Paris is waiting for Taylor Swift. A million people wanted to buy a ticket for each concert

The American singer Taylor Swift will start the European part of The Eras Tour this Thursday in Paris’ La Défense Arena. He has been preparing for the three-and-a-half-hour performance in the French capital since Sunday, writes Le Figaro. Americans competed with European fans for tickets to sold-out concerts.

The thirty-four-year-old biggest star of world pop music last performed in France five years ago. This year, she sold out tickets for all her concerts there in less than an hour. At one point, over a million people were waiting in a virtual queue at online retailers for each of the six concerts, four of which take place in Paris.

Another symbol of the American’s success in France is the interest in her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. It sold 46,000 copies in its first week, making it the most successful record by a foreign artist in France in the last eight years. And, for example, the British newspaper Guardian interviewed the owner of a Paris bakery, who reports that people have started ordering special cakes and cookies made to order with the image of the singer.

In Paris, where she shot the music video for the song Begin Again in 2012, around 80 trucks full of equipment, especially lighting and techniques for various effects, came with her. And in addition to her, thousands of fans will arrive, whose spending on accommodation, shops and tickets will significantly support the local economy.

Hotels report occupancy on concert days roughly ten percent higher than usual.

According to the newspaper Le Figaro, up to a third of the audience at the French concerts will be foreigners, only about 20 percent will be Americans. Ticket prices in the United States were on average around $1,000, which translates to more than 23,000 crowns, while dealers sold them for as much as $3,800, i.e. up to 88,000 crowns per ticket. For Americans, even after taking into account the price of the plane ticket and the hotel, it is sometimes worthwhile to fly to Europe to listen to Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift was last in Paris in 2019. That time, people were waiting for her in front of the Olympia concert hall. | Photo: Reuters

Melanie Fish, a spokeswoman for the specialized travel agency Expedia, explained the logic of concert tourism to the AP agency. “Fans said to themselves: I can either spend $1,500 and hear her in Miami, or I can use that $1,500 to buy a concert ticket, a round-trip ticket and three nights in a hotel room,” he illustrates. 1500 dollars is roughly 35 thousand crowns.

Forty-three-year-old Jennifer Warren, who lives in Ontario, Canada, thought the same way. She is going on vacation to Germany with her husband and eleven-year-old son, because they just got VIP tickets close to the stage for a concert in Hamburg at a price of about 600 euros each, which is about 14 thousand crowns.

In addition, the family prides itself on getting to know a new country. Another option for them was to wait for Taylor Swift’s autumn concerts in Canada. But tickets there cost three times more than in Germany.

According to the British Guardian, France tends to be cooler towards American pop music in the long term. Taylor Swift is an exception in this regard. “It evokes emotional reactions even in people who may not speak English, but want to become part of this phenomenon. After covid, people probably want experiences, and this is the biggest one imaginable,” interprets academic Linda Bloss-Baum, who teaches at Washington’s Kogod School of Business .

Taylor Swift will perform at Paris’ La Défense Arena four nights in a row, before returning to France again at the beginning of June. The European leg of her tour culminates on August 15-20, when she sells out London’s Wembley Stadium for five consecutive nights.