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Mark Savage
���˿��� Music correspondent reporting from Murrayfield

Now we venture into new territory – with a half-hour set dedicated to Taylor’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.

The colour scheme for this section is a muted black-and-white, reflecting the brooding, downcast tones of the song – many of which address the end of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, and the brief(but apparently intense) fling she had afterwards with The 1975’s Matty Healy.

The album was not an immediate critical success -“Sylvia Plath did not stick her head in an oven for this!” said a particularly scathing review in Paste Magazine – but it is aging well, with fans finding new layers and firm favourites among the sprawling, 31-song track list.

Taylor has chosen seven of her favourites for the tour, starting with the small-town melodrama of But Daddy I Love Him, and continuing with the garage rock vibes of So High School.

Keep an eye out later for Down Bad, during which she appears to be abducted by a UFO; and the number one single Fortnight.

That one is performed on a hospital bed to depict the song’s central metaphor of an affair as a mental breakdown.

Turning to Swift's latest album, it's time to enjoy the Tortured Poets Department, kicking off with But Daddy I Love Him.

The Reputation era of the evening may be over but there is still time for some Bad Blood.

Swift wrote the song about an unnamed female musician who tried to sabotage her, leading to speculation among fans about who it could be.

Sticking with 1989 but returning to the ballad era, it's time for Wildest Dreams.

The international hit features a sample of Swift's actual heartbeat in it.

It's time for Murrayfield to Shake It Off.

Mark Savage
���˿��� Music correspondent reporting from Murrayfield

If Taylor Swift has a signature song, it’s got to be Blank Space.

Lifted from her biggest album, 1989, this single was inspired by the tabloid industry that sprung up around the star’s love life in the early 2000s.

"In the last couple of years the media have had a wonderful fixation on painting me as the psycho serial dater girl," she told the Grammy Museum in 2022.

"My first reaction was to be like, 'That's a bummer’.

“But my second reaction was, 'Hey, that's actually a really interesting character they're writing about… I can use this'."

Lyrically, Blank Space contains some of her best lines ("darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream") and some lovely sonic details, such as the pen that clicks every time she adds another name to her little black book.

On stage, she performs it on a set inspired by the sci-fi movie Tron, with neon lines and futuristic space bicycles. And, in a nod to the music video, she picks up a golf club which is later used to smash up an (animated) car.

Easter Egg alert: The car is a 1962 Shelby Cobra – a reference to the star’s self-adopted “snake” persona.

The 1989 era continues with chart-topping hit, Blank Space.

The song earned three Grammy nominations when it was released and is featured in the list of top 500 greatest songs of all time...and despite common belief, definitely does not have a lyric about 'Starbucks lovers'.

The energy in Murrayfield shifts into high gear as Swift kicks of the 1989 album era with Style.

The track is about a couple who can never say goodbye because "they never go out of style".

Rumours say the title is in reference to a famous ex of Swift's.

Swift moves on to folk love song, Willow.

Fans in Murrayfield hold their spotlight phones in the air during the song.

It's time for Majorie, a tribute to Swift's grandmother, opera singer Marjorie Finlay.

The lyrics talk about her regret at not knowing her maternal grandmother to the fullest in the way she would have wished, with emotional lyrics: "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were listening to me now. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were still around."

Tumbling into another emotion-baring ballad from Folklore, it’s Illicit Affairs.

The song address infidelity with heartbreaking lyrics: “You taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else.”

It was written with her songwriting collaborator and friend, Jack Antonoff.

Then into another emotional song from the Folklore era, Swift performs My Tears Ricochet.

Image source, PA Media

A beloved song from Folklore and Tik Tok favourite, Swift starts to perform August.

Mark Savage
���˿��� Music correspondent reporting from Murrayfield

This might be my favourite Taylor Swift song – an uncluttered piano ballad about a doomed love affair.

The story is about a woman who spurns her lover on Christmas Eve – turning down a marriage proposal to the shock of their friends and loved ones.

In an essay about the song, Swift said it depicts“longtime college sweethearts[who] had very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring.

”Although it’s entirely fictional, it plays into her long-running narrative about women who face double standards.

Instead of sympathising with the protagonist, her friends turn on her, declaring: "She would've made such a lovely bride / What a shame she's f****d in the head.”

Turning now to Evermore and Champagne Problems.

Mark Savage
���˿��� Music correspondent reporting from Murrayfield

Fans next to me are trading friendship bracelets in the middle of the show.

Introducing Betty, Taylor tells the story of writing Folklore during the pandemic.

“There was so much TV, so much white wine, covered in cat hair. That was my reality. So I thought, ‘I’m going to create an imaginary world and escape into it.

"That was Folklore, and it was probably based online of videos I’ve seen of Scotland.”

To say the crowd went wild would be an understatement.

Mark Savage
���˿��� Music correspondent reporting from Murrayfield

“I’m pretty sure someone just got engaged over here. Did that just happen?”

The crowd roars.

“I don’t normally get to see that because it’s dark,” says Taylor. “Congratulations! That is huge!”

Earlier, while thanking the audience, Taylor said her one regret about her previous tours was not coming to Scotland more.

“Look at what you’ve done. You made us feel so welcome. You’ve been so beautifully generous to us, even before we got here.”

It's been nine years since the megastar was last in Scotland.

Mark Savage
���˿��� Music correspondent reporting from Murrayfield

She lives in a house, a very big house, in the country…

After the bombast of the Reputation era, we pivot to the most contemplative, quiet music of Taylor’s career, drawn from the sister albums Folklore and Evermore.

Conceived and recorded during the pandemic, they discard Swift’s tendency for diaristic writing to focus on folk stories and mythology.

This section will feature the connected song suite of Cardigan, August and Betty – which tell the story of a love triangle from three different perspectives.

In keeping with the intimate, folksy vibe, the set is dressed as a mossy forest scene, with Swift and her band performing from an old-timey country house.

As the Edinburgh crowd 'dance in their Levi's', Swift kicks off the Folklore era with Cardigan.