Taylor Swift Calls Eras Tour “Most Challenging Thing I’ve Ever Done” at Final Show

Taylor Swift closed out her history-making Eras Tour on Sunday night in Vancouver after 149 shows that took her to 21 countries across five continents.

“We have toured the entire world with this tour,” the “Fortnight” singer told the crowd at the beginning of the final show. “We have had so many adventures. It has been the most exciting, powerful, electrifying, intense, most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. We’ve gotten to perform for over 10 million people on this tour and tonight we get to play one last show for you here tonight in beautiful Vancouver. And we’re gonna make it count.”

Indeed, more than 10 million people have attended the tour, which raked in more than $2 billion in ticket sales, it was revealed on Monday. This makes the Eras Tour the first $2 billion tour in history.

Before Swift took the stage for one final performance, her opening act Gracie Abrams shared an emotional speech on behalf of Swifties everywhere.

“Like all of you, I’ve grown up with Taylor’s songs magically meeting a moment in my life that I didn’t think anyone else could understand or know or ached or yearned or loved or lost and yet she did,” the “Close To You” singer said, fighting back tears. “How are we supposed to have the words for it? We don’t yet, but I do know that we have each other thanks to Taylor, her music, her generosity, her curiosity, her wild and unparalleled pen, her super power of seeing into our lives and creating soundtracks for every single formative moment that we’ve had and that we will have.” 

Swift also appeared emotional when the BC Place crowd gave her a lengthy standing ovation following her performance of the Evermore track “Champagne Problems.”

“This tour has been an adventure of a lifetime,” she told the audience following their thunderous applause. “I speak on behalf of my band, my crew, my fellow performers who all left their families and have spent time away from everything that they know and love and have performed when they were sick, when anything was going on in their lives. They made sure that this show happened for you and I just wanted to say that on behalf of all of us we will never forget you giving us that moment. Thank you so much.”

No surprise, the crowd’s emotions were high throughout the show, but the audience seemed especially moved during Swift’s final acoustic set, where the superstar singer-songwriter traditionally plays “surprise songs.”

“We’ve had so long to prepare for the end of this tour,” Swift said while introducing the final surprise songs. “So I was trying to think about, ‘What songs really encapsulate how I feel about tonight?’ So I decided to go back to the beginning.” 

Swift went on to perform a mashup of “A Place in This World” off of her 2006 debut album and “New Romantics” off 1989 on the guitar, as well as a mashup of the Speak Now track “Long Live,” the Reputation song “New Year’s Day” and “The Manuscript” off her latest album The Tortured Poets Department on the piano.

During “Long Live,” Swift noticeably changed the lyric “It was the end of a decade” to “It was the end of an era,” marking the conclusion of what she referred to onstage as her “beloved” Eras Tour.

Following her final bow, the show ended with a sentimental group hug with Swift, her dancers and backing vocalists. The pop star then walked off the back of the stage with her fellow performers, instead of disappearing through a trap door like she had done the rest of the tour. 

After the lights came back on, credits for her band, dancers and backing vocalists were displayed on the big screen.

Swift began the Eras Tour in Glendale, Ariz. in March 2023.