Susanna Freymark
Taylor Swift is here – in Australia. In case you didn’t know.
The Melbourne concerts will be her largest yet on her Eras Tour with 96,000 people at her show tonight, Friday, February 16.
Social media will be brimming with Reels, Tik-Toks, YouTube videos of her singing. And of her leaving the stage, waving, giving away her 22 hat, and anything else she does during her stay in Australia. If she goes to a restaurant, it will be recorded. If boyfriend Travis Kelce decides to join her there will be public kisses (lots of them) and the fans will go (even more) wild.
Expect the media to be saturated with Ms Taylor Swift (with or without Kelce) for the next two weeks.
I won’t be making friendship bracelets or dressing up in something twirly and shiny and I’m not going to her concert.
I’d like to do all those things – unabashedly without a care in the world. I’d even sing along to her songs in the carpark next to the stadium where she performs if I lived in Sydney or Melbourne.
The thing is – I’m 62. And a diehard Neil Young/Joni Mitchell fan from way back.
When I was 17 and first heard the croaky Sugar Mountain as I sat on the stairs of my college dorm, I was instantly hooked.
It’s a long time ago and a long way from Taylor Swift’s pop tunes – in every possible way.
Still, I find, in my 60s that I’m a Swiftie. A secret Swiftie.
I was into her story before I got into her music – re-recording her albums to own them outright, dealing with internet shame from the Kayne/Kardashian incident, and of course, her work ethic.
She hasn’t given up. She has shaped her career through hard work and exceptional writing talent.
If I was still 17, I’d be writing out her songs on paper as if they were poems.
Taylor knows how to tell a story.
Think Exile, Daylight, peace, I Did Something Bad, Long Live, marjorie, Clean, Anti Hero and many more.
She is a poet who sings her words and reaches millions.
Her personal life too is public property – and she handles it well.
So much so that in a difficult/challenging situation I find myself asking, “What would Taylor do?”
At 34, she is only getting started. I know she is at peak fame right now but her music has matured (I wasn’t ever a fan of the teen bopper Blank Space) and she has grown into a strong, forceful woman who isn’t afraid to be feminine with her red lipstick trademark, to enjoy her fame and share the spoils of that notoriety. There is likely to be Taylor Swift-directed films soon and who knows what else.
She embraces who she is.
I’m happy to be inspired by a kind, talented young woman who has so much more to give.
I may not be at your shows in Australia, Taylor, but I am cheering you on from the veranda of my home overlooking cow paddocks in country NSW.
Taylor, I can’t wait to see what you come up with next (TPD and beyond).
This reporter in her 60s wishes you all the best and I’ll be watching your every move, your delightful real-life love story – and cheering you on.
We’ve got you, Taylor.
From a not-so-secret Swiftie
.
and then