Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour kicked off in March of 2023 in North America, and since then, Swifities haven’t had a day of peace.
We’ve stayed up late to watch grainy live streams, and spent our lunch breaks at work frantically searching TikTok to find out of Blondie has done anything crazy at today’s show.
Ahead of each show, there’s one thought that anxiously looms over every Swiftie’s head – what surprise songs she’ll play during the acoustic section.
Though the Eras Tour shows have a set list that remains the same, Swift also played two ‘surprise songs’ each night, drawn from her extensive back catalogue.
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When the tour kicked off in 2023, Swift told fans she’d set a “rule” to not repeat any of the surprise tracks – adding to the stress for fans seeing their wishlist songs “lost” at different shows around the world.
While in Australia, however, the Lover singer threw a huge spanner in the works by announcing a huge change to the tradition while performing in Melbourne.
The international pop sensation scrapped the ‘no repeats’ rule, explaining her reasoning to her third consecutive crowd of 96,000 people at the MCG.
“Basically, when I started the tour in the US, I made up this rule where I was like, I’m not allowed to ever play a song twice on the tour,” she said.
“That was to challenge me to, like, really get to all of the ones that I just don’t naturally gravitate towards and I feel really proud about having done that but this is sort of like a public service announcement to everyone.
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“I’ve been thinking like, I want to be as creative as possible with the acoustic set moving forward and I don’t want to limit anything and I don’t want to just say like “oh I played a song before, I can’t play it again’.
“So from now on… I want to be able to play songs more than once if I feel like it, and I want to be able to make changes to songs and be creative. Does that sound OK? Because it sounds more fun to me, so I’m glad you’re on board.”
Swift has certainly been having fun with her new rule.
Not only has she been repeating tracks she played in other locations last year, but she’s been performing surprise song mashups during her Aussie shows.
Read on to find out more about Swift’s surprise song tradition.
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What are Taylor Swift’s surprise songs?
Basically, Swift’s concert is broken up into 10 sections. Nine are dedicated to her currently released albums (all except her debut album, Taylor Swift), and the other is dedicated to causing a wave of simultaneous panic and excitement to rush over every person inside the stadium.
This section is known as the surprise songs.
After Swift performs her first eight sections of the show, she comes to the end of the catwalk on the stage, where she performs two acoustic songs – but only she knows what they are going to be.
These songs can be anything from her entire discography, which is large, to say the least.
Up until her huge announcement in Melbourne, Swift would only ever play a surprise song once, and obviously any of the other 43 songs on her setlist are automatically disqualified from selection.
She used to have two exceptions to her ‘no repeats’ rule, one was that if she messed it up she could play it again, and the second was that if it was from the album Midnights she could play it as many times as she wanted.
The singer was also known to create her own rules as she goes, bringing out one of her opening acts in Cincinnati, Gracie Abrams, to perform Abrams’ song I Miss You, I’m Sorry together.
And now, she’s changed her own rules again, explaining that she can play any surprise song as many times as she would like.
For some, that announcement is a huge sigh of relief.
Some Swifties have decided that the scrapping of the ‘no repeats rule’ is exciting, we now have hundreds of songs we may potentially see live and we’ll never know what’s going to happen.
She could play the same song two nights in a row, she could even play three songs in one (see Melbourne night 2 where she mashed up Getaway Car with the August bridge and the Other Side of the Door outro.)
For others, like myself, who like the maximum amount of control in all situations, we’re now terrified – we now have hundreds of songs we may potentially see live and anything could happen.
Whichever way your emotional compass has gone, it is what it is, us Aussies need to be prepared for anything in the surprise song section.
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What songs are included on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour setlist
- Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince
- Cruel Summer
- The Man
- You Need to Calm Down
- Lover
- The Archer
- Fearless
- You Belong With Me
- Love Story
- ‘Tis the Damn Season
- Willow
- Marjorie
- Champagne Problems
- Tolerate It
- Ready For It?
- Delicate
- Don’t Blame Me
- Look What You Made Me Do
- Enchanted
- 22
- We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
- I Knew You Were Trouble
- All Too Well (10-Minute Version)
- The 1
- Betty
- The Last Great American Dynasty
- August
- Illicit Affairs
- My Tears Ricochet
- Cardigan
- Style
- Blank Space
- Shake it Off
- Wildest Dreams
- Bad Blood
- Surprise Song
- Surprise Song
- Lavender Haze
- Anti-Hero
- Midnight Rain
- Vigilante Shit
- Bejeweled
- Mastermind
- Karma
What surprise songs did Taylor Swift perform in Australia?
Melbourne Night 1, February 16
- Guitar: Red (Red)
- Piano: You’re Losing Me (Midnights)
Melbourne Night 2, February 17
- Guitar: Getaway Car/August/The Other Side of the Door (Reputation/Folklore/Fearless)
- Piano: This is Me Trying (Folklore)
Melbourne Night 3, February 18
- Guitar: Come Back Be Here/Daylight (Fearless/Lover)
- Piano: Teardrops On My Guitar (Debut)
Sydney Night 1, February 23
- Guitar: How You Get the Girl (1989)
- Piano: White Horse/Coney Island (Fearless/Evermore)
Sydney Night 2, February 24
- Guitar: Should’ve Said No/You’re Not Sorry (Debut/Fearless)
- Piano: New Year’s Day/peace (Reputation/Evermore)
Sydney Night 3, February 25
- Guitar: Is It Over Now/I Wish You Would (1989/1989)
- Piano: Haunted/exile (Speak Now/Folklore)
Sydney Night 4, February 26
- Guitar: Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve/ivy (Midnights/Evermore)
- Piano: Maroon/Forever & Always (Midnights/Fearless)