The 1989 World Tour was the fourth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in support of her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). The tour's European and North American dates, as well as two shows in Japan, were announced in November 2014, followed by the Oceania dates in December 2014. Additional dates for Singapore and Shanghai were announced in June 2015 with a third and final Melbourne show announced in July that year. The tour began on May 5, 2015, in Tokyo, Japan, and concluded on December 12, 2015, in Melbourne, Australia, the day before Swift's 26th birthday. The tour became Swift's highest grossing and most attended tour to that point, selling 2,278,647 tickets and grossing $250,733,097, also becoming the most successful tour of that year. Like Swift's previous tours, The 1989 World Tour received critical acclaim, and Swift was praised for her extraordinary stage presence and unique ability to connect intimately with every fan in the audience.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
On her birthday, December 13, 2015, Swift announced that she had partnered with Apple Music to release a concert film entitled The 1989 World Tour Live on December 20. It was filmed at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia on November 28 that year with 75,980 attendees.
Background and development
The tour was announced via Swift's Twitter account on November 3, 2014 in which she said: "#The1989WorldTour is happening!" before giving a link to her website where fans could find out the list of dates. It was also revealed that Vance Joy would be joining Swift on tour, and that tickets would go sale on for North American fans on November 14.[8]
In an interview with Time magazine, Swift said that "the setlist will be predominantly songs from 1989. [...] I have so many things I've been dreaming up for this. If you look at the makeup of my previous music, as far as production elements go, there are a lot of live drums, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and live bass. And if you look at the landscape of 1989, it's mostly synths and automated drums and these kind of big epic synth pad sounds, and key bass, and layered vocals. I have a very big band, there are, what, 14 of us, so what you’re going to end up with is more of a live feel in that it's going to be filled in and more dramatic with more layers to it, but never to the point where it's going to feel noisy or overcrowded."[9]
Swift, as always, was heavily involved in the tour's planning and production design. She acknowledged the challenge of playing in stadiums, expressing her goal for "those people in the very top row [to] feel like they got an intimate, personal experience."[9] The following month in an interview with KIIS-FM, she revealed that she knew what the stage would look like, as well as knowing that "all the fans seem to be saying that they really don't want any song [from 1989] left off the setlist".[10]
The tour took seven months to plan before three months of music rehearsals, four weeks of stage rehearsals and ten days of two-a-days dress rehearsals.[11] It traveled with 26 semi-trailer trucks and 11 buses carrying 146 people from city to city. Additionally, about 125–150 people were hired in each city to help with the load in and stage setup. The entire load in and stage setup process took between 6 and 8 hours for arenas, with stadiums requiring an additional day. Many of the traveling crew members had worked on Swift's tours since the Fearless era.[12] Swift chose two designs for the trucks' vinyl wrap; 13 carry one design and 13 have the other.[13]
Commercial reception
Ticket sales
Pre-sales for European shows started on November 4, public on-sale for this leg started on November 7, tickets for London were sold later on November 10. First round of pre-sales on select North American shows start on November 7 and general sales for fans in North America started from November 14, 2014; Australia started from December 12, 2014; Japan started from December 13, 2014; Singapore and Shanghai started from June 30, 2015. Swift was the sixth most-searched artist on Ticketmaster in 2014.[14]
Sellout status occurred in many cities when general sales for the tour started. Swift announced 9 extra dates as well as the new show in Houston for North American leg. Los Angeles had the most extra dates with 3 shows at Staples Center, cities which had one extra date were East Rutherford, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, St. Paul, Santa Clara. In St. Louis, Swift was originally performing on October 13 and 14, 2015, but after adding Houston to the schedule, St. Louis shows downsize from two to one and she would play in this city only on September 28, 2015 and tickets go on sale at 10 am on January 30, 2015.[15] However, tickets for St. Louis show was sold out within minutes, this resulted in a second date being added there on September 29 at the same venue.[16] Swift also added more dates to European leg due to vast popularity, one for Cologne and one for Dublin.[17] In Dublin, tickets for both concert sold out within 55 minutes although the second show was just added after 6 minutes when the first show was sold out.[18]
