Taylor Swift surprised fans in Wembley Stadium last night (August 16) by playing ‘London Boy’ for the first time on her ‘Eras Tour’. Check out the footage and the full setlist below.
Swift is currently halfway through her five-night ‘Eras’ tour run at Wembley Stadium which kicked off on August 15 and will wrap up on August 20.
For last night’s surprise track, she treated fans to an acoustic rendition of ‘London Boy’, taken from her 2019 album ‘Lover‘. Swift introduced the track by saying: “The whole night I’ve just been thinking ‘God, I love the English.”
It’s the first time she’s played the capital-inspired song live since its release in 2019. In honour of the occasion, she also altered the lyrics to include the line “I enjoy playing Wembley.”
Other surprise songs from the night included ‘Dear John’ from 2010’s ‘Speak Now‘ and ‘Sad, Beautiful, Tragic’, from 2012’s ‘Red‘.
Check out the footage below.
🚨| Taylor Swift performing “London Boy” at today’s show! #LondonTSTheErasTour
— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) August 16, 2024
full london boy and dear john x sad beautiful tragic first row view pic.twitter.com/rqpx46zpQw
— veronica⸆⸉ (@thisisvertrying) August 17, 2024
The night before (August 15), Swift brought Ed Sheeran out, introducing him as “one of my best friends in the world” before they performed ‘Everything Has Changed’, their duet from 2012’s ‘Red‘. They then segued into ‘End Game’ from 2017’s ‘Reputation‘, followed by Sheeran’s own song ‘Thinking Out Loud’.
Swift’s setlist for night two of her Wembley Stadium run was:
Lover’
1. ‘Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince’
2. ‘Cruel Summer’
3. ‘The Man’
4. ‘You Need To Calm Down’
5. ‘Lover’
‘Fearless’
6. ‘Fearless’
7. ‘You Belong With Me’
8. ‘Love Story’
‘Red’
9. ‘22′
10. ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together’
11. ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’
12. ‘All Too Well’ 10 minute version
‘Speak Now’
13. ‘Enchanted’
‘reputation’
14. ‘…Ready For It?’
15. ‘Delicate’
16. ‘Don’t Blame Me’
17. ‘Look What You Made Me Do’
‘Folklore/Evermore’
18. ’Cardigan’
19. ‘Betty’
20. ‘Champagne problems’
21. ‘August’
22. ‘Illicit affairs’
23. ‘My tears ricochet’`
24. ‘Marjorie’
25. ‘Willow’
‘1989′
26. ‘Style’
27. ‘Blank Space’
28. ‘Shake It Off’
29. ‘Wildest Dreams’
30. ‘Bad Blood’
‘The Tortured Poets Department’
31. ‘But Daddy I Love Him’/’So High School’
32. ‘Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?’
33. ‘Down Bad’
34. ‘Fortnite’
35. ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’
36. ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’
Surprise songs
37. ‘London Boy’
38. ‘Dear John’/’Sad, Beautiful, Tragic’
‘Midnights’
39. ‘Lavender Haze’
40. ‘Anti-Hero’
41. ‘Midnight Rain’
42. ‘Vigilante Shit’
43. ‘Bejeweled’
43. ‘Mastermind’
44. ‘Karma’
The London shows mark the first ‘Eras’ concerts since Swift’s three shows were cancelled in Vienna last week following a foiled terror attack plot.
Swift’s stage times in London had to be tweaked recently in the wake of the incident. Wembley Stadium also issued a statement warning ticketless fans that they cannot stand outside the venue while the concert is taking place – a trend known as ‘Tay-gating’.
For the remaining shows, it is expected that the first support act will take to the stage at approximately 5pm BST, with Paramore’s set following at around 6pm. Swift’s estimated start time is 7pm, and she’ll play for over three-and-a-quarter hours. The following support acts will appear at the remaining shows, Suki Waterhouse (17), Maisie Peters (19) and Raye (20). Sofia Isella and Holly Humberstone have already played support slots on the mini-residency.
In a five-star review of Swift’s UK ‘Eras Tour’ opener in Edinburgh, NME wrote: “Despite being an arena show, in a huge, cavernous venue, Swift and her fans have managed to cultivate a community.
“Strangers swap friendship bracelets, laugh and cry together, and embrace the tour’s in-jokes and lore (for example shouting “one, two, three, let’s go bitch” during ‘Delicate’). It’s the power of Swift, an artist who’s inspired not only the renaming of a Scottish Loch, but also countless fans to come out and embrace being a part of the Eras family.
“With the ‘Eras Tour’, then, Swift’s managed to craft a marvel of a show that comes with a beating heart.”
Following this month’s London shows, Swift will head back to North America this autumn and end her mammoth ‘Eras Tour’ in Vancouver, Canada in early December.
“This has definitely been the most exhausting, all-encompassing but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever wondered in my life, this tour,” Swift told the crowd as she marked her 100th ‘Eras Tour’ show in Liverpool in June.
In other news, the lawyer representing the main suspect in the alleged Vienna concert terror plot has claimed that the accusations against their client have been exaggerated.
A third suspect was arrested by police last week after allegedly being in contact with the main suspect. Swift has not yet commented on the incident.