You’re not imagining it. Whether it’s at the movie theatre, at football games or in TV commercials – Taylor Swift is everywhere.
And this week, with the Eras Tour officially kicking off in Canada, Swift – and Swiftdom – officially enters into the realm of omnipresence in this country. In Toronto, where she plays this week, streets have been renamed in her honour. Posters of her envelop entire subway stations. Countless restaurants are rolling out album-themed menus.
If you’re brand new to Swift’s oeuvre, this is a good time to brush up on the basics. So, without further ado, The Globe presents Taylor Swift A-Z. Think of it as cheat sheet, or Swiftie starter pack. Because, as Swift puts it, today is never too late to be brand new.
Athletic. It’s the approach Swift’s trainer Kirk Myers took to preparing the singer for her tour. In the months leading up to Eras, she worked out six days a week, focusing mainly on strength and her core. She also shared that every day she would perform the full three-hour-plus set list while running on a treadmill. As Myers told Vogue: “Some people would probably throw up.”
Bracelets. “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it.” It’s the line (from Swift’s song You’re On Your Own, Kid) that started a movement. The bracelets – made and traded by fans at her shows and meet-and-greets – have become essential Swift iconography.
Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris on Instagram with a photo of her and her cat, Benjamin Button.Supplied
Cats. An important piece of Swift lore. A few weeks after a clip of (now vice-president-elect) JD Vance mocking Democrat supporters as “childless cat ladies” went viral, Swift posted her endorsement of Kamala Harris to Instagram. She illustrated the post with a photo of her with one of her cats, Benjamin Button. (For the real keeners, the names of her other two cats are Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson.)
Donations. After this fall’s hurricanes in Florida, Swift donated US$5-million to relief efforts in the area. That’s on top of the US$1-million each she gave to relief efforts after tornados in Tennessee (2024) and Nashville (2022), and after flooding in Louisiana in 2016.
Employer. Swift reportedly handed out US$100,000 bonuses to each of the truck drivers, sound technicians, caterers, dancers and other production staff working on the Eras Tour last year – to the tune of US$55-million. Not bad, boss.
Friends in high places. The infamous Swift squad. Among them: Selena Gomez, Emma Stone, Gigi Hadid, Blake Lively and the Haim sisters.
Guitar. What’s a singer-songwriter without one? Swift has been playing hers since the age of 12, and has strummed duets alongside everyone from Ed Sheeran to Paul McCartney.
Houses. All that work has paid off. Swift owns at least eight properties, including a penthouse in Tribeca, a mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif., a 12,000-square-foot beach house in Rhode Island (where she throws her infamous 4th of July parties) and an estate in Nashville. Her properties are worth a combined $150-million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ice Spice. Swift first met the breakout star in 2023 while collaborating on a remix of Karma. They quickly struck up a friendship, and the rapper was Taylor’s plus one to watch the Kansas City Chiefs (and Swift’s boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce) win the 2024 Super Bowl.
Jokes. Speaking of Kelce, news of the pair’s romance inspired one of last year’s best TikTok pranks. It went like this: One partner (often female) tells their (often male) football-loving partner that Swift “put Travis Kelce on the map.” Cue partner’s head exploding. Expert-level trolling.
Kelce. Okay, last one about the couple, in case you’ve been living under a rock. They’ve been dating since last year, after Kelce made headlines for sharing on his podcast that he’d tried (and failed) to give the singer his phone number by means of a friendship bracelet. Clearly things have worked out since.
Lyrics. Whether you’re a Swiftie or not, you’ll know them. From, “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me,” to, “I’m the problem, it’s me,” her lyrics have had an undeniable impact on pop culture. Her words are everywhere, inspiring countless online memes and emblazoned as slogans across countless T-shirts, mugs and tote bags.
Money. A lot of it. According to TIME Magazine, Swift is worth US$1.6-billion.
Numerology. It’s a core belief among Swifties that numbers explain all. In particular, her lucky number is 13. In 2009, she said on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: “I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. Also, my first song that ever went No. 1 – it had a 13-second intro.”
