Easter Eggs Fans Have Spotted During Taylor Swift's Eras Tour
For Taylor Swift fans, hunting for Easter eggs has become second nature. In fact, as the pop star herself admitted during a 2022 appearance on "The Tonight Show," she puts a lot of effort into dropping tiny hints for her fans in practically everything she does. "It's sort of a tradition that we started a very long time ago," Swift told Jimmy Fallon of her obsession with Easter eggs, adding that it "got out of control" when her fans started obsessing about her clues, too. "Then I couldn't stop," she confessed. "And then all I started thinking of was how do I hint at things, like, how far is too far in advance?"
Apparently, she's now dropping hints up to three years in advance. Naturally, her epic Eras Tour is no exception — and fans have already noticed a few potential Easter eggs that the singer has worked into the show. In case you're still in doubt as to whether Swift really is a mastermind, let's take a look at all of the clues in the Eras tour so far.
When she burned down the Lover house
One of the first major Easter eggs that Taylor Swift fans spotted on her 2023 Eras Tour involved the "Lover" house burning down. First, a little backstory. In Swift's 2019 album, "Lover," the music video for the titular song features a life-size dollhouse filled with different colored rooms. The song is widely known to be about Joe Alwyn, who Swift dated from 2017 until 2023. The song is all about Swift and Alwyn's cozy, comfortable relationship — and for Swift's fans, the "Lover" house became a symbol of their happy relationship.
So, fans were a little startled when Swift's show included footage of the "Lover" house quite literally going down in flames during the song, "Bad Blood." Swift's Eras Tour began in March 2023 — and less than a month later, on April 8, fans got their answer about the cryptic burning "Lover" house when Swift and Alwyn split. Could this bit of production design be a hint about the breakup? It certainly seems that way!
When she wore cryptic Red era t-shirts
Another potential Easter egg that caught fans' attention came in the form of Taylor Swift's t-shirt that she wears during the "Red" era of her tour. Throughout the run, Swift has been wearing different shirts with phrases that nod to her "Red" album, including one that reads, "A lot going on at the moment," and another, "Who's Taylor Swift Anyway? Ew."
According to some fans, the red letters on the t-shirts might be part of a hidden code. One fan explained on TikTok that she "began to notice red words on her costumes, girl's trying to tell us something." The fan then spent two days trying to decipher the code. "Taylor loves hiding things in words," she went on, adding that, so far, the red letters on her shirts could spell out the words, "Speak Now Taylor's Version," thus serving as an Easter egg for her next re-release.
Swift later wore yet another shirt with the words, "We are never getting back together. Like, ever," with the words "never" and "ever" highlighted in red — and lo and behold, those letters fit into the code, too. Swift has since announced that, yes, "Speak Now" will be the next album from her catalog that she will release, so it seems like this Easter egg was real!
When Taylor kept the Speak Now era Taylor in her box
It seems that Taylor Swift's red-lettered t-shirts weren't her only "Speak Now" clues. During her Eras show, there is one sequence that involves all of the various Taylors from previous eras trapped in glass boxes as Swift performs in front of them. Some fans noticed that one specific era got a little more attention than the others.
As one fan noted on TikTok, the real Swift spends a little bit of time with the "Speak Now" era Taylor as she desperately tries to get out. "What if this is Taylor trying to break out 'Speak Now' so she can own it again?" another fan commented on the video. Other fans also thought the moment was a little clue. "Not enough of us talk [about] how the Speak Now Taylor was banging on the box screaming help me," wrote a fan on Twitter. "Has anyone else noticed that during ['Look What You Made Me Do'], Taylor goes over to the Speak Now girl and knocked on the box, and has the most interactions with that trapped era?! Like, she did it last night AND tonight!? IS THIS A SIGN SPEAK NOW TV IS NEXT," wrote another. It's now pretty safe to say that these fans were onto something!
When she swapped out Invisible String for The One
Shortly before Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn's break up was announced, the multiple Grammy Award-winning songwriter made a rare swap in her set list, replacing the song "Invisible String" with "The One." Some fans thought the switch was a delicate Easter egg pre-empting the announcement.
