Taylor Swift broke down in tears after meeting survivors and families of the victims of the Southport stabbing attack, as captured in backstage footage from her Eras tour.
The star met privately with some of those affected by the attack in July 2024, which occurred during a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop and tragically took the lives of three young girls.
Afterward, she sobbed in her dressing room while her mother, Andrea, offered comfort. ‘I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I know you helped them,’ she said.
Swift, who was already in her stage costume, then had to compose herself and perform for three and a half hours at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Speaking to select members of the media, including the BBC, at the New York premiere of her new six-part Disney+ documentary, Swift shared her desire to ‘create some form of escape’ for her fans after the incident.
‘From a mental standpoint, I do live in a reality that’s unreal a lot of the time,’ Swift revealed in the first episode. ‘But I need to be able to handle all the feelings and then perk up and perform.’
The emotional burden was intensified as this Wembley show marked her return to the stage after canceling three concerts in Vienna due to a terrorist threat.
Swift stated that the tour narrowly ‘dodged a massacre situation’ when the CIA identified a plot to bomb a concert.
Reflecting on her tour experiences, she expressed that after performing for 20 years, ‘being afraid that something is going to happen to your fans is new.’
Luckily, the rest of her tour proceeded without incident, and the documentary shows her relief after playing Wembley. In a phone call with her fiancé, Travis Kelce, she expressed, ‘I was so happy - I thought I was going to forget how to play guitar and sing.’
According to Swift, the tour marked ‘a lifetime within my life,’ encapsulating years of learning and emotional growth.
