The Last Surprise Songs On The Eras Tour: Taylor Swift Says Goodbye?
The Surprise Song/Acoustic section of the Eras Tour quickly became an obsession for Swifties. We love trying to guess what songs Taylor will play and even when we are wrong, we always win. So clown with me on this topic: what might Taylor Swift’s last surprise songs on the Eras Tour be?
Table of Contents
What’s a Surprise Song?
The surprise songs are played every night during an acoustic set. She typically plays a set of songs on the guitar and then sits down at the piano for a 2nd set of songs.
Concertgoers do not know in advance which songs they will pick, which is where the surprise of it all comes in. Initially, she sang one full song for each instrument.
During the 2nd leg of the tour, she decided to do mashups of songs, and this is where things got wild. She combines 2-3 songs into one. New stories were created from her old works, and WE ARE OBSESSED.
Taylor Swift’s Fandoms Interpret Surprise Songs Each Night
Here’s the fun part- Swifties being Swifties. Each subgroup will put their own interpretation and spin on the lyrics Taylor sings on stage.
If you aren’t aware, there are different sects of fans. Here’s a list of the fandoms that tend to dominate social media.
- Normal Swifties- I call these the casuals or normies. Normal Swifties are people who just love the songs, love the concert, and adore Taylor as an artist. They usually don’t look too deep at lyrics or social media. I’d say the vast majority of Taylor’s fandom are normies.
- Tayvis Stans- Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce shippers. This group of people probably started as Normies but fell in love with the fairytale that is Taylor and Travis and have made it their whole identity. Since this is her public relationship, they are fed a constant content diet. This also makes it easy to read any surprise song as a song for Travis Kelce.
- Gaylors- this is probably the next largest section of fans. Gaylors range from those that identify as queer and enjoy listening to Taylor through a queer lens to the other end of the spectrum that believes Taylor herself is queer and is about to come out publicly any minute. Most believe that every male relationship Taylor has been in is either a bearding relationship (to hide her queer life) or a contractually obligated Public Relations relationship. The Gaylors as a group honestly put in the work; they are the most educated lyrically and are excellent easter egg hunters. Generally, Gaylors think Taylor has either an unnamed secret muse or a longtime love affair with her friends Karlie Kloss or Zoe Kravitz or Dianna Aragon. Gaylors are constantly saying that Taylor is being SO LOUD in her queer flagging via outfits and surprise songs. Are they onto something? The hangup here is that Taylor has publicly and repeatedly said she is an ally, not a community member.
- Haylors- these are the folks that ship Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. As a reminder, these two dated for a couple of months when they were both essentially kids. But Haylors are ever hopeful that they will find their way back together. I gotta say, this one is the biggest stretch for me to understand. Harry and Taylor seem friendly, but I don’t get any vibes that they are making their way back to each other. Even when Taylor sings a “Harry coded” song, I don’t see this as calling out to him in real time. But who knows?
- Joe Widows- stans of the Joe and Taylor relationship. Over the course of 6 years, you’d expect that Joe Alwyn would influence a lot of Taylor’s catalog. The fans who desperately wish they would get back together often think that Taylor singing a “Joe song” means she misses him. The following group of fans disagree that Joe has been the main muse, however. Read on.
- Maylors or Tattys- these are the fans that believe Matty Healy is the loml of Taylor Swift. And as far as surprise songs go, every song essentially can be a Matty song. Maylors will point out the Matty of it all if you just ask. Healy, the lead singer of The 1975, dated Taylor publicly for about two months in the summer of 2023. However, a long intersection of songs and personal relationships could indicate this was a much longer relationship. Some Maylors think they met on MySpace in 2009-ish, but most Maylors accept the public story that they met in 2014. Interestingly, the Gaylor theories often align with Maylor theories. Insert Matty into any Gaylor theory and there you go. The Maylors are a pretty small subset of Swifties, but if some secret coding message is shared through surprise songs, it would most likely be about this relationship if you know the lore. You just have to ignore that Matty is currently engaged to model Gabbriette and that Travis Kelce exists.
- Performance Artlors- these fans can be a subset of any of the above. Their pov is that Taylor is putting on an elaborate performance art piece via The Eras Tour. That’s right: none of what we see is real, including her relationships. She’s potentially setting up a story that will be revealed at the end of the tour, explaining some part of her private life publicly for the first time.
