What Happens When A Millennial Casual Swiftie Goes To Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour In Singapore?

At this point, you’d have to be living underneath a rock to not know the chokehold Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has had on pretty much the entire world. And for six sweet nights, that chokehold reached Singapore.

Now, before this writer goes deep into the entire concert, I’d like to clarify a couple of things. First off, I am an Old Millennial™. The last concert I went to was Blackpink in 2023, and even though that was about half of the run time of the Eras Tour, I just about died in the back of the rideshare car afterwards because I could barely feel my legs or throat. With Eras, I’m praying to the stamina gods to keep me standing by the time we get to Karma.

Second, and perhaps controversially, I’m a casual Swiftie. I can do All Too Well (10 Minute Version), but there are songs from her discography where I’d need lyrics in front of me.

So with that, here’s my entire diary. Call it “A Casual Millennial Swiftie Goes To The Eras Tour, And Hopes To Survive”.

FEBRUARY 28

It’s a few days before the Eras Tour officially kicks off in Singapore, and I’m in a state of calm, which feels a little strange because the friend chat on WhatsApp has been lighting up my phone screen non-stop. 

One friend found a PDF lyrics book with all the fan chants, everyone is comparing outfits, and trying to decide on a meeting time and a game plan to last the entire show without a toilet break.

I’m pretty sure that the panic will hit me soon, but for now, I’m catching up on the new Love Is Blind episodes and making my 34^th friendship bracelet. Why? Oh, because I ordered over 10,000 beads after we secured tickets and now I’m trying to use as many of them as possible. Insert smiling-with-a-tear emoji here.

I had this concept of making funny misspellings of Taylor Swift’s name. For example: If Taylor was saying ‘nice’ to someone in Singapore? Taylor Swee.

MARCH 1

Ah, the panic is here, and it was triggered by the thought of “eh? What am I wearing to Eras ah?”

Originally, I had planned to go in a white tee and pink trousers. I also had a denim jacket with silver sequined fringes that I had bought while manifesting for Beyonce’s Renaissance tour to come to Singapore (more crying emojis).

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But after a TikToker pointed out that the entire Eras weekend had a rainy forecast, my jacket was not going to work unless my end goal was to melt my face off with the humidity. Without the jacket, the white-and-pink combo just kinda screamed… keynote speaker trying to do the “business casual” dress code at a forum event. Not the look I was going for.

Luckily, I managed to dig out an old ombre pink shirt from a pile of clothes that was meant for the donation bin, so that’ll have to do.

The second bout of panic came when I had looked at my Ziploc bag of friendship bracelets and thought, “Okay, did I get too carried away?” Admittedly, I have a hard time initiating conversations with strangers, and having a resting b***h face didn’t help when you want to trade bracelets. 

What if I didn’t trade with anyone? And what if people realised my bracelet-making skills were kinda terrible? What if die-hard Swifties did not get my concept and got angry at me for all the misspelt names? Also, who is Sabrina Carpenter?

MARCH 2

3:30pm

D-Day, or should I say, T-Day.

After a heavy lunch taken later than usual – in an effort to not have to buy $10 hot dogs at the stadium – I got dressed and decided to head out earlier to catch some of the fringe activities on my own before the friend group assembled. Having already done Blackpink’s tour last year, I thought I was ready for the crowds. I was not.

It was full tilt, glitter-on-glitter madness sealed with cowboy boots and face stickers. To be fair, Eras came with much more fringe activities than the Born Pink tour with a library where you could make friendship bracelets and a photo booth in the middle of a supermarket – bok choy and Swift-themed Polaroids, anyone? There was a massive sing-along happening right next to the merch grounds too. It’s like animals congregating at a watering hole, except we were all in sequins and trading friendship bracelets.

4:50pm

We had just cleared security and the anxiety of having not traded a single bracelet is getting to me. After we got help from a girl to take a group photo, I’d offered her a bracelet, but she politely declined me. We also saw some teens in Junior Jewels asking people to sign their tees. They straight up avoided my group. That line from Anti-Hero could not be more fitting now.

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5:45pm

After hanging around outside the gate looking a little out of place amidst the Gen Z groups and the younger tweens with their parents, we decided to head in and get to our seats. I whisper to my friend “I hope someone gets a wedding proposal in our section” and we laugh. I’m still hopeful I get to trade bracelets with the people seated around us, but so far, no dice.

6pm

Sabrina Carpenter takes the main stage, and for the next 40 minutes, this Old Millennial™ has no clue what’s going on. Her boots are cute – very Sailor Moon-esque – and she does two vaguely familiar songs because I’ve heard parts of it on TikTok, but that’s about it.

6:54pm

Lady Gaga’s Applause Is played, which iykyk, is your cue to run back to your seats so my friends and I ditch the snack bar queue and sprint back.

6:57pm

The now-famous clock animation that starts each Eras concert flashes on the screen. It’s happening, we’re about to meet Mother.

7pm

MOTHER!

