Taylor Swift has had a very big year.

Her career spanning Aera's tour is on pace to become the biggest and most lucrative concert tour in history and the subsequent

concert film set box office records. She re-released two of her most beloved albums. She's been streamed

on Spotify globally more than any other artist this year, was named

Time Magazine's Person of the Year, and she hard-launched her relationship with football player

Travis Kelsey. Needless to say, she was very present in our pop culture lives in

2023. Today, in honor of her birthday, Taylor Swift is releasing the era's tour concert film digitally to watch at home.

So we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our conversation about what made the tour

such a juggernaut.

I'm Stephen Thompson and today in this encore episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour,

we are talking about the Erres Tour. Joining me today is NPR Senior Editor Bilal Kereci, hey Bilal.

Hey Stephen.

Also with us, Margaret H. Willison, Communications Manager of Not Sorry Productions.

Hey Margaret.

Hi Stephen.

And rounding out our panel, Jordan Cruciola, she's a writer and producer and the host of

the podcast, Feeling Scene on Maximum fun. Hey Jordan.

And Swiftie, hello, thank you so much for having me.

Yes, your credentials also include Swiftie.

So there are lots of different metrics I could use to make a simple point. The Ara's tour is very big and it has already been very lucrative.

Taylor Swift toured the US and Latin America and she's got nearly a hundred more shows planned for all over the world

running well into next year. By the time it wraps up it'll almost certainly be the biggest

...