Opinion: Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour Review: “Give Me Back My Girlhood It Was Mine First”

Let’s Talk about The Eras Tour. *Warning Spoilers* 

A sea of sparkles and sequins, cowgirl boots, and nostalgia, Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” is clearly in town. If you’ve been wondering “Why is there so much hype over this tour?” Allow me to break it down for you. Taylor Swift has a lyric, that perfectly sums up “The Eras Tour” experience: “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.” (From the song “Would’ve, Could’ve Should’ve”) 

What you witness at the Eras Tour is an overflow of an expression of girlhood in a world that has been and is trying to eradicate it. At the core of this concert experience, upon gazing around the audience of bedazzled young women in their sparkliest girliest outfits, is nostalgia and celebration of their girlhood. There’s something sweet and innocent about belting out lyrics you remember singing when you were seven years old; with seventy-thousand other young women who perhaps did the same. 

I went to the second out of six “Eras Tour” shows in Los Angeles, at Sofi Stadium with my sweet momma. We were both decked out in sparkles and had on our cowgirl boots. I wore my pink sparkly cowgirl boots, a shimmering silver dress with a long silver sequined tassel jacket over it, with sparkly star drop earrings, and a glitter clutch to top it off; and I was ready to sing and dance my little heart out. I can remember singing “Our Song” by Taylor Swift from her debut album when I was young, and my mother had the great pleasure of hearing me sing it over and over. (Sorry Mom) I wanted to be a singer and actress when I was a little girl; so my childhood was filled with doing musical theatre and singing a lot of songs, thus Taylor Swift’s music was definitely a part of it. At each “Eras Tour” show Taylor will play two “surprise songs” (songs from her discography that are not in the setlist) and low and behold one of our show’s surprise songs, was “Our Song.” I’m not going to lie, I haven’t listened to that song all the way through in years and years, but the moment Taylor began singing the opening lyrics, the part of my heart that is still eight years old, belted out every lyric with perfect remembrance. My mom was smiling, because I’m sure it brought to her mind, her daughter as a little girl who sang and danced innocently all the time. Experiences like these, are the heart of “The Eras Tour.” 

 One thing that you notice at this concert that differs from others is the underlying passion of the crowd’s enthusiastic sing-a-long. I’ve never heard a concert audience sing to the songs, and know every single word so loudly and passionately. Every girl knows the words to the song “Love Story” and all the singing and jumping to “You’ll be the prince, and I’ll be the princess, it’s a love story, baby just say yes.” Perfectly captures the desires of the feminine heart and brings to mind the days of girlhood spent twirling around in our princess dresses wanting to one day meet our very own “prince charming” and thus have a beautiful fairytale love story. In a world that is trying to destroy femininity, guessing with the girl next to me what color princess dress Taylor will be wearing for “Enchanted” brings an innocent glimmer of hope.

There’s theological truth and depth behind these feminine desires, as The Mother of God is The Queen of Heaven, therefore, we as Her daughters are princesses. Christ is deemed “The Prince of Peace” and will one day take us to live eternally with Him in His blissful Kingdom which is Heaven. The desires of the feminine heart lead directly to The Lord. With that knowledge, upon examining the hype of “The Eras Tour” you simply discover girls desiring to express the desires of their feminine hearts; who are at their core although perhaps unaware of it, absolutely tired of being told they shouldn’t. The passionate expression of these women is simply an outcry and overflow for their girlhood to be valued by a fallen society that has been set on destroying it. The beautiful thing is that when brought into the fullness of the truth, those feminine desires and outcries will eventually lead to The Lord. I believe we’re on the brink of an overflow of femininity, and that’s a good thing. Let’s pray that this outcry and overflow leads women to the fullness of the truth, and to see their femininity in the light of The Resurrection.

Taylor Swift performs a three-and-a-half-hour long set (the longest concert I’ve ever been to) with no intermission or breaks. The only “breaks” she takes are quick outfit changes, and perhaps a sip of water. The show itself is great, filled with dazzling lights, pyrotechnics, visuals, choreography, stage design, fun sparkly outfits, and more. One detail I liked was that the “folklore” cabin chimney smokes.  Being a writer myself, I have to say I am impressed by some of Taylor’s songwriting, I mean what other mainstream artist has a lyric like: “While I bathe in cliffside pools, With my calamitous love and insurmountable grief.” (Taken from the song “The Lakes” - one of my favorites) Her songwriting, often poetic, romantic, yet heartbreaking, appeal to the feminine heart. The core of her appeal is the dose of nostalgia.

Out of the popular performers from when we were young, Taylor is one of the only ones who has remained somewhat clean and with actual songwriting ability in comparison to others. Obviously, one has to understand the demonic nature of Hollywood and how mainstream artists are largely controlled and used to push anti-Christ agendas. There are a few cuss words, interjections of feminism, and one overtly sexualized performance, but they are surprisingly few at this show, in comparison to most mainstream artists. I sat down for about three or four songs throughout the entire night. The feminist-laden song “The Man” gets a sit-down and no sing-along from me, and I sat for the witchy performance of “Willow” which is coven-like. I sing along to “All Too Well” minus the part about the patriarchy. Out of a forty-four-song set list, I sat down for about four songs. Besides those couple of sit-down instances, I was on my feet having a fun time singing and dancing the entire night. The innocent fun sparkly sweet nostalgia far outweighs any of the sit-down moments. I love the girly innocent love songs, my favorite is and always will be “Enchanted” (she wore the big purple sparkly princess dress) and songs like “Lover” “Fearless” and “22” are a great deal of fun. Saint John Bosco’s quote “Run, jump, dance, sing, shout, but do not sin.” Comes to mind. The song “All Too Well” has a lyric that says “Sacred prayer, I was there, It was rare,” and I was thinking about how I could turn that lyric into a profound theological description of marriage, relating a holy marriage as a “sacred prayer” to God. 

Upon reflecting on the concert, and formulating my thoughts for this review, I conclude with the fact that women are flocking to events that allow for feminine expression and are tired of being told they can’t embrace their womanhood. The sea of sparkles and sequins at “The Eras Tour” sings “Give me back my girlhood it was mine first.” An ode to the innocent days of girlhood spent playing dress up and dancing around to Taylor Swift songs. Perhaps the success of this tour indicates the cry from women’s hearts for their girlhood to be seen, appreciated, valued, and not eradicated.