In Australia, over 30,000 tickets for the first show (December 11, 2015) in Melbourne was sold out less than an hour.[19] Soon after, Swift announced 2 extra dates for this leg, one for Melbourne and one for Adelaide.[20] Due to popular demand, in July 2015, Swift added the third show for Melbourne after 2 first shows were sold out and became the first female artist to play 3 shows at AAMI Park.[21]
In January 2015, Forbes reported that The 1989 World Tour was one of the most expensive concert tours of 2015 on secondary market, just behind Fleetwood Mac's On with the Show and Maroon 5's V Tour.[22] In the US, the average ticket price was $380 according to TiqIQ, and the cheapest date was the show at the Fargodome on October 12, where the average ticket price was $182.95 with a get-in of $79.[23] The show on June 29, 2015 in Dublin was the most expensive European date, where the average ticket price was $285, with a get-in price of $198.[24] The Sydney show has the cheapest get-in price for Taylor Swift tickets in Australia at $130 Australian ($100 USD). The most expensive show is the final concert in Melbourne – Saturday, December 12, 2015 – with a get-in price of $249 Australian ($193 USD). In total, The Red Tour tickets averaged $176 across all tour stops, whereas the 1989 World Tour averaged at about $392 per concert, a 123% increase. Tickets for the 1989 World Tour were the most expensive ever for Taylor Swift.[23]
Boxscore
Swift's five shows from the North American run (May 20 – June 6, 2015, not including Baton Rouge) generated a total of US$16.8 million from 149,708 ticket sales.[25] It topped the Billboard Hot Tours chart for the second week, earning $15.2 million with a total of 129,962 tickets sold from three shows in Charlotte and Philadelphia.[26] As of August 1, 2015, the tour had grossed US$86.2 million, at 20 performances in the U.S. and Canada with 771,460 tickets sold at seven arenas and nine stadiums. On September 9, the magazine reported that the tour had grossed over US$130 million, with 1.1 million tickets sold, and stated it could become Swift's highest-grossing tour.[27] The 1989 World Tour officially surpassed The Red Tour in October 2015 when Billboard reported that the tour grossed over US$173 million, the tour also returned to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Tours recap, Swift's sixth turn in 2015 atop the weekly tally of highest-grossing touring artists thanks to ticket sales totaling $13.6 million from the shows in Toronto, St. Louis and Des Moines.[28]
According to Billboard, after finishing the North American leg in Tampa, the tour had grossed more than US$217 million with 71 shows, surpassing One Direction's On the Road Again Tour and became the highest-grossing Pop tour in 2015. Swift's 2 shows at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey ranked at number 8 on the list "Top 25 Boxscores", the tour also had other 6 positions on this list, including the shows in Santa Clara, Foxborough, Philadelphia, Chicago, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.[29]
After concluding in Melbourne, the tour grossed over US$250 million and became the highest-grossing tour in 2015, was top on "2015 Year-End Top 20 Worldwide Tours",[30] "2015 Year-End Top 100 Worldwide Tours",[31] "2015 Year-End Top 200 North American Tours"[32] of Pollstar. Specially, The 1989 World Tour grossed over US $199.4 million in North America alone, breaking the previous all-time high of $162 million set by The Rolling Stones in 2005, Swift became the first female artist in music history to do so. Swift's record-setting year also gives her three notches in the list of the 25 highest-grossing North American tours, the most ever for a woman but third all time.[33]
Two shows in Tokyo's Tokyo Dome ranked at number 9 on the list "2015 Year-End Top 100 International Boxoffice" of Pollstar, appearing on this list along with 2 shows in Tokyo were the shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai and Brisbane.[34] The 1989 World Tour also had 24 position on another list of Pollstar – "2015 Year-End Top 200 Concert Grossed [in North America]" – with the highest position of the tour which ranked at number 5 was 2 shows at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford and the lowest position was 2 shows at Pepsi Center in Denver which ranked at number 160.[35]
Set list
This set list is representative of the show on May 5, 2015, in Tokyo. It is not representative of all concerts for the duration of the tour.[36]
The following songs were performed by Swift in place of "You Are In Love":
During the shows in Las Vegas, Bossier City, Pittsburgh, and the second performance in Cologne; "Wonderland".
