Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour on Dec. 6 in Vancouver.Lindsey Wasson/The Associated Press
It’s the end of an era for Taylor Swift – or, more accurately, the end of the era, as the Eras Tour came to a close this weekend in Vancouver. After 149 shows spanning nearly two years, it’s finally time for Swift to hang up her bejewelled bodysuit. But what the famously hard-working pop star will get up to next is anyone’s guess. We surveyed five Canadian pop-culture experts and PR pros for their predictions.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud, host, Commotion (CBC)
We already know how the story ends. The final numbers aren’t even in, and we can already say the Eras Tour is the highest-grossing tour of all time. But this triumphant ending makes it hard to remember: Even for a star as big as Swift, there was an element of risk at the start of the tour.
In 2022, when Swift announced her first tour in five years, live music was sluggishly recovering from the pandemic, and its future was on shaky grounds. Cut to: Swift on the other side of a tour that has rewritten the economics of tours, and consolidated the power Swift herself wields.
Where do you go when you have near-certainty that your next project can’t fail? My hope: A return to Swift’s insurgent underdog posture, a place from which she takes her biggest risks and earns her biggest rewards. It was never a sure bet that she would land the crossover from country to pop, but she rewrote that playbook. When skeptics wrote her off as a pop bombast specialist, she delivered intimate masterpieces. Whatever risk she pursues does not have to be musical – this strikes me as exactly the right time to get serious about making her feature directing debut. But also, make another country album. Launch a fashion line. The time for risk-taking is now.
Don’t get me wrong: It’s much harder for Swift to claim underdog status now. But she does her best work when she is underestimated. The success of the Eras Tour is so overwhelming that it demands Swift take a step back, decide on the riskiest possible next move and dive in head first.
Taylor Swift hugs her performers on the last night of her tour in Vancouver on December 8, 2024.The Globe and Mail
Natasha Koifman, president and founder, NKPR
Swifties may not like this, but after two non-stop years of creating, touring and dominating headlines, Swift deserves a breather. I envision her taking a well-earned step back, focusing on self care, her personal life and her relationship (perhaps an engagement is on the horizon) while savouring her monumental achievements.
Swift describes herself as smart, imaginative and hard-working. I’d like to think she’s strategic, too, making a pause about more than just rest and recharging. She knows her best art comes from life experiences, and this time away will plant the seeds for her next album.
And let’s not forget her unmatched ability to evolve and leverage her creative outputs – books, films and more – maximizing everything she does at all times.
So, fear not, Swifties, this break wouldn’t mark the end of an era; it’s the beginning of a new one.
Swift's Eras Tour is the highest-grossing tour of all time.Lindsey Wasson/The Associated Press
Lisa Whittington-Hill, author, Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women
If Us Weekly were planning Swift’s next era, it would definitely include marriage and children. “Taylor at a Crossroads” is the magazine’s latest cover story, which includes suggestions for what the singer should do now that her record-breaking tour is done. Not surprisingly, an engagement and baby top the list.
There are also several reminders that Swift is turning 35 this year, implying she is getting old and running out of baby-making time. Could she even hear the screaming Eras fans over the sound of her ticking biological clock? There’s nothing pop culture loves more than making a famous woman feel bad for being unmarried and childless.
Let’s stop putting pressure on her to figure out her next steps. Let her enjoy a long nap, maybe time with her cats, a bag of Taco Bell and some trashy television. Sounds like the perfect way to spend a crossroads.
Review: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour ends with a group hug
Anne T. Donahue, writer and author, Nobody Cares
In a dream world, Swift will produce and star in Cats 2 because I’m ready to RSVP again to the Jellicle Ball. But in reality? I think the smartest move would be to finally release Reputation (Taylor’s Version) and take a long-deserved break. Creativity necessitates rest; the private jet needs to ground itself. “Leave them wanting more, not wanting to leave” is a great motto to live by – and the perfect motto for somebody who’s not just part of the narrative, but who is the narrative.
Time off is never a career-killer, anyway. And if not time off, then time behind-the-scenes. I think we’re ready to see her (finally) take the production reigns from Jack Antonoff. If she can rerecord and rerelease her own albums, she can master the art of dropping a sick beat. Or at least one that’s a little more interesting.
Ginger Bertrand, president, Gab Group PR
Swift’s next chapter is already unfolding. With her birthday on Friday, Dec. 13, I wouldn’t be surprised if she drops Reputation (Taylor’s Version) as the ultimate gift to her fans and mic drop to 2024. I’d confidently predict that Travis Kelce will propose within the next year, and they’ll start a beautiful new era together – babies included. And as her fans grow into their own new eras of life – adulthood, careers, relationships and families – Swift will undoubtedly keep writing and releasing music that reflects her evolving story and resonates with the world.
While I hope she takes the space and time off she deserves, as the genius she is, I don’t think she’ll ever go fully dark. I can see her conquering new creative challenges, like directing a movie and continuing to shape the world of music and storytelling in ways only she can.