When the Eras Tour first started nearly two years ago, Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Department didn’t even exist. Now, the trek has just a handful of shows left, and the bestselling album is up for multiple Grammys.
At her Canada-leg kickoff concert in Toronto Thursday (Nov. 14) — the singer’s first performance since Grammy nods were announced the week prior — Swift took a moment during the night’s surprise song section to reflect on her 11th studio album’s success. “You guys did something over the course of the last few months,” she began, moments before diving into an acoustic-guitar mashup of “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” and Reputation‘s “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”
“What you did with embracing Tortured Poets Department the album, it’s truly blown my mind,” she continued, as captured in fan videos. “Because it’s truly emotional to me. This album — I wrote it during the Eras Tour. I wrote that album, made that album, all trying to keep it a secret from you guys, and then announced the album. And we basically were working really hard to secretly put together a new chapter of the Eras Tour of The Tortured Poets Department, and we wanted to surprise you guys with it.”
Swift then thanked her fans for being “so wonderful about digging into this album and understanding where I was coming from with it.” “Everything that happens is a direct reflection of the passion you show, and you guys got this album nominated for six Grammys,” she added. “So thank you.”
The “Anti-Hero” singer’s first of six shows in Toronto came six days after the Recording Academy unveiled its 2025 honorees, revealing that The Tortured Poets Department — which spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — is in the running for album of the year. It makes Swift the woman with the most AOTY nominations ever, and follows her record-breaking fourth win in the category last year with Midnights, which made her the artist with the most AOTY wins in Grammy history.
This year, Swift is also up for record and song of the year for “Fortnight,” her Billboard Hot 100-topping duet with Post Malone, which also snagged her a Grammy nod for best music video. Plus, Tortured Poets is being considered for best pop vocal album, while the superstar’s Gracie Abrams collaboration, “Us,” is recognized in the best pop duo/group performance category.
Swift now has just a total of eight Eras Tour shows left before the culture-shifting trek concludes Dec. 8 in Vancouver, B.C. When it first started in March 2023, the three-hour-plus program was a very different show. Instead of the now-nightly Tortured Poets section that’s been in play since the album dropped in April, the performer used to sing extended selections from her first 10 albums. To make room for new tracks such as “Fortnight,” “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,” Swift cut several of her older songs and combined her Folklore and Evermore sections into one.