Outfit changes. She wears, on average, 16 different outfits each show on the Eras tour. There’s the iconic Roberto Cavalli snake bodysuit for Reputation songs, the Donatella Versace crystal-encrusted bodysuits for Lover and – a look that was immortalized in countless early 2010s Halloween costumes – this iconic black-fedora-and-white-T-shirt look.
Puzzles. Swift – and Swifties – love them. She’s known for leaving secret messages to her fans in album liner notes, and sprinkling Easter eggs throughout her lyrics and videos. They’re often self-referential: callbacks to her previous work, or foreshadowing of coming releases. Her video for the song ME!, for instance, showed a neon-pink Lover sign in the landscape – four months before the album was released. And blink and you miss it, but at the 0.48-second mark in the music video for The Man, there’s a “no scooters” sign posted to the wall – a reference to her public feud with the music exec Scooter Braun.
Quotes. “And one day, your kid comes home singin’ a song that only us two is gonna know is about you.” Those are the lyrics from Swift’s thanK you aIMee, a thinly veiled reference to her feud with Kim Kardashian (just look closer at the capital letters). This after Kardashian (and Kanye West’s) daughter North West posted a video of herself dancing along to one of Swift’s songs.
Red. Whether it’s onstage or cheering from the stands at a Chiefs game, Swift loves a red lip. Her preferred lipstick on the Eras tour has been Elson, a blue-red shade from Pat McGrath Labs. But she’s also been a long-time fan of the (classic) Ruby Woo red from MAC.
Stage. The stage set-up, according to the Wall Street Journal, is one of the “most technically ambitious” productions of the 21st century. It’s made up of three separate stages, all of them connected by a large ramp, and reportedly takes seven to eight hours to set up – and 50 trucks to transport.
Taylor’s Version. By now, it’s essential Swift lore. After Scooter Braun (whose former clients include Kanye West) bought Big Machine Records in 2019, Swift learned that the music exec would own the master rights to her first six albums. She accused Braun of bullying and decided to rerecord the albums in order to reclaim her work. The new recording are branded as “Taylor’s Version.”
University courses to consider. Honey, life is just a classroom, Swift sings. In some cases, literally. Queen’s University offers a course in trademark and copyright law called “Law (Taylor’s Version).” Over in Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University offers a literature course devoted to analyzing the songwriter’s lyrics. And a gender studies course at Northeastern University in Boston looks at the impact of Swift’s storytelling, and the history of diary and confessional writings in women’s literature.
Videos. She’s directed many of her own music videos, including those for Fortnight, You Need to Calm Down and Anti-Hero.
West. Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the infamous Kanye West incident. A recap: It was the 2009 MTV Music Awards, and Taylor Lautner had just announced Swift as the winner for best female video. A visibly thrilled, slightly breathless Swift had just begun her acceptance speech. And suddenly, as if out of nowhere, the rapper was standing there too. Wearing dark sunglasses and commandeering the microphone, he uttered a line that would become instantly iconic: “Imma let you finish…” The rest is pop culture history.
X – (e)XTRA (Because X, dear readers, is hard.) Just as Swift likes to sprinkle bonus surprises into her album releases, she likes to add surprise songs on tour too – on average, two extra songs that she switches up each night. Predictions abound on what those songs might be in Toronto. Ideally not Dear John, with these lyrics: “I’m shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.”
Youngest. At 14, she was the youngest artist ever to sign a deal with Sony. At the age of 17, she was the youngest artist ever with a No. 1 song on the Hot Country Songs chart. And in 2010 – at the age of 20 – she was then the youngest person ever to win the Album of the Year award at the Grammys. (Billie Eilish knocked her down a rung in 2020.) Okay, Doogie.
Zuhair Murad. The Lebanese designer is behind the crystal-encrusted dark blue bodysuit that Swift wears during the Midnights era of her show. It is dripping in bijoux, with more than 10,500 sparkling beads handsewn to make up dozens of crescent moons and stars.
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