Taylor Swift Comes Home

Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour catapulted into Philadelphia last night, and is bound to leave a lasting mark. Before an audience of around 60,000 screaming and dancing fans, she dominated Lincoln Financial Field, making it her personal playground and an unforgettable homecoming. Her journey is a feel-good story; the small town farm kid from Reading, PA with big dreams made it through Nashville and became a star. Taylor represents every kid with a dream, the girl next door, except she is anything but.

Taylor is a living, breathing dichotomy, the lollipop and the snake, and both personas permeated throughout her show. Performing behind an enormous and elaborately detailed production, Taylor seamlessly vacillated between her badass alter ego and her farm girl vibe. Ever the metaphorical snake, Taylor utilized this darker side of herself to channel the comments from naysayers and critics who have trolled her on social media with snake emojis, and she transformed the angst into pure musical magic. She slayed with songs like "Ready for It", "I Did Something Bad", and "Gorgeous", with sultry dance moves and a backdrop of red and darker hues coupled with pyrotechnics and huge inflatable snakes. She then cruised right into some of her more country-influenced songs such as "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me". These transitions occurred throughout her set, and were bridged by Taylor telling heart-warming stories about herself and her upbringing.

During these moments, Taylor was as genuine as ever, quietly reflecting, “As I get older, coming back to Pennsylvania is more and more special”. She also talked about how utterly appreciative she is that people have supported her from her singing at local fairs to selling out the Linc. She described herself as a kid who has always loved to pour her heart and soul into writing songs, and how thankful she is to be writing songs that resonate with fans.

Taylor gets it. She’s the music fan who happens to make music, and she showed this with her availability to the crowd, doing fly-over transitions to auxiliary stages and walking through the crowd to other parts of the stadium while shaking hands. Taylor does not just preach about valuing her fans, she lives it and is passionate about it. This made the show even more enjoyable and memorable.

Few artists could have accomplished the large task of bridging musical genres and making it believable. Taylor didn't just make it believable; rather she showed that she can crush both the country and pop genres, silence her critics, sell millions of records, and captivate large stadiums. Looks like the snake gets the last laugh.

Photos courtesy of Michelle Rubenstein, freelance photographer