Taylor Swift (36) shows herself like rarely before in “The End of an Era”, the six-part documentary which has just been released on Disney+ and which covers the most intimate side of The Eras Tour, the most ambitious – and most profitable – tour. … of the history of live music. Far from the glare of the stage, the singer leaves room for fragility by evoking two episodes which profoundly marked the European part of the tour: the death of three girls in England during an activity inspired by his music and the terrorist threat that forced the cancellation of his concerts in Vienna.
The attack took place on July 29, 2024 in Southport, northern England, during an artist-themed dance class. Three girls aged 6, 7 and 9 died and ten other people were injured. A few days later, the artist was forced to cancel three concerts in Vienna due to a terrorist threat considered imminent by the authorities.
a painful memory
The documentary returns to these days of maximum tension and accompanies the singer as she approaches her five concerts at Wembley Stadium in London in August. It was there, sitting in her hotel room, that Swift first expressed a fear she recognized as new after more than two decades in her career.
“It’s a strange feeling to be playing these last concerts in Europe. We experienced very violent and terrifying things during the tour,” she admits, visibly moved. Recalling the cancellation of Vienna, he adds: “We got rid of what could have been a massacre. “I was quite disoriented.”
🚨 | Taylor Swift is seen breaking down in tears in her new Disney+ docuseries as she speaks about the tragic Southport attack, meeting survivors and families before her Wembley shows.
via @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/AhXUelrp2n
– Updates from Taylor Swift ❤️🔥 (@Moonlightswift8) December 12, 2025
But it was when talking about the Southport attack that his voice broke. “They were little girls…” he said before falling silent, unable to continue for a few seconds. Swift explains that decided to meet some of the survivors and with relatives of the victims before their Wembley concerts, a meeting which he admits was emotionally devastating.
The artist acknowledges that his life takes place in a “very unreal” reality, but that part of his work involves dealing with extreme emotions and transforming them into energy on stage. In this process, the support of his partner, American footballer Travis Kelce, is essential. In several scenes of the documentary conversations appear phone calls between the two, before and after the concerts.
“There are people who take vitamins; I’m having these conversations with you,” Swift tells him during one of those calls. After the first show at Wembley, the first thing he does when it’s over is call him back. “I’m so happy and so relieved… It’s like the audience knows exactly what I need,” she confesses from the car.
“The end of an era” thus looks back not only on the scale of a tour which brought together more than 10 million spectators in 149 concerts between 2023 and 2024, but also on the emotional impact it had on the artist. A historic tour which, as the documentary shows, was about to end due to fear and pain, and which forced Taylor Swift to facing a threat for the first time this was until now foreign to her: that of not being able to protect those who follow her.
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