Phew, right? That’s a lot of people taking some songs and interpreting them to fit their narrative.
Totally parasocial behavior, yes, but I’d say most of it is relatively harmless as long as they aren’t demanding Taylor respond to them. But the fact that these sects exist might be the reason that Taylor could be planning an extended period of time away from the public.
So What Will The Last Eras Tour Surprise Songs Be?
Now that we’ve broken down the fandoms, we can discuss potential mashups for the last surprise songs.
Depending on the group you identify with above, you’ll have opinions on what Taylor’s parting message may be.
One group that’s not being talked about a lot is the fans who feel Taylor is saying goodbye to us through the Eras Tour. They suspect that she’s been using the surprise songs to give a warning to the fans that after this tour, we may not see her much in public for a while.
Bleak, right?
It’s one of the theories I feel makes sense.
This seems to be a long and emotional time for her, spanning almost 2 years. It has to be exhausting. It shouldn’t be surprising to fans paying attention if she does decide to make a public announcement declaring a mini-retirement of sorts.
Don’t panic; I don’t believe she’d stop creating during this time. She just may not tour or be publicly seen much.
If her personal life plays into this choice, she could be planning for any of the endgames mentioned above. Or something we know nothing about. It would be refreshing if she could keep her private life private.
If Taylor wants to leave the public stage for an extended period, I submit three songs that could be mashed up in some fashion to say goodbye. I’m not musical so I can’t swear that the songs would easily flow together; I just went by lyrics that might tell the story she wants to share.
Dear Reader x The Lucky One x The Manuscript As The Last Surprise Songs Mashup
Dear reader, if it feels like a trap
You’re already in one
Dear reader, get out your map
Pick somewhere and just run
Dear reader, burn all the files
Desert all your past lives
And if you don’t recognize yourself
That means you did it right
Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart
Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart (You should find another)
Dear reader, bend when you can
Snap when you have to
Dear reader, you don’t have to answer
Just ’cause they asked you
(You should find another)
Dear reader, the greatest of luxuries is your secrets
Dear reader, when you aim at the devil
Make sure you don’t miss
Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart
Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart
Now, it’s big black cars and Riviera views
And your lover in the foyer doesn’t even know you
And your secrets end up splashed on the news front page
And they tell you that you’re lucky, but you’re so confused
‘Cause you don’t feel pretty, you just feel used
And all the young things line up to take your place
It was a few years later, I showed up here
And they still tell the legend of how you disappeared
How you took the money and your dignity and got the hell out
They say you bought a bunch of land somewhere
Chose the rose garden over Madison Square
And it took some time, but I understand it now
‘Cause now, my name is up in lights
But I think you got it right
So I wander through these nights
I prefer hiding in plain sight
My fourth drink in my hand
These desperate prayers of a cursed man
Spilling out to you for free
But darling, darling, please
You wouldn’t take my word for it if you knew who was talking
If you knew where I was walking
To a house, not a home, all alone ’cause nobody’s there
Where I pace in my pen and my friends found friends who care
No one sees when you lose when you’re playing solitaire
Let me tell you now, you’re the lucky one
Let me tell you now, you’re the lucky one
Let me tell you now, you’re the lucky one, oh, oh, oh
And the years passed like scenes of a show
The professor said to write what you know
Lookin’ backwards might be the only way to move forward
Then the actors were hitting their marks
And the slow dance was alight with the sparks
And the tears fell in synchronicity with the score
And at last, she knew what the agony had been for
Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart
Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart
And they’ll tell you now, you’re the lucky one
Yeah, they’ll tell you now, you’re the lucky one
And they’ll tell you now, you’re the lucky one, oh, oh, oh
Oh, whoa, oh, oh
Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart
And they’ll tell you now, you’re the lucky one, oh, oh, oh
Oh, whoa, oh, oh
The only thing that’s left is the manuscript
One last souvenir from my trip to your shores
Now and then, I reread the manuscript
But the story isn’t mine anymore
What do you think will be the last surprise songs of The Eras Tour?
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Patty Holliday is a parent movie reviewer, writer, and podcaster living in the Washington, DC area. Her goal is to bridge the gap between casual fandom and picky critic with parent movie and television reviews. As a lifelong fangirl and pop culture connoisseur, she’s been creating online since 2009. You can find her work at No-Guilt Disney.com, No-Guilt Fangirl.com, No-Guilt Life, and as host of the top-rated No-Guilt Disney Podcast.