Singer and songwriter Taylor Swift has seen a fair share of bumps in the road while performing for her Eras tour concerts. Starting March 17 in Glendale, Ariz., Swift has played over half of her originally 52-stop stadium tour across the United States. With international dates added recently, the tour has become even more ambitious.
Swift is no greenie, and she has always leaned into the dramatic flair of her performances, but even she cannot perfectly coordinate every show and synchronize every movement. Technology fails, especially when rainstorms are involved, and random things happen, like a bug flying into her mouth. So far, Swift has taken it all in stride and sometimes even with a smile.
From mistakes to missteps to happy coincidences, here are 10 mishaps that have occurred during the Eras tour so far — and how Swift recovered.
Missed dive cue
After shocking audiences in Glendale, Ariz., where Swift kicked off her Eras tour, with a daring dive offstage set with graphics making her look like she swam under the platform, Swift did miss a cue in Tampa, but she laughed it off.
Tripping up on the Bridge of “Death by a Thousand Cuts”
Swift saves a portion of her concerts for two “surprise” acoustic songs which are left a mystery until she plays them. These songs don’t feature in the set list for the whole show, so their performances are unique to the crowds attending the specific stadium stop on the tour. During her acoustic rendition of “Death By a Thousand Cuts,” Swift performed the bridge of the song (which is a fan-favorite) a second time, but tripped up on her own lyrics. With a smile on her face, she said “Why do I write things like this?” Luckily for those who didn’t get to witness, Swift is claiming that she will replay any songs she messes up later on in the tour.
Rain delay
A show in Foxborough, Mass. was almost postponed due to the severe rainstorm that lined up with Swift’s concert, but she eventually came out on stage and sang in the downpour for the fans, albeit at a much later hour than was planned. The shelter-in-place order that had audiences in chaos before the show was well-documented on social media. Swift, too, posted about it.
A piano played itself
During another Massachusetts show, Swift’s grand piano played by itself for a few notes. The singer looked genuinely shocked, asking the crowd if they heard it too. She then figured the instrument was suffering from water damage from the previous rain show. Many fans thought this was a funny coincidence since Swift had recently announced her next rerecorded album, “Speak Now,” which features the song “Haunted.”
She swallowed a bug
During a show at Chicago’s soldier field, Swift accidentally swallowed a bug that somehow made it into her mouth while she was trying to introduce her new piano player Karina DePiano, but the winged insect had her pause and cough out of the mic’s range, clearing her windpipe. She then informed the audience that she had, in fact, swallowed a bug.
Swift was tripped by a background dancer
During a performance of “Call It What You Want” from her “Reputation” album, Swift was tripped by one of her background dancers, who did a spin kick really close to her, managing to take her out. She got right back up and kept on singing, and of course, the guy must have apologized profusely.
Her “Midnights” garter broke
Swift’s pesky garter that she wears during the “Midnights” portion of the concert took on a mind of its own in the middle of “Lavender Haze,” but she had her background dancers fix it during her performance of “Anti-Hero” timing it to the appropriate lyrics of “I should not be left to my own devices they come with prices and vices, I end up in crisis.”
Swift shouted at a security guard mid-song
One Philadelphia security guard did not do his job right during Swift’s concert because she had to get involved — all while singing “Bad Blood.” Apparently, the guard tried to stop a fan from dancing, although she was in no way out of control, so Swift strutted to the corner of the stage and yelled into the mic at the security guard, “Hey, stop! She wasn’t doing anything!” This later brought her to ask what fans meant when they said “Mother is mothering” about her.
Swift cut her hand
Swift tripped and fell, cutting her hand in the process, at one of the Houston shows. She posted to let her fans know that she was all good after tripping on her dress hem running backstage for a quick change.
Swift makes a quick exit when her trap door malfunctions
At her Cincinnati show, the trap door that Swift usually jumps into didn’t open. After waiting a few seconds, Swift started making her way to a different exit before breaking into a run so as not to miss her next cue.
“Right Where You Left Me” lyric mix-up
Swift has mixed up a few songs in the tour at this point, and on her second-to-last United States tour stop, she couldn’t get “Right Where You Left Me,” a deluxe song off of her “Evermore” album right. “The National” band member Aaron Dessner, who has accompanied Swift several times now onstage during the “Eras” tour, was with her when she flubbed the lyrics, which she warned she hadn’t been able to sing correctly even in rehearsal.
