Taylor Swift has been keeping herself visible despite the mandatory lockdown through her social media and appearances for relief efforts. With the postponed "Lover Fest" tour scheduled for 2020, the superstar released last Sunday night "Taylor Swift City of Lover Concert" for Swifties fans around the world.
The special performance of the singer-songwriter was filmed at L'Olympia Theater in Paris, France, on September 9, 2019, and was broadcasted over ABC. The one-hour concert for TV is also available for streaming over Hulu and Disney Plus starting today, May 18.
Hours before the premiere of the "City of Lover" concert, Swift posted photos of herself with pink and blue highlighted streaks over her blond hair on Instagram wearing the spring look of floral woven shirt under the bright sun. She invited her fans to witness and relive the Paris show and wrote that it was the "best release album party I've wished for."
Taylor was referring to her acclaimed seventh studio album "Lover" that was out in August 2019. The Paris concert marked her first full-length performance after the release of the album. "City of Lover" Paris concert was very much in contrast with her 2018 "Reputation" World Tour, which had all the wrappings of grand stage design, high valued technical production, and tens of thousands of viewers watching. The concert film showed an intimate celebration of the Lover's singing career with a specially selected crowd of fans from 37 countries. Tickets were not available for public sale, but golden tickets were awarded to the Swifties diehard fans who participated in several competitions. The stripped-down concert showed that in the middle of the performance, the stage went bare of her band and dancer with only the "Lover" singer and her acoustic guitar. The background that projected bright, vibrant colors was tamed down to the mono-color of black. Swift recounted that she had not played live most of the songs in her new album and further saying the best way to sing it for the first time "would be just playing the songs acoustic the way I wrote them." Before she performed the new songs, Taylor shared some back story into the creation of "Lover" and provided insights to the themes of the tracks. Opening the special concert was the self-confident themed "ME!" which is the lead single of the album. Swift went on to bop and swagger with her dancers to the popular hits "Blank Space" and "I Knew You Were Trouble." She led her audience to clap along with her while singing "The Archer," which the singer said, "encapsulates the complexity of falling in love." Taylor then shifted to the toned-down set with more endearing heartfelt performances with an acoustic guitar or grand piano. The originally released pop version of "Death By a Thousand Cuts" was presented in a country-pop style as she played her acoustic guitar. Swift before playing "Cornelia Street" revealed she composed the song while she was in her bathtub. "The Man" was also performed for the first time before a live audience. The music video which shows the transformed Taylor-man was released two months ago. She also performed "Daylight" while playing the piano and "Lover" with her playing on guitars and the band to back her up. Swift ended the night with a high note with the catchy chart hit of "Shake It Off." The live versions of the tracks extracted from the concert can now be played over streaming services.