During the second show in Dublin, "Holy Ground".
During the second shows in East Rutherford, Washington, Denver, Columbus, Los Angeles, Adelaide, and Shanghai; the first shows in Toronto, Nashville, Kansas City, St. Louis, Foxborough, and Singapore; and the shows in Des Moines and Salt Lake City; "You Belong with Me".
During the first shows in Chicago, Omaha, Denver, St. Paul, and Edmonton; the second shows in Melbourne, Toronto, St. Louis, Foxborough, Nashville, Kansas City, and Glendale; the third show in Los Angeles, and the shows in Lexington, Arlington, Fargo, Miami, Greensboro, Atlanta, Tampa, and Indianapolis; "Fifteen".
During the second shows in Chicago and St. Paul, the fifth show in Los Angeles, and the shows in Seattle and Houston; "Mean".
Swift performed duets with musical guests on most dates of the tour. Other special guests also include co-stars from the "Bad Blood" music video and friends who join Swift on the runway while performing "Style".
September 29, 2015 – St. Louis: "The Fix" with Nelly, and "Hot in Herre" with Nelly and Haim. To celebrate Haim's last night on the tour, Swift invited them to join her onstage as back-up dancers for Nelly.[70]
The 1989 World Tour Live is a live concert film by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on December 20, 2015, exclusively via Apple Music.[78] Directed by Jonas Åkerlund,[79] the film monitors the Sydney stop of Swift's fourth headlining concert tour, The 1989 World Tour. The show, which was attended by 75,980 fans, remains Swift's most attended concert to date.[80][81]
Signs were displayed at the sold out Sydney concert on November 28, 2015 at ANZ Stadium which said "Today's events are being recorded and filmed for global streaming, and may also form part of a television program... for commercial and promotional purposes." Although there was no further information about what the filming was for at the time, there was speculation that it would form a DVD of the 1989 World Tour to be released once the tour concludes its run in Melbourne in late 2015. Later speculation involved an Apple Music Video launch, which was proved to be correct. Coincidentally, "All You Had To Do Was Stay" and "This Love" were added back into the show after having been left off the set list for several months. This makes the Sydney setlist identical to that of Tokyo when the tour premiered.[82]
On December 13, 2015, (Swift's 26th birthday), she announced she had partnered with Apple Music to release a concert film entitled The 1989 World Tour Live on December 20. Filmed in front of 75,980 fans during her stop at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on November 28, it shows the entire performance and never-before seen footage from backstage and from rehearsals with some of the musical and surprise guests from previous shows.[83] It was directed by Jonas Åkerlund.
Shows
List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, opening acts, tickets sold, amount of available tickets and gross revenue
^The concert of September 9, 2015 in Houston at Minute Maid Park was originally planned to take place on October 13, but was moved backward to September 9 to avoid any potential scheduling conflict with the Houston Astros potentially making the 2015Major League Baseball postseason.[91]
^The concert of September 28, 2015 in St. Louis at the Scottrade Center was originally planned to take place on October 13, but was moved forward to September 28 after Swift added Houston to the schedule.[15]
^The concert of September 29, 2015 in St. Louis at the Scottrade Center was originally planned to take place on October 14, but was moved forward to September 29 after Swift added Houston to the schedule. After Houston was added, St. Louis shows downsized from two to one. However, due to overwhelming demand, the second show was added again.[16]
^The concert of October 12, 2015 in Fargo at the Fargodome was originally planned to take place on September 9, but was postponed to October 12 to avoid any potential scheduling conflict with the Houston Astros potentially making the 2015 Major League Baseball postseason.[91][92]