"During her March 31st concert in Arlington, Texas, Taylor supposedly swapped her song 'Invisible String,' which is believed to be a love letter to Alwyn, with 'The One,' a song about ex-lovers," a fan explained on BuzzFeed's TikTok channel. This fan went on to explain that some fans thought that the switch was a way for Swift to warn fans about the impending news. "People are believing she did to almost like prepare her fans for the reported break up," the fan said.
After the news dropped, fans used the song switch as proof that the breakup was real. "In her last show she replaced 'Invisible String' with 'The One'... this is real," wrote one on Twitter. "Changing out 'Invisible String' for 'The One' was a soft launch," another fan noted. It sounds like Swift did use her set list as a subtle hint at her personal news.
When the audience bracelets turned purple in Atlanta
During Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, every audience member is given a bracelet that lights up in time with the music and creates light and color patterns throughout the audience. On April 14, 2023, the bracelets simultaneously glowed purple three times at the end of the Tampa show. Another fan captured the glowing bracelets after the Atlanta show. One fan even posted a video of her bracelet on TikTok, captioning the clip, "My Eras Tour bracelet is still only flashing purple from yesterday."
Another fan took to TikTok to explain her theory that the flashing bracelets were a sign of Swift's rumored upcoming re-release of "Speak Now." "Not only did Taylor Nation [an official Swift account] retweet the fact that the bracelets turned purple after the show in Atlanta," she said. "They then closed out the night by saying, 'We're wonderstruck, blushing all the way home after tonight.' Is 'Speak Now' coming soon, what do you guys think?" Wonderstruck was a "Speak Now" era Swift perfume, while "blushing all the way home" is a lyric from Swift's "Speak Now" era song, "Enchanted."
When Taylor dropped some Speak Now hints in Tampa
As if Swifties needed any more hints about the "Speak Now" album, the singer continued dropping little Easter eggs for fans throughout her tour. During the Tampa leg of the tour, Swift even made a few cryptic comments that seemed to reference her 2010 album. "I've been thinking a lot about one of my albums," the singer said on the second night in Tampa, per Edinburgh News. "Recently one of my albums has been on my mind a lot. Lots going on in my brain about it." She then proceeded to launch into the title song from "Speak Now." Seems like a pretty clear hint if you ask us.
As Edinburgh News noted, there were a few other hints during her Tampa shows. She sang another "Speak Now" song, "Mean," and even included a projection of the image of the "Speak Now" hands. For one fan, it was actually one too many Easter eggs. "So at what point is enough enough?" he asked on TikTok, adding, "Why does everything have to be a 'Speak Now (Taylor's Version)' Easter egg? Please, help, help!"
When Taylor did the viral Bejeweled TikTok dance
Over the years, Taylor Swift has admitted that she likes to keep an eye on what her fans are up to online. Way back in 2015, Swift confessed during an appearance on "The Graham Norton Show" that she sometimes watched fans on social media. So, it should hardly have come as a surprise when, during her Eras Tour, she included a little nod to her fandom on TikTok. During her performance of "Bejeweled," the singer included a dance move that was made popular by Mikael Arellano on TikTok. Naturally, when she first did the move, fans screeched in delight. "I near lost it when she did it," one fan wrote on TikTok after the show.
"I had never made a dance on my own," Arellano told Rolling Stone of the dance move. "When the 'Bejeweled' dance began to take off I was like 'Oh my God!' It felt like a dream when people started to do my dance." We're willing to bet that after Swift borrowed his move, he was blown away.
Taylor's manicure is a subtle nod to her discography
Taylor Swift is the queen of subtle hints — in fact, one of her Eras Easter eggs was so small, you might have missed it unless you were looking closely. For her tour, the singer painted her nails in an array of different colors. The look soon came to be known as the Eras manicure. Why? Because the colors actually referenced each of Swift's individual musical eras.
Swift posted a close-up image of the manicure on Instagram in March 2023 and fans quickly tried to figure out what it meant. "I saw this picture and I immediately knew that Taylor was trying to tell us something with this picture because it feels out of place and doesn't really match the other ones," noted a fan on TikTok. She then explained how each nail color represented a different era and then suggested that the two hearts on the "Lover" nail might hint at the fact that Swift could release two unreleased songs from "Lover" — however, this sadly never happened.
