‘It was the end of an era’: Taylor Swift wrapped her career-defining Eras Tour with the most emotional mashup ever and a disappointing twist

Taylor Swift‘s fans have called their favorite artist “the music industry” for years. As she wrapped up her career-defining, sold-out, record-breaking Eras Tour with a heartbreaking yet soothing mashup, Swift surprised her fans once more.

When Swift embarked on her most ambitious tour ever, it seemed like it would go on forever. The sold-out tour had 149 shows (sans the three canceled Vienna shows) over the course of 18 months: she performed in 54 cities in 21 counties on five out of seven continents.

Taylor Swift explained the idea for her tour in many shows, as she used to release an album, go on tour for that album, release another, rinse and repeat. However, the pandemic changed her plans, and she was more productive than ever, even with a broken heart.

Since her last world tour, the fan-favorite Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018, she released four albums, with another while on the Eras Tour: 2019’s Lover, 2020’s Folklore and Evermore, and 2022’s Midnights, with The Tortured Poets Department joining in 2024, alongside two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version). She tried to find a way to encompass all her recent work and her past hits, ending with a total of 46 songs and an acoustic section with new surprise songs every show. Now, that’s over.

Taylor Swift’s final mashup was one for the ages

For the first half of the Eras Tour, Swift used to perform one acoustic song on guitar and one on piano. Since the iconic shows in Argentina, Swift started mashing up songs that either related to the same person (“Is It Over Now?” and “Out of the Woods”) or that made sense lyrically (“Cassandra” x “Mad Woman” x “I Did Something Bad”). The final mashup was one to remember, as it was a love letter to the fans.

Her last picks for the guitar section were Taylor Swift‘s “A Place in This World” x 1989‘s “New Romantics,” and, as she sat down for the piano section, she broke all of our hearts. She opted for Speak Now‘s “Long Live,” the official love letter to the Swifties, mashed with Reputation‘s “New Year’s Day,” and TTPD‘s “The Manuscript.”

Swift even changed the lyrics from “It was the end of a decade,” to “the end of an ERA,” highlighting the impact of the tour.

For her final three shows in Vancouver, Canada, Taylor Swift had a crew following her closely on stage for a secret project. There have been countless theories as to what it could be, because, if you know anything about Swifties is that they love theories.

Everyone expected an announcement of sorts that our time with Taylor Swift isn’t over. Sure, she put her heart, mind, and body into the record-breaking tour and we loved every second of it. But, over 18 months, we KNEW what to expect from Taylor with the Eras Tour. Now that’s over and Swifties found themselves disappointed as she didn’t share a glimpse of what comes next.

In her recently released Eras Tour book, she teased that she will see us “the next era,” but fans wanted something more tangible: an explanation for all the cameras, which could be the Eras Tour documentary we all want, a live album with all the surprise songs, a new Eras Tour concert movie with the TTPD set included, or… you already know, babe: Reputation (Taylor’s Version), and Debut (Taylor’s Version).

None of that happened and, even more, as she was filming, Swift recycled the same outfits over the last three shows and didn’t get as playful as she does when cameras are not following her, didn’t hold too many emotional speeches, and didn’t reveal anything new.

Don’t get me wrong — I am thankful. However, the anticipation, the Reputation outfit change, and the tease for Debutation led nowhere, and honestly, ending the ERAS Tour without owning all her albums wouldn’t have crossed my mind when the tour kicked off. Of course, we have so much more to look forward to, and Swift can finally relax. And the legacy of the Eras Tour will live forever.