Why Taylor Swift Might Not Be Performing a Lot of ‘Speak Now’ and Debut Songs on ‘The Eras Tour’
Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour songs have brought thousands of fans throughout the pop star’s career. For The Eras Tour, Swift performs 44 songs over the course of three hours. Even though The Eras Tour covers 10 studio albums, Swift performs the least amount of songs from her albums Taylor Swift and Speak Now. Here’s why Swift might have purposefully left songs from Speak Now and Taylor Swift off her tour setlist.
Why Taylor Swift might not be highlighting ‘Speak Now’ and her debut album on tour
On the opening night of The Eras Tour, Swift performed the song “Tim McGraw” from her debut album as a surprise song, but it was not included in the setlist the following night. Not counting surprise songs, the singer does not perform any songs from her first country album, Taylor Swift, in the standard setlist.
She also only performs one song from her 2010 album Speak Now, “Enchanted.” While one might assume that this is because she has not re-released Speak Now and Taylor Swift yet, the answer is not quite as simple.
On tour, Swift performs four songs from Reputation and five songs from 1989, two albums that she has not yet re-released. This choice seems related to Swift’s re-recording plan, but it also has to do with popularity and streaming.
1989 is considered to be Swift’s most popular album. Even though it was released in 2014, it still has a high volume of streams and is still widely listened to by the general public in addition to Swifties. While Reputation is not as popular as 1989, it still has popular singles and streams on par with Lover and Red (Taylor’s Version).
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift and Speak Now have lower streams compared to the rest of Swift’s discography with one exception. “Enchanted” from Speak Now is one of Swift’s most-streamed songs on Spotify.
Every time Swift performs a show for The Eras Tour, she has a boost in streams as fans in attendance or following online search for the songs they heard afterward. Songs from her more recent albums, 1989, and Reputation already have high streams, so an influx of listeners does not cause a huge jump.
By only including “Enchanted” in the standard setlist and limiting Taylor Swift tracks to random surprise songs, Swift ensures that songs she does not own do not have a leap in popularity before she can release a re-recording.
What songs does Taylor Swift perform during ‘The Eras Tour’?
The expansive setlist for The Eras Tour includes iconic singles and deep cuts from Swift’s albums Taylor Swift, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now, Red (Taylor’s Version), 1989, Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights.
Each night, Swift also performs acoustic versions of “surprise songs,” with no concert date having the same surprise songs. The complete setlist for The Eras Tour can be viewed below.
The Eras Tour setlist:
- “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince”
- “Cruel Summer”
- “The Man”
- “You Need to Calm Down”
- “Lover”
- “The Archer”
- “Fearless”
- “You Belong With Me”
- “Love Story”
- ” ‘Tis the D*** Season”
- “Willow”
- “Marjorie”
- “Champagne Problems”
- “Tolerate It”
- “Ready For It?”
- “Delicate”
- “Don’t Blame Me”
- “Look What You Made Me Do”
- “Enchanted”
- “22”
- “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
- “I Knew You Were Trouble”
- “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)”
- “Invisible String”
- “Betty”
- “The Last Great American Dynasty”
- “August”
- “Illicit Affairs”
- “My Tears Ricochet”
- “Cardigan”
- “Style”
- “Blank Space”
- “Shake it Off”
- “Wildest Dreams”
- “Bad Blood”
- (Surprise song)
- (Surprise song)
- “Lavender Haze”
- “Anti-Hero”
- “Midnight Rain”
- “Vigilante S***”
- “Bejeweled”
- “Mastermind”
- “Karma”
Taylor Swift is focusing on performing songs she owns the masters to on ‘The Eras Tour’
Swift is currently in the process of re-recording her first six albums as a way to reclaim her music masters. So far, she has released two re-recorded albums: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version). The singer has also released a handful of re-recorded singles.
Looking at the setlist for The Eras Tour, it is clear that the setlist prioritizes her recently released albums in which she owns her music masters and her two re-recorded albums.
Out of the 44-song setlist, six songs are from Lover, three are from Fearless (Taylor’s Version), five are from Evermore, four are from Red (Taylor’s Version), seven are from Folklore, and seven are from Midnights.
This adds up to 32 songs on the setlist, not counting any surprise songs performed, making almost three-quarters of the songs performed ones in which Swift owns the music masters.
Additionally, these 32 songs were all released or re-released recently compared to Swift’s past work. Lover was released in 2019, Folklore and Evermore were released in 2020, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) dropped in 2021, and Swift released Midnights in October 2022.
Because the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic prevented Swift from touring following her Reputation Stadium Tour, it makes sense that she would want to use The Eras Tour to highlight songs released during the pandemic.
