Taylor Swift was named Time’s “Person of the Year” for 2023, and it’s extremely evident as to why. Just this year alone, she performed on her global Eras Tour, started dating NFL superstar Travis Kelce, became a billionaire, and broke even more records by releasing her Eras tour film in movie theaters. She also released both “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”
Swift started a frenzy when she first announced her newest tour – The Eras Tour. Bigger and longer than any tour she’s ever done before, over 4 million tickets were sold for 60 shows. This tour featured her past 10 albums and was choreographed by Mandy Moore. With a set list of 44 songs, including two surprise songs per show – each concert was nearly three hours long. In order to prepare for the upcoming 151 stadium shows, Swift performed her whole set list while running on the treadmill. The tour first kicked off in Glendale, Arizona, which was temporarily renamed “Swift City.” This show alone provided more income to the state than the 2023 Super Bowl. As the highest grossing tour of all time, it reached $1 billion. By the end of the U.S. leg of the Eras tour, it’s estimated Swift boosted the economy by $5 billion. Additionally, Swifties’ idea to make friendship bracelets led to a 500% increase of sales at craft stores.
Not only did Swift boost the economy this year, but she also became a billionaire. Swift earned an estimated $190 million – after taxes – from the Eras tour, and another $35 million from the Eras Tour movie. Although her tour was a main contributing factor in her becoming a billionaire, Swift’s wallet also grew larger through her re-recording her first six albums – earning an estimated $500 million from her rising music catalog. This year, she released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” – which was entirely self written, and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” These two albums included each album’s original songs, along with “vault tracks.” “Vault tracks” are what Swift calls her unreleased songs that were originally supposed to be on the album, but never made the cut until now.
In continuing her headline year, Swift started dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in September. They debuted their relationship at a Chiefs game on September 24. According to sources, she and Kelce started hanging out after he had called her out on his podcast, claiming he was “butthurt” that he didn’t get to give her the friendship bracelet he had made with his number on it. When Swift started attending Kelce’s games, the Chiefs games became more widely viewed. In fact, the Chiefs-Jets game that Swift attended in October was the most viewed game since the Super Bowl at the time. Swift told Time Magazine that she likes going to the Chiefs games to support Kelce: “I have no awareness if I’m (annoying) a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
Along with the many other records Swift has broken this year, she has also released “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” in theaters. The film breaks numerous records, including the most amount of tickets sold in the span of one day, the highest grossing concert movie, and the first concert movie to endure number one on the U.S. box office for two weeks. Some Swifties treated the film as if it was the real concert – dressing up, singing, and dancing in theaters across America. The movie is now available to rent on streaming services for $19.89.