Count on her to make Europe dance as well as bring tears to its eyes: American mega-star Taylor Swift is giving the start of her record-breaking tour of the Old Continent on Thursday in Paris, before Lyon, Madrid, London and Munich. .
This precise 3:20 a.m. show, which the singer has already taken across the Americas, Asia and Australia, retraced the ten albums until then (since Taylor Swift in 2006) which propelled her from a rising star in American country to the biggest international pop star, with 110 million monthly listeners on Spotify (compared to 70 for Beyoncé or Dua Lipa).
In mid-April, the 34-year-old singer released her 11th opus, The Tortured Poets Department. Sold 1.4 million copies on its first day, it became the most listened to upon its launch on Spotify, with a billion streams in five days. This despite mixed reviews, with the British music magazine NME calling it “rare misstep“.
“Will she dedicate an entire section of the concert to this album or just play a few songs?“, asks Glenys Johnson, author of “Taylor Swift, the story of a fashion icon” (ed. Place des Victoires), on behalf of the “Swifties”, the nickname of the singer’s fans.
“Her audience grew up with her”
According to Satu Hämeenaho-Fox, author of Into the Taylor-Verse, at the heart of Taylor Swift’s universe (Gallimard Jeunesse), the tall blonde with blue eyes, with the claimed image of an average American, has built her success on “shared language of female youth“.
“There is something in his music that captures the adolescent desire to begin life, the yearning for a more poetic existence, full of passion, danger and love.“, describes Hämeenaho-Fox to AFP.
For 17 years the artist has been singing about his joys and sorrows, especially from the heart, “her audience grew up with her. The feelings it conveys have become more complex. (…) It creates space for the deepest emotions that we sometimes feel like we are not allowed to feel“.
Fan since Midnightswhose electro-pop sounds have caught the ears of the general public beyond the United States in 2022, Soukeyna, 16, admires a “very complete artist (Who) writes all his texts“at a Stakhanovist pace (four albums between 2019 and 2022).”You really have to listen to the lyrics and understand them because it’s something unique“, she pleads.
The young girl from Marmande (southwest of France), who will attend the concert on Sunday with her older sister, also appreciates “the feeling of being part of a community“: “I have the impression that everyone is very caring. Everyone is singing, we’re exchanging bracelets, it looks amazing.“
The star, personality of the year 2023 according to Time magazine, also takes the greatest care of “Swifties“, going so far as to invite them to her home or give them gifts.
“If it wasn’t for Taylor, we wouldn’t have made this trip at all.”
“If it wasn’t for Taylor“, they would probably never have come to Lyon: Taylor Swift concerts attract unexpected tourists to the city, where hotels and businesses rejoice at this good deal.
More than 100,000 people will attend the performance of the American megastar, who will perform on June 2 and 3 in Lyon. As elsewhere, tickets were snapped up in no time.
A month before the event, social networks are teeming with exchanges between his fans, the “Swifties“, who prepare the trip from the United States, Canada, Costa Rica or Nicaragua, and readily admit to having grabbed the first available ticket.
“You could say I live his words: I counted the days, I counted the kilometers to see you there. 10,747 kilometers to be exact!” laughs during an exchange with AFP Naomi Imbang, 28 years old, who will come from the Philippines because she was unable to obtain a place in Asia.
Rhonda Nye didn’t even manage to get “an access code” to book online in her country, Canada, but snatched tickets to come to Lyon with her husband and two children aged 6 and 12.
“If it wasn’t for Taylor, we wouldn’t have made this trip at all“, which will also take them to Paris, London and Juno Beach, she laughs. If the total cost of the vacation risks “exceed 10,000 euros” all-in, “It’s worth it for this unique experience”.
:quality(50)/2024/05/07/000-34qu3ew-6639ea281f8aa166572927.jpg)
“It’s much cheaper for us to come to France to see Taylor“than attend his concert in Canada, reassures Lenka, 55, who will travel with his daughter, his niece and his sister-in-law. “Instead of spending $2,000 on a ticket and accommodation in Toronto, we decided to fly to France“. The ticket (275 euros), the flight and the hotel cost around 1,330 euros per person, she estimates. Lyon, which has the second largest hotel capacity in France with 272 establishments and some 20,000 rooms, is delighted to this surge.
At this stage, 80% of rooms are reserved for June 2-3, according to the tourist office, compared to 30% occupancy a month before an ordinary weekend. “In a month of June it is clearly exceptional“, underlines one of its representatives. And the average price of a hotel room increased by 54% compared to the following and previous weeks, according to a publication in March from the research company Lighthouse. In the city center, the Maison No hotel is full on June 2 at an average rate of 300 euros, compared to 140 euros normally. For the evening of the Coldplay concert, at the end of June, the room costs “.only“240 euros,” notes one of his employees.
Economic impact
During each of the four Parisian concerts, until Sunday, there will be nearly 42,000 fans at La Défense Arena, including 20% Americans and 10% Europeans, according to figures communicated by the concert hall to AFP .
To get their ticket, after long hours of waiting in line, they spent 180 euros on average, specifies Bathilde Lorenzetti, vice-president of Paris La Défense Arena. And the fans don’t plan to stop there: the venue, which had a preview of the queues during the Japanese shows, has exceptionally doubled the sales points for derivative products.
Her sixth tour will then take the former America’s Little Bride, who took a stand against Trumpism in 2018, to Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Lyon (June 2-3), the United Kingdom, Ireland , the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria.
Each time with a considerable impact expected on the local economy. Various studies estimate the impact in the United States at between 5 and 10 billion dollars.