How Taylors swift started the most successful concert tour in Arizona

Taylor Swift launched The Eras Tour era with a sold-out two-night stand at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday and Saturday, March 17-18, 2023, the opening salvo of a record-breaking tour that has dominated headlines and, in many ways, the conversation ever since.

The Eras Tour is a phenomenon as big as Swift herself, if such a thing is possible — the highest-grossing tour of all time and the first tour in history to generate more than $1 billion in revenue.

The concert film — “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” — released in theaters worldwide on Oct. 13, 2023, quickly became the highest-grossing concert film in history, a record previously held by Justin Bieber.

Following The Eras Tour launch, Swift immediately shot to No. 1 on Pollstar’s Artist Power Index chart, ending 2023 as Time magazine’s perfectly obvious choice for Person of the Year.

Swift’s accomplishments as an artist — culturally, critically and commercially — are so legion that to recount them seems almost beside the point,” Time wrote.

Then, after running down a laundry list of those accomplishments while placing her alongside Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Madonna as a pop star, Time explained why this year more than any other year.

As a celebrity — who by dint of being a woman is scrutinized for everything from whom she dates to what she wears — she has long commanded constant attention and knows how to use it,” Time wrote.

“But this year, something shifted. To discuss her movements felt like discussing politics or the weather — a language spoken so widely it needed no context. She became the main character of the world.”

By that point, USA TODAY had hired its own Taylor Swift reporter and Swift had grabbed another first — first billionaire in history with music as the main source of income.

At 33.

How the Year of Taylor Swift began in Glendale, Arizona

And to think: The Year of Taylor all began in Glendale, which renamed itself Swift City for the weekend in her honor.

A symbolic rebrand, the Swift City storyline played out on digital billboards along freeways and in Glendale’s Westgate Entertainment District, where State Farm Stadium is located, welcoming fans to Swift City.

For what it’s worth, we would’ve gone with Glendale (Taylor’s Version).

Swift had launched the Reputation Tour in that same stadium five years earlier.