A peek behind the curtain
Taylor Swift opens up about her reputation and songwriting in a new Netflix special
Are you ready for it?
Taylor Swift gifts her fans with an up-close-and-personal look at her wildly-successful Reputation stadium tour in a new Netflix concert special that started streaming on New Year’s Eve.
“Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour” offers a thrifty opportunity for Swift superfans to bask in the experience of a live show without handing over a pretty penny.
Despite being billed as a documentary, Swift’s special is a standard concert movie that offers insights into her audience interactions and behind-the-scenes footage of the superstar preparing for the tour.
The concert film, which was recorded in Dallas on the last night of Swift’s U.S. tour, starts with people reading headlines about the Grammy Award-winning singer, referencing everything from her infamous beefs (“13 celebs have issues with Taylor Swift”) to her sexual assault case against a radio DJ (“Taylor Swift takes the stand in court today”).
As Swift’s reputation is called into question, the singer appears on stage in a black sequined bodysuit to open her concert with “Ready for It?” and “I Did Something Bad.”
The film shows Swift dancing her way through hits like “Look What You Made Me Do” (featuring a video appearance from comedian Tiffany Haddish), “Blank Space” and a “Shake It Off” collab with Camila Cabello and Charli XCX.
The singer executes a flawless set, despite having a “tiny, minuscule cold,” even pausing between songs to blow her nose.
Swift reveals to the crowd that this was her 30th show in the Dallas area and thanks everyone for spending their Saturday night with her (like the Swifties who most likely stayed in on New Year’s Eve to get their last dose of Swift before the new year).
“You decided not only to spend your Saturday night with us, but to come here to commemorate the last night of the tour, that has meant so much to me,” she tells the sold-out crowd.
“That is such a beautiful thing. Thank you for deciding all of those things tonight.”
Before belting out “Delicate,” Swift opens up about the fear and anxiety that surrounds having a bad reputation, a nod to the name of her album and tour.
“Having a bad reputation in our mind could get in the way of finding real friendship, real love, real acceptance, people you really fit in with,” she tells the crowd.
“All of us are sort of afraid of having a bad reputation because we’re so scared of something fake, like gossip, or a rumour about you or a name you got called getting in the way of you finding something real.”
Swift also opens up to her fans about her songwriting process, sharing that “when I write a song, it’s usually me just trying to get past something and un- derstand something I’m going through by writing about it.”
For example, Swift says the song “All Too Well” was “born out of catharsis and venting and trying to get over something and trying to understand it and process it.”
Toward the end of Swift’s performance, the pop star acknowledges that her tour surpassed her team’s expectations: “I don’t think we ever imagined we’d be on a stage this big with crowds this incredible. I think this exceeded any kind of daydream.”
The words “And in the death of her reputation, she felt truly alive” appear onscreen. After the curtains closes, fans get an extra treat: Behind-the-scenes footage.
In the exclusive look, Swift is seen hugging her production team after the show, practising a dance routine ahead of time (“Can we do it again? I missed all of that”) and checking out her set design (“It’s like a feat of magical mystique”).
Some Swifties also got a priceless look at themselves at her concert.
“GUYS I CANNOT BELIEVE I MADE IT IN #REPTOURNetflix!” @Repucarson tweeted. “what an amazing way to celebrate so many shows together!!
The Netflix cameras caught @whiteroseee getting emotional during Swift’s concert. “I MADE IT GUYS OMG IM LITERALT (sic) CRYING IN THE SHOT WITH MY BESTIE,” she wrote .