Taylor Swift thinks this Eras Tour audience member looks like Stevie Nicks — because it was her!
Swift, 34, dedicated and sang “Clara Bow” from The Tortured Poets Department album to the Fleetwood Mac legend during the surprise songs segment of the third Eras Tour show in Dublin on Sunday, June 30.
In “Clara Bow,” the 14-time Grammy winner name-checks Nicks, 76, as an It Girl of her time, much like Clara Bow was in the 1920s: “You look like Stevie Nicks, in ’75, the hair and lips,” Swift sang at Aviva Stadium. “Crowd goes wild at her fingertips, half moonshine, a full eclipse.”
Before performing the song, Swift teased the surprise performance.
“She’s a hero of mine and also someone that I can tell her any secret and she’d never tell anybody,” Swift said. “She’s really helped me through so much over the years. I’m talking about Stevie Nicks.”
During the performance, Swift sang how she thinks she “might die if I made it” big in Los Angeles, much like Nicks joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975.
Swift mashed up “Clara Bow” with “The Lucky One” from Red, then finished her surprise song set with Midnights track “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” which Nicks said helped her grieve after the death of Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie in November 2022.
Notably, Nicks previously wrote a poem in August 2023 that made it into The Tortured Poets Department album’s written prologue, proving Swift and Nicks’ connection goes deeper than the “Clara Bow” mention.
Swift received a warm welcome upon arriving in Dublin for her June 28-30 shows, and not only from her hordes of adoring fans, but from one of the biggest musical groups to come out of Ireland — U2.
“Welcome back to our hometown… leave some of it standing?!!!!” the iconic Irish band said in a handwritten note sent to Swift, as documented in her Instagram Stories on Friday, June 28.
The card, which came with a floral arrangement, was signed by Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. “Already feeling that Irish hospitality!! @U2 thanks for always being the classiest & the coolest,” she wrote in text added to the social media post.
The star-studded appearances didn’t stop there in Ireland this weekend. Travis Kelce and Julia Roberts were also in attendance at the June 30 concert, seen chatting together in the VIP tent.
Kelce, 34, went the distance traveling from a wedding in California the night before to see Swift perform.
Kelce has previously attended Eras Tour shows in Kansas City, Buenos Aires, Sydney, Singapore, and London, becoming a fixture in the crowd supporting his girlfriend.
Swift also received a special visit from her Kansas City Chiefs boyfriend while onstage during her European leg.
On June 23, Kelce made his Eras debut as a performer when he surprised fans during the pop star’s London show. The pair, who went public with their romance in October 2023, coordinated in tuxedo and top hat looks for the Wembley Stadium show.
She said she was “still cracking up/swooning over @killatrav’s Eras Tour debut 🥰” on June 24 following his appearance for the “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” skit, where he carried her onto a red couch to change costumes.
Kelce also danced and playfully dusted Swift’s face with a makeup brush while grinning ear to ear during his onstage appearance.
Swift’s next three shows following Dublin will be in Amsterdam in early July.
Swift performed the song that mentions the Fleetwood Mac star while Nicks watched. “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” a song that’s personal to Nicks, was also part of Swift’s set.
Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks reunited in Dublin on Sunday (June 30), with The Eras Tour headliner dedicating the night’s acoustic section to the iconic Fleetwood Mac singer.
With Nicks in attendance, it was the perfect occasion for Swift to perform The Tortured Poets Department‘s “Clara Bow” live for the first time ever; she names Nicks on the second verse of “Clara Bow,” singing: “You look like Stevie Nicks/ In ’75, the hair and lips/ Crowd goes wild at her fingertips/ Half moonshine, a full eclipse.”
“I’ve never played this song live at all,” Swift noted before “Clara Bow,” which was one of two acoustic performances at her Aviva Stadium concert Sunday, her third date in Ireland.
“The reason I want to play this tonight is because a friend of mine is here who is watching the show,” Swift hinted. She praised this friend for paving the way for her, saying she’s “one of the reasons why I get to do what I get to do” — and that she’s been a guiding hand to many other female artists.
Added Swift, “She’s a hero of mine. I could tell her any secret; she’d never tell anybody.”
“I’m talking about Stevie Nicks,” Swift announced, leading the audience in a massive round of applause.
Playing on guitar, Swift worked lyrics from “The Lucky One” — her 2012 Red song with a theme that parallels that of “Clara Bow” — into the live debut of “Clara Bow” during her surprise song set.
Swift then played “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” from her 2022 Midnights album, on piano. At Sunday’s show, there was an unsaid reason for her choice of song: it has personal meaning to Nicks.
In May 2023, Nicks expressed her gratitude to Swift for writing the song, as it’s helped her in grieving the late Christine McVie, Nicks’ dear friend and bandmate who passed away in November 2022. “Thank you to Taylor Swift for doing a favor for me, and that is writing a song called ‘You’re on Your Own, Kid.’ That is the sadness of how I feel,” she said on stage last year.
“Never an argument in our entire 47 years,” Nicks said of her deep connection with McVie. “The two of us were on our own, kids. We always were. And now, I’m having to learn to be on my own, kid, by myself. You helped me to do that. Thank you.”
The rock icon was first spotted by fans in the Dublin stadium earlier at Swift’s show on Sunday, walking to and from the VIP tent that’s set up for Swift’s guests.
Nicks, in town for her own tour (with a date in Dublin on July 3), is directly connected to Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, which rules at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a 10th consecutive week. The singer-songwriter penned a poem “for T — and me…” that appeared on the album art for physical copies of the set, Swift’s 11th studio album.
The poem, in part, reads: “She looked back from her future/ And shed a few tears/ He looked into his past/ And actually felt fear/ For both of them/ The answers — would never be/ Everclear/ Don’t ask questions now/ Do that later/ She brings joy/ He brings Shakespeare/ It’s almost a tragedy/ Says she/ Don’t endanger me/ Don’t endanger me.”
In the next stanza, Nicks writes: “He really can’t answer her/ He’s afraid of her/ He’s hiding from her/ And he knows — that he’s hurting her.”
More than 14 years ago, at the 2010 Grammy Awards, Swift and Nicks sang a medley of Fleetwood Mac’s 1976 hit “Rhiannon” (which Nicks wrote) and Swift’s 2009 hit “You Belong With Me.”
Source: People, Billboard
