Taylor Swift refused to continue performing in Edinburgh on Friday after noticing a fan in distress in the crowd.
The billionaire songstress, 34, was in the middle of singing Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve to a crowd of over 70,000 in Murrayfield when she noticed a fan causing concern.
In footage captured on social media, Taylor continued to strum her guitar, before saying: ‘Need help right in front of me, right in front of me please.
‘She’s right in front of me, just gonna keep playing until we notice where it is, right, right there.
‘I’m just gonna keep playing ’til somebody helps them, then I’m going to keep singing the song.
Taylor Swift, 34, refused to continue performing in Edinburgh on Friday after noticing a fan in distress in the crowd
The billionaire songstress was in the middle of Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve to a crowd of over 70,000 in Murrayfield when she noticed a fan wasn’t doing well
@kirstyclyne an icon 😭 #erastour #taylorswift #erastouredinburgh ♬ original sound – kirsty (taylor’s version) ‘I don’t think anybody’s seen them yet and they’re gonna, because we’re not gonna keep singing, we’re just gonna keep talking about the people that need help in front of me. Just let me know when – I can do this all night!’
Finally, the fan appeared to get the help they needed as Taylor said: ‘OK, you’re good? AWESOME!’ Before singing: ‘God rest my soul…’
Taylor’s first Edinburgh show was a resounding success with fans and critics alike.
She touched down in the capital city around lunchtime on Friday before she was whisked away in a blacked-out vehicle accompanied by a police escort.
Taylor has received universally glowing reviews from British music critics who attended her first show in the Scottish capital.
Daily Mail‘s Adrian Thrills awarded the show five stars and described it as ‘a spectacle with substance’.
Praising the career-spanning nature of her three-hour long show, he wrote: ‘It’s easy to get lost in the Swiftiverse: the speculation surrounding the lyrics about her exes; the different colour codes for each album; the £1.5 billion this tour is expected to generate. But all the background noise fades the minute this brilliant performer hits the stage.’
Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis awarded her show five out of five stars, noting the American singer seems ‘all-powerful’.
Taylor’s first Edinburgh show was a resounding success with fans and critics alike. She has received universally glowing reviews from British music critics who attended
Daily Mail ‘s Adrian Thrills awarded the show five stars and described it as ‘a spectacle with substance’
Over the course of 46 songs, Taylor shook off a cramp in her hand, witnessed a live proposal, gifted a fan her hat and found time for a whopping 12 costume changes
He wrote: ‘It’s an incredibly impressive show. It succeeds in leaping between an eclectic range of material – dubstep-inspired, dark-hued pop; tweedy folk; monster-chorus-sporting anthems and acoustic guitar-driven songs that show her Nashville grounding – all of it linked by Swift’s keen melodic awareness and ability to turn songs about famous ex-partners and celebrity nemeses into universally relatable figures.’
In one of the most rave reviews, Neil McCormack also gave Taylor’s performance five stars in The Telegraph and said the devotion she inspired among her fans in the crowd was akin to a ‘secular religious mass ritual’.
He wrote: ‘There were no special guests, and little straying from a by-now familiar script. But no one could feel short-changed by a set that really had it all, succeeding in what might seem on paper to be an impossible synthesis of serious singer songwriter and full on commercial pop machine.
‘Swift left it all onstage, standing sweaty and exhausted at the end, with a smile that somehow extended beyond her permanent air of artificial delight to shine with unalloyed joy.’
Over the course of 46 songs, Taylor shook off a cramp in her hand, witnessed a live proposal, gifted a fan her hat and even suspended a tune so fans could receive medical aid – and in between those events found time for an almost insurmountable 12 costume changes.
Among the outfits were including a double-breasted black and gold pinstripe blazer dress, a white Vivienne Westwood dress and a stunning lilac gown complete with train.
Fans queued for hours – some as early as 3am – in order to be the first inside for the gig, which kicked off following pop-punk band Paramore’s set at exactly 7.18pm.
Between songs, Taylor paused to tell them: ‘What a way to welcome a lass to Scotland… you’ve gone and made me feel so amazing… You’ve got me feeling really, really powerful.’ Towards the end, she vowed: ‘We have to do this again.’
Taylor drove the native fans wild after telling them lockdown-era album Folklore was inspired by their home country.
In remarks reported by BBC News, she said: ‘There was so much TV, so much white wine, covered in cat hair. That was my reality. So I thought, ‘I’m going to create an imaginary world and escape into it’.
‘That was Folklore, and it was probably based online of videos I’ve seen of Scotland.’
She also told the adoring crowd earlier in the show: ‘My biggest regret is that I should have played in Scotland more. I should have brought every tour to Scotland. I can’t stop looking at the crowd…it’s captivating.’
The three-and-a-half hour show charted the singer’s 20-year professional music career, from aspiring country singer to pop star and now global cultural juggernaut with a fandom unrivalled by almost any other musical act on the planet – and a reported net worth of $1.3billion (£1.02billion).
