibly new re-recorded albums to come. Fans suspect that “Reputation” will be the next album to be re-recorded and have come up with some theories as to when it will be released.

Awards

Throughout Swift’s career she has won a multitude of awards, including being the first woman solo artist to win Album Of TheYear three times for her albums “Fearless,” “1989,” and “Folklore.” This year at the MTV Video Music Awards, Swift was nominated for 11 VMA’s. 

Her song “Anti-Hero” from her album “Midnights” was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Visual Effects, Best Pop Video, Song of the Year, Best Cinematography, Best Direction, and Best Editing. “Karma,” also from her album “Midnights,” was nominated for Song of the Summer, and “Midnights” itself was nominated for Album of the Year. 

The Era’s Tour was also nominated for Show of the Summer and finally Swift herself was nominated for Artist of the Year. Out of all those nominations Swift went home with nine out of 11 VMA’s. She won Video of the Year, Best Visual Effects, Best Pop Video, Song of the Year, Best Cinematography, Best Direction, Album of the Year, Show of the Summer, and finally Artist of the Year. In the entirety of her career she has won 23 VMA’s. 

This year’s Grammys will showcase on Feb 4 and Swift is nominated for six Grammys. “Anti-Hero” is nominated for Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Record of the Year. “Midnights” being nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year, “Karma (feat. Ice Spice)” is also being nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Ending credits of “Taylor Swift: The Era’s Tour” on Oct. 14 2023. Taylor Swift thanked her fans for supporting her. The bracelets are known as friendship bracelets, fans of Swift would trade these bracelets at her concerts in tribute to lyrics from her song “You’re On Your Own, Kid” from her album “Midnights.” (MONIQUE VARELA/ Ethic News photo)

Throughout the year of 2023, Swift has had an overall good year, from the success of her international tour as well as the many awards she has won. She has concluded her year with winning Person of the Year in Times Magazine, which makes her the second woman to win Person of the Year. Next year will continue The Era’s Tour as well as suspicions of two new album re- writes and will be the end of “Taylor’s Version.”