More dates for Taylor Swift‘s International Eras Tour have been announced and not only she will be visiting South America, but also Tokyo, Australia, Singapore, and Europe. Unfortunately, the European leg of the Eras tour may clash with another huge music event.
One of the countries listed on the European leg of the tour was Sweden. On May 17, 2024, the pop singer is scheduled to perform at Friends Arena in Stockholm. There is just one problem, that’s the day before the grand finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. According to Eurovisionworld, there are two potential weeks when the next year’s Eurovision could happen. Unfortunately, one of the days in those weeks coincides with Taylor Swift’s performance in Sweden. What’s also interesting is that Friends Arena is one of the locations suggested for the song contest, according to Eurovoix.
When Swifties and Eurovision fans realized this, it didn’t stop the jokes from rolling in. Did Taylor Swift’s management know that Sweden was hosting Eurovision that year? Was this booking intentionally made by Stockholm Live, the company in charge of managing Sweden’s arenas? Jeez, imagine Taylor Swift having so much power that she can control the dates for Europe’s biggest song contest.
One could argue that having the Eras Tour and Eurovision in the same week could be a good thing for Sweden. After all, it could benefit from tourism. But Eurovision is not only paid by the national broadcaster, it’s also paid by the government, hence why various cities bid to host the contest. Good luck finding the funds to control the influx of visitors who will be there to watch international artists perform the same song two times and want to see Swift perform for three hours straight.
Perhaps this is somewhat karmic retribution since Finland was the fan favorite to win. After all, Käärijä received over 300 points from the televote and was less than 100 points away from first place. Maybe Sweden should concede and give the hosting rights to Finland since the pop singer isn’t touring in that country anyway.
While you could argue that both events could happen simultaneously, it is unfortunately not possible. The day before the semi and grand finals are usually booked for dress rehearsals. This means that the stage can’t be moved or altered throughout Eurovision Week. And let’s not forget, next year will mark ABBA’s 50th anniversary since their victory in the Song Contest in 1974. So expect a lot of preparation to be done just so Sweden can milk the group’s victory and Eurovision reputation as much as they can.
So far, the EBU and Sweden’s national broadcaster, SVT, have yet to announce the city and location. When Sweden last hosted the song contest in 2016, it was held at Globe Area. So there is a chance that Stockholm could host the two big music events. Fingers crossed that Stockholm’s City Council can handle the influx of tourists and music fans in one week.
