Pop icon Taylor Swift has had a sensational year for her career. She kicked off her sold out stadium tour in March, touring the United States until early August, as well as four shows in Mexico City. The Eras Tour preceded the international commercial success of her 10th studio album, Midnights. Along with Midnights, she released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”, the third in her current collection of re-recordings, on July 7th while she was touring. As we move into the last couple of months of 2023, Swift is expected to reach unbounded levels of success with the release of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film and “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”.
Throughout her career, Swift has been notorious for releasing iconic documentaries to accompany her successful tours, and this is no different with the Eras Tour. “The Eras Tour” film premiered in theaters on October 13th, grossing $123.5 million globally solely during opening weekend. Fans have taken to social media to share their experience watching the film. They have shared videos of entire theaters of people dancing and singing during the screening and dressing up, just as concert-goers dressed in Swift’s eras for the tour. The most noteworthy part of “The Eras Tour” film is the fact that it was entirely self-produced by Swift and her team. Instead of having a professional studio produce the film, she self-produced it to adhere to the guidelines of the SAG-AFTRA writers’ strike. Swift herself is a member of the union, so she personally partnered with AMC Theaters instead of following the typical approach to concert films.
On the last Friday of October, Swift released “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”. The album features16 re-recorded songs, as well as five “from the vault” tracks. Swift has also released four different vinyl variants, one of them including a bonus track that is a re-recorded version of a song released in 2013 called “Sweeter Than Fiction”. This is the fourth re-recording album of hers to be released and became available to the public on October 27th, exactly nine years after the original release of 1989. This album was arguably the most anticipated re-recording among fans. “1989” was Taylor Swift’s most successful album throughout her career, earning her Album of the Year at the 2016 Grammys, and the achievement of the album lived up to the expectation. In the first week of release, the album reached 1.653 album-equivalent units with one of the vault tracks “Is It Over Now”, reaching the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The past year has been monumental for Taylor Swift, and her unparalleled success is expected to continue as “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is played in theaters, and with the release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”.
Sources:
https://time.com/6323052/taylor-swift-eras-tour-concert-film/
https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-eras-tour-movie-actors-strike-union-approved-2023-9