When she seemed to speak to Matty Healy from the stage
Shortly after her break up with Joe Alwyn was announced, rumors began to spread in early May that Taylor Swift was dating the frontman of U.K. band, The 1975, Matty Healy. This was later confirmed when the pair were spotted at lunch together. Some fans also spotted a quick moment during the Eras Tour that seemed to confirm the budding relationship.
During Swift's show in Nashville on May 5, the singer appeared to mouth the words, "This is about you, you know who you are. I love you," while singing the song "Cardigan." Healy was later confirmed to be in the audience. Fans discovered that Healy had mouthed the exact same phrase just days earlier during a show of his own, and some fans were convinced that the pair were sending each other secret messages from the stage, confirming their relationship. However, others guessed that the messages were a sign of an upcoming collaboration.
When she made this telling comment before singing Question...?
Fans spotted another potential Easter egg referencing Taylor Swift's rumored new relationship with Matty Healy during her show in Foxborough, Massachusetts. While introducing the song, "Question... ?," which she sang as one of her surprise songs of the evening, Swift hinted at how her new relationship was going.
"I kind of just feel like telling you, like, I don't know, I just — I've just never been this happy in my life, in all aspects of my life ever before," she said on stage (via TikTok). "And I just want to thank you for being a part of that, like, you know, I don't know. It's not just the tour. It's like, I don't know, I just feel like my life finally feels like it makes sense. So, I thought I'd play this song, which brings me a lot of really happy memories."
Naturally, many fans assumed that by "all aspects of her life," she was referring to her relationship. Some fans even hypothesized that the song that she performed, "Question...?," might actually be about Healy.
Fans spotted a snake in the lights during Look What You Made Me Do
As a Taylor Swift fan, you definitely have to keep your eyes peeled if you don't want to miss any Easter eggs. As one fan noted in a clip from the tour, the lights in the crowd actually appear to imitate a snake making its way through the crowd while Swift sings "Look What You Made Me Do." The snake was famously one of Swift's symbols during her "Reputation" era.
"I watched this so many times before I spotted the SNAKE in the lights in the crowd," the fan wrote on their video, adding in the video title, "Production design on the Eras Tour is UNMATCHED." Added another fan in the comment section, "For those confused about the snake, it's all the bracelets that everyone's wearing to make that animation." We have to say, we're pretty impressed by this little Easter egg!
Taylor has made some pointed gestures at the Lover era girl
During one of Taylor Swift's stops on her tour, she appeared to make a pointed gesture that got fans talking. During her performance of "Look What You Made Me Do," Swift approached the dancer dressed as the "Lover" era Taylor and quickly flashed her a loser sign. Because the singer doesn't usually mock the other Taylors, many fans thought this gesture was a reference to her relationship with Joe Alwyn (which had inspired the "Lover" album).
"She is angry and petty tonight! ( and we love it)," one fan posted on Twitter. Another wrote, "What do we think actually happened with Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn because at first I thought it was mutual but now I'm seeing she's taking her friends out one by one in NYC and after they all unfollowed him on instagram and she basically called 'Lover' a loser last night." The consensus seemed to be that Swift's loser gesture was a sign that, in hindsight, she saw her past self as a loser for loving Alwyn — yikes!
When her piano became haunted
During the Massachusetts leg of the tour, Taylor Swift played one show during a massive rainstorm. The next evening, she discovered that the piano had become damaged by the water and began playing notes by itself. In a video captured by a fan, Swift appeared shocked by the random notes on the piano. "I'm just going to do another song on the guitar, that's insane," she said to the crowd. Swift went on to say, "This has clearly broken my keyboard, 'cause it was like literally underwater ... I didn't know how any of the instruments were working last night. So, this is broken. I'm just gonna get the guitar. It's gonna be fine."
While Swift explained that the piano was playing notes because of water damage, some fans were skeptical and were convinced that the piano was an Easter egg. Many concluded that Swift had set up the piano to be "haunted" just like the "Speak Now" song. "Haunted piano as a 'Speak Now TV easter egg," wrote one fan. "Imagine Taylor's piano 'messing up' being a easter egg for 'Haunted TV,'" another wrote. We'll just have to wait and see!