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Concert Review: Taylor Swift – The 1989 World Tour

SINGAPORE — It was the pop music event of the year, and it did not disappoint. Once America’s most promising country singer, Taylor Swift has grown up to become, arguably, the biggest pop star in the world — thanks in no small part to her latest album 1989, which broke all sorts of sales and streaming records when it was released last year.

SINGAPORE — It was the pop music event of the year, and it did not disappoint. Once America’s most promising country singer, Taylor Swift has grown up to become, arguably, the biggest pop star in the world — thanks in no small part to her latest album 1989, which broke all sorts of sales and streaming records when it was released last year.

It comes almost as no surprise that her concert on Saturday night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium blew us all away.

Swift’s show was non-stop fun, pure and simple, which started with a solid 30-minute song-and-dance routine. The singer-songwriter knew just how to start the show, leading a dozen dancers in a rousing medley of songs from 1989: Welcome To New York, The New Romantics and Blank Space.

The leggy (and very lean) star strutted up and down the stage that was designed like a catwalk, delighting fans who had lined up along the length of the platform, many having dressed up for the occasion and carrying placards.

The concert was also a bona fide spectacle, with your predictable pop concert’s share of pyrotechnics, fireworks, confetti and lasers. Each member of the audience was also given a multi-coloured LED bracelet, which flashed automatically to the beat of Swift’s music, turning the entire stadium into a mega-light show.

And just when you thought you had seen it all, Swift’s catwalk lifted off the ground and revolved around the arena, bringing the singer closer to nearly every single one of her fans — yes, including those in the cheaper seats at the back — as she strummed her guitar and sang You Belong With Me, before switching over to the keyboards for another older favourite Love Story.

Almost all of the concert’s set was dedicated to her 1989 album — she sang every track except All You Had To Do Was Stay, and offered few nods to her past work. But when she did, she ramped up the arrangement to suit the 1989 sound: For example, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together featured an overdriven guitar riff (and a video that mimicked The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army).

Swift kept us entertained with her choreography, her many stunning outfits and her incredible stage presence. Yet, what surprised us the most was the way she was able to create a sense of intimacy in a sold-out arena of 9,000. In between her ballads, the 25-year-old thanked the audience for coming to her show, sounding genuinely grateful that everybody seemed to know every word to every one of her songs.

“When we are all in one room singing the same songs, it doesn’t feel like there’s so much distance between us,” the singer mused.

That is perhaps why when Swift sang and danced to her last song, Shake It Off — with none of the awkwardness she showed in her music video, of course — a mere hour and 40 minutes after the show began, we were not even close to being ready to say goodbye. One hopes she didn’t find it too easy to leave us, too.

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