Taylor Swift has performed ‘The Albatross’ for the first time on her ongoing ‘Eras’ tour. Watch footage from her performance below.
On the second of three nights in Dublin, Ireland at Aviva Stadium (June 29), Swift unveiled the track – taken from this year’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’ – following a segment featuring songs from the album.
Swift took to her acoustic guitar for ‘The Albatross’, where her arrangement for the night saw it fused with ‘Dancing With Our Hands Tied’ as a special song mash-up.
“The acoustic section — I absolutely wait for this all night because it is the point of the show that keeps me on my toes because I do something on guitar, I do something on piano,” she said before debuting the song live, per Rolling Stone.
“And I do things completely different. I’m always trying to think of something new to do, so I decided I’m going to do a song I’ve never performed live before.”
This segment also saw Swift take on a piano rendition of ‘This Love’, taken from 2014’s ‘1989’, fused with ‘Ours’, from 2011’s ‘Speak Now’.
🚨| Taylor Swift’s FULL performance of a mashup of “The Albatross” and “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” at Night 2 of ‘The Eras Tour’ in Dublin, Ireland! #DublinTSTheErasTour
— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) June 30, 2024
Taylor singing “Albatross” x “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” as the first surprise song on the guitar for Dublin N2 🥹 #DublinIrelandTSTheErasTour via @repuhtayytion pic.twitter.com/JLFHjjB79W
— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) June 29, 2024
Upon her arrival in Ireland, Swift’s welcome was highlighted by a bouquet of flowers sent by U2. In an Instagram story, Swift revealed the band had sent the flowers alongside a note that read: “Welcome back to our hometown… leave some of it standing?!!!!” The card was signed by her “fan club” — Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.
Swift shared the gesture, writing: “Already feeling that Irish hospitality!! @U2 thanks for always being the classiest & the coolest.”
U2 aren’t the only rock icons to give their flowers to Swift – in the past week, both Cyndi Lauper and Chrissie Hynde have expressed their admiration for her.
Lauper mentioned in a BBC interview that she got into Swift’s music during the pandemic with 2020’s ‘Folklore’ – “I first started listening during the pandemic – when she went and hibernated and did that wonderful folk record. It was wonderful. I’m proud of her.” – while Hynde raved about a Swift concert she attended, writing on Instagram: “Just shows you what a girl with a guitar can do. Last time I loved a show that much was Aldous Harding.”
After leaving Dublin, Swift is set to make a two-night stop in Zurich, Switzerland, before touring Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria. She’s then set to return to London to close the European leg of the ‘Eras’ tour, before heading to Canada, where she’ll be supported by Gracie Abrams.
NME were at the first UK show of the ‘Eras’ tour, which took place at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on June 7, giving the show a glowing five-star review.
Hannah Mylrea wrote: “Each era is a distinct chapter. The aforementioned visuals (which are aided by distinct colour palettes) are accompanied by wardrobes of (rapidly changed, often brilliantly bespangled) costumes for Swift and her dancers, and – of course – the differing musical worlds.
“In the live setting the synth-led sound of ‘Reputation’ is rocked up, Swift’s guitarists (she’s joined on-stage by a slick six-piece band, and four backing vocalists) shredding exuberantly. In fact, ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ has never sounded better.”