Taylor thrills at Croker
TAYLOR Swift burst onto the stage at Croke Park last night wearing a black latex one-piece and thigh high boots – signalling her final transformation from saccharine-sweet country singer to sexy pop goddess.
More than 50,000 people cheered wildly as she broke immediately into Ready For It?
It was a needless question for her fans – they had been ready for her since 5pm and she thanked them for their years of dedication.
There was fire behind her and fireworks and snake emblems – no more poignant country songs about broken hearts at the county fair; the new Taylor is fast and loud and steamy. The start of the show was all high energy.
Ten minutes in, she had everyone on their feet. She thanks everyone during Gorgeous with exactly the same words used in other cities. But nobody cares. More fire, more fireworks.
Smoke machines jetted 30ft into the air. A giant rainbow hung over Croke Park, as if wanting to join in the excess. If you missed the point of Taylor’s transformation – on part two of the show she was on a bed surrounded by giant replica cobras. There is a costume change and her backing dancers are wearing snakeskin and there are snakes on the big screen – the Reputation tour is all a bit of cheeky fun about her own image. Kim Kardashian had said mean things about her on Twitter, followed by hissing snake signs.
Just when the fans were worked up, she threw in some of her older hits – Shake It Off and Style brought back memories of the pop princess. The crowd went wild. There were even photos of her two cats on the screen.
Reputation shows us that Taylor isn’t just all show, she really is an astoundingly good singer, all while moving perfectly in sync with her ever-growing posse of backing dancers.
The first of her two nights at Croke Park was a triumph. The US superstar received a warm welcome to Dublin from U2 who sent a bunch of red roses to the singer’s dressing room. Swift uploaded a photo of the flowers alongside a card which read ‘from your Irish fan club’ signed by the band to her Instagram account, adding ‘I was not ready for it. I love U2 I love Ireland lets do this Croke Park’.
She’s an astoundingly good singer