“So it goes ‘New Year’s Day’ verse and chorus, ‘Manuscript’ bridge into ‘Long Live’ bridge, into the down verse of ‘Long Live,’ into ‘Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you,’ into ‘Long Live’ chorus but slowed down to half time, ‘New Year’s Day’ chords underneath it, into the last verse of ‘The Manuscript,’” Swift rattles off in the trailer’s final clip as her mother watches with a stunned expression that may be one of horror or one of admiration, but is probably both.
After a beat, Andrea says, “That’s complicated,” not even bothering to remove her balled-up fist from where it’s resting on her chin as she listens to her daughter’s grand plan for the supersized surprise song mash-up that she performed for the final night of the tour in Vancouver on December 8, 2024.
An incredibly successful artist, Swift occupies a singular position in our cultural consciousness, with her work and very life drawing just as much public criticism as they do fervent fan adoration. She’s incredibly private about her personal life—remember the rumor that she left her apartment building in a gigantic suitcase so as not to be photographed outside? I sure do!—while sharing other experiences and feelings in painstaking detail, whether through her song lyrics and letters or documentaries and interviews. Consider that she spent nearly two hours chatting with then boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce, on their New Heights podcast in August—sharing not only the title, cover art, and release date for her newest album, The Life of a Showgirl, but also Travis’s dream pet, a “really specific type of otter.” (In short: a wild one he rescues, thus earning its unending devotion.)
After the recording, later in the day, Travis proposed to her. A few short weeks later, she shared that too.
All of this is to say that just when it seems like Swift has shown all her cards and there’s nothing left to reveal, the singer produces yet more compelling work. The original Eras Tour concert film had its theatrical run extended, then extended again, and you’d think, perhaps, that the appetite for a three-plus-hour filmed show would be sated, but here comes The Eras Tour | The Final Show, another full-length filmed concert, this one including the Tortured Poets Department set that Swift added to the tour after that album’s release. The new concert film will be released on December 12 on Disney+, as will the first two of episodes of the six-installment docuseries, just in time for Swift’s 36th birthday on December 13.