Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour ended in December of 2024, spanning 632 days, with 149 shows on five continents. Though the tour kicked off in Glendale, Arizona nearly three years ago now, its impact and relevance has consistently prevailed.
Taylor Swift: The End of an Era, a Six-episode docuseries released on Disney+ last December, recorded several significant events during Swift’s 2024 shows of the Eras tour.
The docuseries started heavy with some emotional, but important moments to remember during the Eras tour’s run.
Swift demonstrated her vulnerability by showcasing how she dealt with a deadly attack at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop in England that took the lives of three children, and her Vienna tour dates being cancelled due to planned attacks, allowing fans to see what was going through Swift’s mind during these stressful moments.
Swift also discussed her relationship with her grandmother, opera singer Marjorie Finlay, who inspired and encouraged her musicality.
Finlay passed when Swift was 13 , but remained an inspiration and guide for her journey as a musician. Swift dedicated a song on the album evermore to her grandmother that was performed every night of the tour. It was a sentimental moment on stage that was honored and respected by her fans, and Swift demonstrated her gratitude in the episode titled Marjorie.
Though the docuseries was about Swift’s tour, she also shared the spotlight with all those who helped make the Eras tour a magical experience.
Multiple sections of episodes were dedicated to Swift’s background singers and dancers, highlighting the many moving parts needed to get each of her 149 shows up-and-running.
Dancers Amanda Balen, Kameron Saunders, Whyley Yoshimura, singer Kamilah Marshall, and more shared their personal experiences of going through the tour, and what it meant to them as performers; their stories adding a layer of humanity to the phenomenon known as the Eras tour.
Special guest artists and openers such as Ed Sheeran, Florence Welch, and Sabrina Carpenter also appeared, giving viewers the insight on how Swift planned their surprise appearances during sections of the show.
Also, with the early 2024 release of Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department, right in the middle of the tour, Swift surprised fans by revising the setlist and including songs from her 11th album. The docuseries also includes how the choreography for this new section of the tour was created, capturing Swift and her team’s ability to actively create something new while maintaining the previous essence of the Eras tour.
With the documentary chronicling the 2024 Eras shows, the first half of the tour was unfortunately missing from the docuseries. This included the planning for other parts of the tour, which would have been very interesting to see, leaving viewers and fans of Swift with some questions: How did she plan the original shows? How was the set list selected? How were her iconic outfits designed?
Regardless of any timeline gaps, the series still captures what made the Eras Tour feel so massive. The documentary illustrates that the task of creating a three-hour concert is something that requires lots of effort and teamwork. The series still gives enough context to appreciate the amount of work that goes into putting such a spectacle into motion.
Even if you aren’t the biggest fan of Swift’s work, the docuseries is definitely worth a watch. It shines a light on the special behind-the-scenes moments of the Eras tour, and gives viewers a peek through Swift’s perfectly sculpted life as a showgirl.
