12 time Grammy Award winner and global superstar Taylor Swift kicked off her sixth headlining concert tour, The Eras Tour, on March 17 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The show lasted over three hours and was split into 10 acts, during which Swift performed 44 songs from over the course of her 17 year career, according to USA Today.

The tour is Swift’s first since her international Reputation stadium tour in 2018. Since then she has released four new studio albums – “Lover”, “Folklore”, “Evermore” and “Midnights” – as well as re-recorded two of her six earlier albums that were originally recorded with Big Machine Records – “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” – in order to gain ownership of her masters.

In honor of Swift’s kickoff show, the mayor of Glendale Jerry P. Weiers announced on March 13 that the city would be ceremoniously renamed Swift City, Era-zona for March 17-18, according to Rolling Stone.

Glendale, AZ ➡️ Swift City, AZ#GlendaleAZ is so “bejeweled” for @taylorswift13’s #TSTheErasTour that we’re renaming the city in her honor. pic.twitter.com/41bcge3iQf

— City of Glendale, AZ (@GlendaleAZ) March 13, 2023

“We are writing our own ‘Love Story’ for her and greeting every Swiftie in ‘Style,’” Weiers said in a statement incorporating several of Swift’s popular song titles.

Each of the show’s 10 acts corresponded with one of Swift’s 10 studio albums. Each of the acts featured color schemes and visual effects corresponding to the albums’ aesthetics, as well as costume changes – 16 different outfits in total, according to Buzzfeed.

Swift sang multiple songs from each album, but dedicated particular time to those that she had not previously toured. These included “Lover”, whose supporting 2020 concert tour Lover Fest was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, “Folklore” and “Evermore”, both of which were released during the pandemic in 2020, and “Midnights”, Swift’s most recent album, released in October 2022. For several of the songs on the setlist, it was the first time that they had ever been performed live.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

Swift also plans to sing a different ‘surprise song’ at every show on the tour. The March 17 and March 18 surprise songs were both tracks from “Folklore”, “Mirrorball” and “This Is Me Trying.”

The concert has received rave reviews from fans and critics alike. Rolling Stone writer Waiss David Aramesh called it “live music at its highest spectacle,” Los Angeles Times’ Mikael Wood labeled it a “masterclass in pop ambition,” and Neil McCormack of The Daily Telegraph wrote that it was “one of the most ambitious, spectacular and charming stadium pop shows ever seen.”

Swift will come to Kansas City this summer, where she will perform two sold-out shows at Arrowhead Stadium on July 7 and 8, with opening artists MUNA and Gracie Abrams.