“We could have filled 12 or 14 La Défense Arena without problem,” says his turner in France

The American singer starts her European tour with a concert at La Défense Arena on Thursday.

“We could have filled 12 or 14 La Défense Arena without any problem, we could have had two or three additional stadiums in Lyon,” explains, Thursday May 9, on France Inter Arnaud Meersseman, general director of AEG Presents and French tour manager for Taylor Swift, who is starting her European tour. She will perform four concerts at La Défense Arena, near Paris, in front of 42,000 spectators each evening, then “The Eras Tour” will return to Groupama Stadium in Lyon on June 2 and 3.

“I hope we’re not going to crack the Grande Arche de La Défense!”enthuses the turner, who says he sold “250,000 tickets between the four Paris dates and the two Lyon dates”. According to him, there is “a runaway effect” around the star, “that is to say, the more we talk about her, the more she grows, the more she grows, the more we talk about her.” He also explains his success because Taylor Swift is a phenomenon that “combines music, media presence and the political side”.

The preparation was “intense”

Arnaud Meersseman salutes the singer’s performance: “An artist who plays 3.5 hours a night, four nights in a row, without a break, I’ve never seen that in my entire career”. He indicates that around 700 people work on this series of concerts, or “350 people on the AEG side, the same goes for its staff”. The preparation was “intense”, but “we’re in the starting blocks.”

The superstar started his “Eras Tour” a little early and starting in Paris, due to the Olympic Games. Taylor Swift was unable to perform at the Stade de France due to preparation work, and had to bring forward her arrival in Paris because “the organizing committee arrives very early to build the Olympic swimming pool, around May 15”explains the turner. “She postponed the start of her tour to be able to join Paris and do La Défense Arena”, he said.

And he announces that“we are going to discover a slightly modified show since she released a new album [The Tortured Poets Department] since she stopped her Australian release.” “So she’s going to include new songs from her new album”he explains.