PARIS — Since The Eras Tour — a three-hour show spanning 11 albums — started last March, it seems Taylor Swift has conquered every city she's set foot in: in the U.S., the mayor of Tampa gave her the key to the city and Las Vegas lit up the Gateway Arches in her colors, Singapore spent around $3 million to broker the exclusivity of Swift’s show in Southeast Asia and her four shows in Mexico generated an impressive $59 million for the city’s economy.
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Instead, France, where Swift is kicking off the European leg of her tour, is decidedly unimpressed. , Yes, the fact that we're busy enough with Paris Olympic preparations — and our legendary blasé attitude to any kind of hype — can help explain.
Yet, as a Parisian native and dedicated Swiftie, I believe there’s something more at play with the French coolness toward Taylor. Since her last show in the country in 2011 for the Speak Now tour, where she only managed to fill half the Zenith arena, Swift and her team have tried hard to conquer the French public — largely in vain.
It is also worth noting that the tens of thousands of Swifties that will fill La Defense and Groupama stadiums are not all French: with only 18 cities on The Eras Tour European schedule, against 53 in the U.S., many are flying from abroad to attend.
Miss Americana and French public
I have been a diehard fan for a decade, and three weeks from now I'll be dancing and singing in the pit of the Groupama Stadium in the central French city of Lyon among 58,000 glitter-covered Swifties. My friends know Taylor Swift’s music, but are not fans. They will happily share their opinions on her last album and indulge in me showing them my Reputation-themed outfit for the show. My boyfriend will lead me into a somewhat heated debate about her relevance in the pop music scene, and listen to me detail the complexity of her rise to fame over 17 years of career.
Her beginnings on the country scene may have made it harder for the French audience to get on board.
But among my French peers, the excitement surrounding her tour and her music that has spread around the world is not shared or really understood. Musical tastes aside, Swift is seen as too cliché, too girly, too romantic, too perfect, in summary: too American.
I wonder how much the language barrier matters. While the French public has shown up time and time again for other super pop stars, like with Beyonce’s Renaissance concert in May 2023, it may be that the draw of Swift’s lyrics may slip between the cracks of popularity. By the time I became a Taylor Swift fan, I was already fluent in English and thus never experienced that gap. Listening to her music and learning the lyrics to my favorite songs enriched my vocabulary and my understanding of the English language, on top of making me feel understood during my teenage years.
Shakespeare and Sylvia Plath
Over the past year, American and British universities have dedicated lectures and curriculums to the study of her songwriting, with some going as far as to compare her to William Shakespeare. Indeed, what Taylor does best is make her own life experiences relatable through her songwriting: from teenage heartbreak (All too well, Back to December) to finding true love (Lover, Mine) and female rage (Look What You Made Me Do), she allows her fans to grow with her through shared feelings and key moments in any teenage girl’s life.
Two of her latest albums, folklore and evermore, released during the pandemic showed her exploring a more poetic, folk style, relying on storytelling and imaginary worlds.
Her beginnings on the country scene (the American genre par excellence if there ever was one) may have made it harder for the French audience to get on board when her career started. After her switch to pop with 1989, she earned her fame in the genre through an overpowering synth sound (Style, Out of the woods) and radio hits (Shake it off, Me!) that did not earn France’s devotion.
Big reputation
While I don’t think she’s akin to Sylvia Plath or John Keats (French daily Les Echos tackled that comparison today to explain the phenomenon to French readers), Swift’s writing is a source of comfort for her fans, and that relatability may get lost for those who don’t speak English fluently.
I have no doubt that our energy will live up to her expectations.
But the French chill goes beyond just the language question. Her millimetric high-scale performances and “good girl faith” make her too tame for the French public, rather in favor of sulfurous, provoking female pop figures. While her controlled Miss Americana-esque personality is what cemented her popularity in the first place, and makes it harder for her to break from it down the line, it seems that is not what the French public responds to.
Over the past few years, I have gone to my fair share of shows in different genres, from hyperpop to indie-rock artists, and they all drew an excited French audience. (Yes, we actually have a reputation for being great concert audiences!) While I have no doubt the fans’ energy (mine included) will live up to Swift’s expectation through the European leg of her tour.
Once in front of the stage, it doesn't matter whether my friends love Tay-tay or not, just like it doesn't matter that her concerts have grossed $1 billion in 2023 alone: her unstoppable creative force will not wait for France or anyone else to catch up.