Taylor Swift is known for giving everything she has during her sold-out concerts, and her fans send that love right back. But even as the singer cuts through media clutter and speaks directly to her audience, she also occasionally gets tangled in her own promotional machinery.
Not that any of it is her fault; see November’s Ticketmaster debacle as just the latest example. With that in mind, here’s a primer on Swift’s intense, and not-always-positive, relationship with Colorado before her Friday, July 14, and Saturday, July 15, concerts at Empower Field at Mile High.
For more Taylor Swift news and features, including surprise song predictions, a guide to related parties, parking rules, and our review and photos, visit denverpost.com/tag/taylor-swift.
The Fearless Tour (2010)
Swift is a child performer-turned-country-pop sensation who debuted nationally in 2004 when she was only 14 years old. In 2006, she released her self-titled album on Big Machine Records — a label with which she would eventually tangle over ownership of her recording masters.
Around that time she played a few shows in Denver — opening for George Strait at the Pepsi Center on March 3, 2007, as well as headlining The Grizzly Rose on Oct. 26 2007. She was 17 at the time.
It wasn’t until 2010 that Swift took over the Mile High City in a big way to promote her album “Fearless” (2009), behind which promoters had plotted her first large-scale tour. Despite being at the end of a dozens of international dates, Swift sold more than 50,000 tickets to her April 6 and 7 run at the Pepsi Center (now Ball Arena), according to published reports.
The Fearless Tour ended up grossing $63 million overall, Billboard reported, paving the way for more two-night runs in Denver and dozens of other markets.
Here’s what I wrote in my review of the April 6 concert: “Whether thanking fans for her success, repeatedly basking in applause or literally reaching out to the audience for a brief hug or hand-clasp, the pop-country superstar seemed incapable of acting disconnected from her supporters.”
The Speak Now Tour (2011)
Swift’s next Denver stop was on Sept. 27, 2011 — a little over a year after the Fearless run, and one of only six stadium shows initially set for her Speak Now Tour (named after her 2011 album).
Her solitary Pepsi Center concert again came near the end of the tour, but Swift delivered a rousing, sold-out performance that saw her exploring the crowd as fans surrounded her (with security, of course) while playing a wide range of fan-favorites and hits (see setlists at bit.ly/3PSwtJi).
At the time, Swift was already the top-selling artist in digital music history, The Denver Post reported, and “Speak Now” was one of the few records of the era that boasted platinum status (more than a million copies sold) in its first week of sales.
Fun/depressing fact: Tickets to the Speak Now concert in Denver only cost $25 to $69.50.
The Red Tour (2013)
Two years between visits was starting to seem like a long time for Swift fans, but she delivered again on June 2, 2013, when she returned to the Pepsi Center to promote that year’s album, “Red.” Like the rest of her sold-out jaunts, the Red Tour was a spectacle-heavy but heartfelt experience for fans.
“After (the show) at the Pepsi Center Sunday night, it might be tough to settle for bands that walk out onto the stage and just perform,” Denver Post reviewer Kyle Wagner wrote at the time. “Swift, dressed in a flashy circus ringleader costume, paraded around the various stages with her troupe dressed as clowns and stilt-walkers while the air filled with confetti and paper hearts.”
The 1989 Tour (2015)
Swift’s fourth big tour in Denver arrived long after she’d become a multiplatinum, international pop star. But at least this time we were treated to a pair of concerts — instead of the single shows from the two previous tours.
“Eleven of the 15 songs were from Swift’s new album, ‘1989.’ Seemingly everyone in the arena knew each lyric. It is rare for a pop star to come to town of Swift’s magnitude and get away with playing basically her new stuff,” The Denver Post’s Jemery Meyer wrote at the time. The Sept. 5 and 6 concerts at the Pepsi Center were, of course, sold out with minutes of being announced.
The big lawsuits (2017)
During a June 2, 2013, promotional event in Denver, former KYGO radio host David Mueller “intentionally reached under (Swift’s) skirt, and groped with his hand an intimate part of her body in an inappropriate manner, against her will and without her permission,” as her legal team wrote. “Mueller did not merely brush his hand against Ms. Swift while posing for the photograph: he lifted her skirt and groped her.”
That language comes from a counterclaim Swift filed against Mueller after he first brought his own suit against her. His September 2015 filing said he was fired from his job and banned from Swift concerts for life based on false allegations about the Pepsi Center event, The Denver Post reported. His suit claimed that a colleague groped Swift, not him.
That’s what prompted Swift to file her federal claim in October of 2015 accusing Mueller of sexual assault. When the trial finally got underway in Denver’s U.S. District Court in 2017, the story had become internationally known, drawing journalists, Swift and her legal team, and fans from all corners of the country to Colorado.
Swift won her lawsuit in August 2017 and was awarded a symbolic $1. Mueller, who had been seeking $3 million in damages, was also sanctioned by the judge for destroying evidence, in this case a recording of a conversation with his boss related to the incident. Months after the verdict, he had still failed to pay her the $1 she was owed, she said.
Swift issued a statement thanking her attorneys “for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault.” In December 2017, Time Magazine honored Swift as one of the “silence breakers” and named her a Person of the Year.
“I figured that if he would be brazen enough to assault me under these risky circumstances and high stakes, imagine what he might do to a vulnerable, young artist if given the chance,” Swift said in a Time interview.
The Reputation Tour (2018)
Swift’s longest pause between Denver concerts — at least until the pandemic rolled around — spanned the 1989 and Reputation tours, which found her growing out of the Pepsi Center and into the elite environs of the 76,000-seat Empower Field at Mile High (elite in capacity, not sound quality).
The relatively edgy “Reputation” made for a spectacular night of pseudo-goth and reptilian imagery, columns of fire, multi-story inflatable sets, and arguably the biggest overall concert spectacle Denver had ever seen. Staged on May 25, Swift’s 14th concert in Colorado (as she confirmed from the stage) caused one fan to declare: “The old Taylor Swift’s dead. It’s a whole new Taylor Swift!”
I’m not exaggerating when I say it was one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had. The flawless performances and complex production, the clever ways in which audience members got directly involved (think LED bracelets), and the positive, fizzy vibe in the stadium was transcendent.
Here’s what I wrote in my review. “No matter what people paid for Swift’s alternately gracious and bombastic performance, they likely got their money’s worth. And then some.”
The Eras Tour
That brings us up to the present and Swift’s July 14 and 15 concerts at Empower Field. Ticketmaster’s Swift pre-sale debacle last fall has reportedly pulled in a few Denverites for a class-action lawsuit that may eventually grow to more than 100 complainants. (Ticketmaster France this week also suspended sales for her shows over there following a frozen website.)
That likely won’t be top-of-mind for most fans this weekend, who want only to commune (in person, at a distance, or virtually) with their hero. We’ll be live Tweeting and Instagramming the concert this weekend, as well as running a review and photos, so be sure to follow denverpost.com/things-to-do/music and our socials.
Still need to prepare? As noted, we’ve got dozens of Taylor Swift reviews, features and news reports going back more than a decade, but also surprise song predictions for this weekend, a guide to related parties, stadium rules and more at denverpost.com/tag/taylor-swift.
