Pest problems. Piano problems. Taylor Swift had to pause performing over a pair of unexpected, but funny, incidents during her acoustic set in Milan, Italy, on Saturday and Sunday (July 13-14).
“Swallowed another one,” Swift dryly remarked to a loud, supportive audience Saturday night in Milan, accepting her fate when a bug flew into her mouth while on stage for the surprise song section at San Siro Stadium.
The pop icon — no stranger to an unfortunate run-in with a bug on a massive tour that’s made its way to many an outdoor stadium — wasn’t surprised. “I knew it would happen ’cause there’s so many bugs here tonight,” she told the crowd, pausing for a moment and then explaining the protocol: “I just need to cough a little bit.”
She was sitting at the piano, playing a rather sad and angry Red-era mashup of “I Almost Do” and “The Moment I Knew,” when the insect intruder interfered with her art.
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That mashup on the keys on Saturday followed “The 1″/“Wonderland” on acoustic guitar. (“I’ve never done this in the acoustic section before,” Swift revealed of “The 1,” the opener of Folklore. The song used to be on the main Eras Tour set list, but lost its place when Swift reworked the long-running show to include selections from her newest album, the 31-track collection The Tortured Poets Department, which remains the reigning No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a 12th week.)
On Sunday, Swift’s acoustic guitar surprise was a mashup of “Mr. Perfectly Fine” and “Red”; her piano surprise Sunday night was “Getaway Car” with “Out of the Woods,” which she hoped the Milan audience would especially enjoy — but she didn’t get very far with that one before noticing something was not quite right with her piano.
“You know what, we finally broke it. We have finally broken this thing,” quipped Swift while someone from her tech crew swiftly helped fix the issue with the Eras instrument.
The star had trouble closing its top, but celebrated once she got it shut: “I did it!” she squealed, and with a grin got back to “Getaway Car,” starting again with its opening line: “No, nothing good starts in a getaway car.”
In planned surprises from Milan that had fans chatting over the weekend, Swift debuted three Eras Tour costumes: new dresses for her Fearless and Tortured Poets eras of the concert on Saturday, and a new gown for the show’s Speak Now moment on Sunday.
For Fearless, she graced the stage in a shimmering, black-and-gold Roberto Cavalli number (pictured at the top of this article, and in motion in the short concert video below) that was a fun fit for such a big sing-along part of show. The new look calls back to the aesthetic of Swift’s Reputation, fans noticed, feeling a bit Gatsby and art deco in design, and reminding Swifties of this bodysuit from the Rep Tour.
Swift’s new Tortured Poets costume, seen in the image below, is of the same design as her previous one — but with different lyrics wrapped around its skirt. Instead of words from the album’s “Fortnight,” the updated version of the white, corseted Vivienne Westwood dress has lyrics from Swift’s rage-filled “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” “You should be,” it reminds those watching the show.
And on Sunday, Swift performed “Enchanted,” the one Speak Now song that has a permanent place within the Eras set, wearing a new ballgown in a color best described as Speak Now purple. (Check out a fan’s collage of Swift’s sparkly Speak Now gown collection from The Eras Tour.)
See highlights from Swift’s weekend in Milan in the surprise song performance clips below. Next up on the hitmaker’s Europe itinerary, she’ll get to visit Germany, bringing the summer Eras Tour to the cities of Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg and Munich.