Dream comes true for Swift fans as Eras Tour kicks off in Singapore

Taylor Swift’s first night of The Eras Tour in Singapore captured the heart of Asian fans Saturday evening.

Nguyen Hien Minh, 40, paid US$300 more than the original ticket price and traveled from Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore three days early to finally see her favorite singer.

“I love Taylor more after the show. She worked vigorously and put her heart into the smallest details,” Minh said.

Saturday was the first of six nights of The Eras Tour in the city-state, the sixth concert tour of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The tour consists of 152 shows and spans five continents.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore is the only destination selected to host the tour, which is why many fans paid more in travel costs to be able to enter the National Stadium.

“I have been hearing about Singapore all my life. To get to come here and play a show this big… it means the world,” Swift said to 60,000 fans as she told the story of how her mother grew up in Singapore, according to The Straits Times.

Swift took the audience through her 18-year career in the music industry in over three hours. The audience laughed and cried with the 34-year-old, who sang over 40 songs from her 10 studio albums that have turned a teenage country songwriter into one of the most successful pop singers of all time.

The fans screamed with the opener “Cruel Summer,” one of Swift’s biggest hits, when the singer showed up with a glistening outfit and large and colorful wings in the background.

Songs like “Fearless” and “Love Story” brought the audience back to the early years of Swift’s career as a country-pop musician, while “Black Space” and “Look What You Made Me Do” marked a change in the artist’s musical direction choice as she grew out of the “good girl” image.

The singer also performed “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” a song featured in the movie “Fifty Shades Darker.”

Hanoi-based Quynh Nga, 33, said the organization of the tour was good, and many security personnel were ready to provide assistance.

“When the show ended at 10:30 p.m., most people were able to find some sort of public transportation quickly,” Nga said.

Duc Viet, 33, also from Hanoi, said that he was impressed by the energy of Swift’s fans, who screamed and sang all throughout the night. Those who were not able to buy tickets even gathered outside the stadium to sing along.

The Eras Tour will continue in Singapore over March 3-4 and 7-9.