taylor swift it broke into her Tour d’Epoques docuseries as he reflected on a foiled terrorist attack at his concert and the “horrific” fatal stabbings of three of his young fans.
The pop star, 35, opened up about the devastating events during the first episode of The end of an erawhich premiered on Disney+ on Friday, December 12.
“It’s a strange feeling going into these last five shows in Europe,” he told the camera from his London hotel room. “We’ve done, like, 128 shows so far, but this is the first one where I feel like I’m skating on thin ice or something. We’ve had a number of really violent and scary things happen on tour, like, we dodged a massacre situation, so I’ve just been all over the place.”
Swift brought him a record Tour d’Epoques in venues around the world from March 2023 to December 2024. While performing across Europe in the summer of 2024, Swift suffered back-to-back tragedies.
Swifties rejoice: the six-part docuseries The End of an Era is finally premiering this month. Taylor Swift’s long-awaited Eras tour docuseries will be streaming in a few weeks, chronicling a behind-the-scenes look at the record-breaking tour that ran from March 2023 to December 2024. Watch With Us couldn’t be more (…)
First, a group of young fans attending a Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England in July 2024 were attacked by a 17-year-old. Axel Rudakubanawho fatally stabbed three girls: Alice Da Silva Aguiar9, Elsie Dot Stancombe7 i baby king6. Rudakubana too injured eight other girls aged between 7 and 13, as well as the class teacher and a local businessman who intervened. In January, Rudakubana was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison.
“They were little kids,” Swift noted in the docuseries before getting choked up. “I’m going to meet some of these families tonight and I’m going to play a pop concert, you know? It’s going to be okay because I’m not going to do that (cry). I swear to God, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to be smiling. So all of that will be gone before you ever get on stage for three hours. Worry about you.”
She continued, “You’re like a pilot flying the plane, and if you were like, ‘Oh, there’s turbulence ahead. I don’t know if we’ll actually land in Dallas. I’m going to try really hard, but I don’t know if I can really figure out how to land in this turbulence.” Everyone on the plane will freak out. Just have a calm, cool, collected tone like, “We’re landing in Dallas at 6:05 p.m. We’ve got some turbulence ahead, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.” Just keep your seat belts buckled and welcome The Tour d’Eres!’”
After the attack, Swift shared her condolences in an emotional statement through his Instagram story.
“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport continues to wash over me, and I am in complete shock… The loss of life and innocence and the horrific trauma inflicted on all those who were there, the families and the first responders,” he wrote at the time. “These were young children in a dance class. I am at a loss as to how I will ever express my sympathies to these families.”
The following month, Swift was forced to cancel his three scheduled concerts in Vienna due to a terrorist threat. Two people were arrested at the time on suspicion of planning attacks inspired by the Islamic State group.
Scott Eisen/TAS23/Getty Images More details are emerging about the alleged terrorist attack that was planned for Taylor Swift’s Vienna Eras Tour concerts. Swift was scheduled to play three shows at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on August 8-10 before authorities learned of a suspected threat. The shows were later canceled as two (…)
The end of an era shows the Grammy winner talking to her longtime friend and collaborator Ed Sheeran backstage at London’s Wembley Stadium in August 2024 after the plot.
“I was on the plane going (to Vienna when we found out),” she told Sheeran. “I just need to do this show, remember the joy of it… I have two months off after this, which I need. I need more than anything.”
Cameras later captured Swift crying again just before she returned to the London stage.
“Mentally, I’m just living in a reality that’s very unreal most of the time, but it’s my job to be able to handle all those feelings and then immediately get pumped up to act. That’s how it should be,” he explained.
Later that month, after finishing the European leg of their tour, Swift addressed the cancellation of the Austrian concerts in a social media post.
“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” he wrote via Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of dread and enormous guilt because so many people had planned to come to those shows. But I was also very grateful to the authorities because thanks to them we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was encouraged by the love and unity I saw in the fans who came together.”
Swift then explained how she had moved forward with the tour after the foiled terror plot.
“I decided that all my energy had to go into helping to protect the almost half a million people who had come to see the shows in London,” he noted. “My team and I worked side by side with the stadium staff and the British authorities every day to achieve this goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”
Taylor Swift will always remember the moment of her beloved Eras Tour in the back of her mind. Swift, 34, concluded the concert tour with three sold-out performances at Vancouver’s BC Place from Friday, December 6 to Sunday, December 8. (The Grammy winner started Eras in March 2023 in Arizona, and eventually toured continents for hundreds of (…)
As for why she didn’t immediately make a public statement about the situation in Vienna, Swift emphasized her focus on security.
“Let me be very clear: I’m not going to talk about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who want to hurt the fans who come to my shows,” he added. “In cases like this, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint and waiting to speak out at a time when it’s right. My priority was to finish our European tour safely, and I can say with great relief that we did.”
The first two episodes of The end of an era they are now streaming on Disney+.