Spoilers for Taylor Swift: The End Of An Era ahead. Taylor Swift is opening up about a dark time on the Eras Tour. In the first episode of her Disney+ docuseries The End of an Era, which premiered on Dec. 12, the singer discusses the thwarted terrorist attack that targeted her concert in August 2024, forcing her to cancel three planned shows in Vienna.
A Harrowing Moment
In a very personal scene, Swift talks to the camera directly, expressing how nervous she feels to play her five remaining shows on the European leg at London’s Wembley Stadium following the terrorist threat. “We’ve done, like, 128 shows so far. But this is the first one where I feel like — I don’t know, like I’m skating on thin ice or something,” she says. “We’ve had a series of very violent, scary things happen to the tour. Like, we dodged a massacre situation.”
Swift also addressed the mass stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England, which killed three young girls and injured 10 others just weeks before Vienna. “It was little kids that…” Swift begins, struggling to hold back tears before saying: “I have a hard time explaining it.”
Later on, she’s visited by her close friend and collaborator Ed Sheeran to rehearse for a surprise performance at her first London show. Backstage, they have a candid conversation about the planned Vienna attack and Swift’s fame, with the musician sharing her plans for her two-month break ahead.
“I’m just gonna go somewhere no one can find me,” she says. “I just don’t want to be tracked like an animal. I just have felt very, like, hunted lately.”
Sheeran agrees, “I feel like people have forgot that you’re a human being amongst all of this, as well.”
Processing The Tragedy
Before each of the five London shows, Swift met with different survivors and families of victims in the Southport attack, which were not shown in the documentary. However, it’s clear how much those meetings affected Swift, who’s shown crying in her costume before going onstage, as her mom, Andrea, reassures her that she’s doing the right thing.
“I know you helped them,” Andrea says. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I know you helped them.”
The emotional scene happens moments before Swift prepares to take the stage. “From a mental standpoint, I just do live in a reality that’s very unreal a lot of the time. But it’s my job to kind of be able to handle all these feelings, and then perk up immediately to perform,” she says in a voiceover. “That’s just the way it’s got to be.”