I also can’t help but look at the giant fin-like props that the dancers have on and think “Victoria Secret vibes circa 2012”.

Lover is my favourite era, so I was a little sad that Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince was just one chorus long, but by the time we hit the bridge of Cruel Summer, my throat was ready to split in two from all the screaming. I’m also jumping so much I somehow scrape my hand against a jagged edge of the chair in front of me and I’m bleeding.

7:33pm

We’ve now entered Fearless era, and she’s doing Love Song. Our eyes are literally scanning the people around us, trying to figure out who might get on one knee tonight. So far, no signs of potential proposals.

7:36pm

We have a guy on his knee, people. This is not a drill.

The entire section directs our phones and our screaming towards the couple. She says yes, they embrace, everyone is screaming and clapping for them.

7:52pm

After an emotional Marjorie that saw the entire stadium hold up their phone torches, we were barely one verse into Champagne Problems when this writer found himself so welled up with emotions tears started to form.

I’m by no means an easy crier, but I think listening to her live instead of on Spotify while I’m working or running errands has allowed me the mental space to ruminate in her poetry and feel her feelings when she penned her songs.

Also, shoutout to the lady in the row behind us who saw Taylor and her dancers clad in hooded capes and dancing with lighted orbs and wondering out loud “This one cult ah?”

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8:02pm

Shaking up the mood in the stadium, we’ve gone into Reputation era, where Taylor’s now striding around in her iconic one-legged jumpsuit by Roberto Cavalli. She’s not handling the humidity any better than we are, with her hair getting frizzier by the minute. Same Mother, same.

8.32pm

We’re at the point in the Red era where her dancers line up during We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. If you’ve been on TikTok during Swift’s Australia leg of the tour, you’d know her dancer Kameron Saunders delivers a localised way of saying ‘no’ to the joys of the crowd. For the first night, he nails his ‘no laaaah’ perfectly, with the right intonation to the ‘lah’. The crowd goes wild – we love it when foreigners are able to do Singlish well.

8.42pm

When Taylor asks if the audience can spare her 10 minutes, we know what’s to come. Cue the second time I cried tonight.

9:05pm

As we enter Folklore era, many people have entered their “Here’s my chance to go pee” era. Plus with the lighted wristbands, it’s not hard to see people in the crowd running out of the stadium to find a toilet.

Which is a pity. Admittedly, even for a casual Swiftie, I do like some of the Folklore songs because they feel contemplative and dreamy.

9:40pm

The surprise songs are revealed to be Mine, I Don’t Want To Live Forever, and Dress, with the latter fueling speculation that she’s about to drop Reputation (Taylor’s Version) while touring in Singapore. 

The stadium goes into full-on scream mode at the first note of Mine that you can barely hear Taylor singing.

Also, she’s been singing for almost three hours by now, and she’s not complained a single time about the heat or the number of phones in the air. She’s definitely taken the Mother potion, stirred it with the Slay spoon and showered in Yas water.

9.52pm

Finally, we’re at Midnights. A lady behind our group tells her friends that she’s going to start the car engine and proceeds to leave midway through Lavender Haze.

Midnights goes on as expected, aside from dancer Kameron Saunders voguing the Old Way at one point to the delight of some in the audience. 

We scream-sing our way through Anti-Hero and Bejeweled, and just as we reach Karma, this Old Millennial™ finds himself wishing that there were more Eras to go through. I turn to my friend and tell her that this is easily in the Top 3 rankings of concerts I’ve been to. If I was a casual Swiftie before, I’m an even bigger Swiftie now.

As the fireworks die off and the house lights come on, and as we make our way to the MRT station, the buzz is clearly still in the air. Swifties are kind of amazing – even as we navigate throngs of people, there’s always time for a sing-along sesh while we walk each other home.

2:11am

I’m still on TikTok Swift-scrolling and reliving the night through all the videos that are just being posted. There seems to be a lot of recurring questions in the comments section, so for those of you who are curious, here’s some tips that they don’t tell you on the official notices:

• Bring metal accessories at your own risk. The girls in front of me got stopped at security because their bags had chain straps, and they wore metal hairbands. Other attendees managed to go through, so it’s your game of chance to play.
• If the water cooler line is too long – and it usually is – just fill your bottles up in the toilet. Drinkable tap water, we love you.
• Speaking of bottles, only plastic bottles are allowed. Whether it’s single use or reusable, if it’s plastic, you can bring it in.
• Yes, the large friendship bracelet sashes that people wear around them are allowed as long as it doesn’t block the view of others or contain metal.
• Officially, binoculars and camera lens attachments for your phones aren’t allowed in. That being said, some people managed to sneak these in. Again, bring at your own risk.
• Battery packs for your phones and portable electric fans are okay, but bring a foldable fan anyway in case your electricity dies out on you midway.
• Lastly, remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. It pays to plan which songs you’re gonna give your all, and which ones you’re gonna just sit back and enjoy the music. And pace yourself with liquids if you’re someone who needs the toilet after a few drinks.