Even Taylor Swift messes up sometimes. The 33-year-old pop star’s first Eras Tour show after a brief break — and her first since her reported breakup from longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn — mostly went off without a hitch Thursday night (April 13), save for a couple moments where she laughed off minor mistakes in the three-hour program.
One mix-up Swift felt the need to personally apologize for was accidentally telling the crowd that Gracie Abrams had opened the show at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., when in fact, it was Gayle who did the honors. Both of the young singer-songwriters are accompanying the “Anti-Hero” singer as supporting acts on different U.S. dates, and in Tay’s defense, both of their names start with a letter G. Plus, she more than made up for it by praising Gayle before playing Evermore hit “Champagne Problems” on piano.
“Thirteen is a number that has defined all kinds of lucky things for me,” she began, referencing the date of Thursday night’s show. “But tonight, it is actually also the exact number of brain cells that I have, because earlier, I told you that Gracie Abrams opened the show — that is not correct.”
“That is absolutely not correct,” she continued. “Gayle opened the show and she was phenomenal, and I feel so awful. I love Gayle, she’s a fellow Nashville girl, she’s such a legit singer-songwriter.”
Later, Swift tripped up on a lyric in one of the night’s surprise songs, “Speak Now.” While singing the second verse of her third studio album’s title track, the 12-time Grammy winner mistakenly repeated a line from the first verse — “And she is yelling at a bridesmaid” — before stopping in her tracks.
“Oh my god, wait. Wait,” she said, momentarily stopping her guitar-playing before resuming the performance, laughing along with her audience as she sang the verse again with the correct lyrics.
And finally, when it was time to finish out the show with a few songs from Midnights, Swift’s famous “stage dive” transition didn’t go as planned. As seen in several videos from previous nights on tour, the transition always features a hole opening up in the stage floor, lit up to look like a river, with sound effects making a splash noise as Swift dives into the opening.
But in Tampa, Swift couldn’t seem to find her mark on stage, and missed her cue to jump in. The splash sound effect rang out with the musician still very much standing upright, visibly laughing at herself.
Last weekend was the first in four weeks that Swift didn’t have any Eras Tour dates scheduled, meaning she took nearly two weeks off between her April 2 show in Arlington, Texas, and Thursday night’s show in Tampa. She’ll remain in Tampa for two more shows at Raymond James Friday (April 14) and Saturday (April 15).
During the break in touring, the news that Swift and Alwyn had ended their six-year relationship hit Swifties hard — though the pop star herself looked happy as ever while out to eat with Jack Antonoff in New York City Monday evening (April 10).
See Taylor Swift handle a couple Eras Tour mistakes like a pro below:
