Culture

Despite downpour, singer Taylor Swift doesn’t let Nashville down

10 May 2023

Taylor Swift poses for a photograph.

Taylor Swift’s song “Midnight Rain” lived up to its name when the pop star performed it on Sunday night at her hometown Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, except that it was actually after 1am (local time) on a rain-drenched night when it finally came up in the set list, reports ‘Variety’.

The finale of her three-night stand was pushed back hours from its scheduled start time due to lightning strikes near the downtown area, ‘Variety’ adds. Once it did finally get underway after 10pm, according to “Variety,” the second half of the three-and-a-half-hour set was marked by a steady downpour, hitting swift as hard as it did the audience in the roofless venue, before the show finally wrapped up just after 1:35 am.

The general crowd mood, at that drenched wee hour, was delirious. (Except for the small minority of fans who gave up and went home before the show got started.)

“It’s officially a rain show,” Swift told the crowd of 70,000, when the long-threatened rain finally arrived in earnest midway through “Delicate,” the 16th number of a 45-song show that might go down in legend as “Late Night With Taylor Swift.” Later, as the downpour didn’t let up, she said, “We’re all going to leave here looking like we just came out of five car washes.” At another point, she said: “You guys have been through a lot tonight. We all look like we were sprayed by a garden hose. We all look like river otters.”

Turkish artist Melis Buyruk's artwork blooms in Leila Heller Gallery room

The sight of Swift with a wet head, according to “Variety,” is not unfamiliar — some past tours have ended with her either standing in a waterfall or cavorting with her dancers in a fountain — but the length and extent to which she was out in a downpour along with fans might be unprecedented in her touring life. As the show wound down at 1:37 am, Swift asked the crowd to “make some noise for my phenomenal dancers who danced in the rain for you all night. ... The fact that you stayed for us, that you gave us everything you had — we love you so much, Nashville. We will never forget this night.”

Meanwhile, Taylor let fans in her hometown of Nashville be the first to get the official news: “Speak Now” will be the next album in her “Taylor’s Version” series of re-recorded albums, reports “Variety.”

Swift is giving fans plenty of time to pre-order the violet vinyl. She revealed that it’s coming out in all formats on July 7, ‘Variety’ notes. “I think rather than me speaking about it, I thought I would show you,” she said, to screams, as fans realised from the language that the long-awaited announcement was at hand. The singer directed the attention of her fans to the big screens, where the album cover and release date were shown, before she launched into the “Speak Now” track “Sparks Fly” as a surprise song, according to “Variety.” Taking to Twitter, Swift said: “I first made ‘Speak Now’, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20.”

Indo-Asian News Service