What Taylor Swift’s opening artists have said about The Eras Tour

If you’ve been on the internet at all in the last couple of months, you probably know that Taylor Swift’s 52-show U.S. leg of The Eras Tour is happening right now, and in each city, Swift is bringing up-and-coming artists along for the ride.

Each show has two opening acts featuring artists on the rise like Girl In Red, Gracie Abrams and Owenn — nine artists in the U.S, one for her Latin America shows.

Here’s what her opening artists have said about Swift and the experience of joining her on tour.

1. Phoebe Bridgers

Swift and Phoebe Bridgers collaborated on the song “Nothing New” that Swift released in November 2021. Bridgers has been a fan since she tried to learn one of her songs as a teenager and “just started listening all the time,” she said on Charli XCX’s “Best Song Ever” podcast, per Billboard.

“It’s high art,” Bridgers said. “She’s like the king of her craft. She’s just a perfect example of someone who uses all the resources at her disposal to be completely genuine.”

For “Nothing New,” the themes center around two female artists — one of which is older and feels like they are aging out of the industry and is wishing the best to the younger one — much like Swift and Bridgers, who have a five-year age gap and both rose to fame in their youth.

“I can’t imagine getting to sing on a cooler project,” Bridgers said. “I connect with that song so much. It’s a masterpiece.”

2. Hayley Williams

Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams opened for Swift’s first shows in Glendale, Arizona, and is now on a tour of her own with Paramore. Swift recently announced that Williams is one of only two collaborators for the re-release of her 2010 album “Speak Now,” which comes out July 7.

Williams mentioned Swift in an Instagram post after the announcement, saying, “Taylor was the first industry friend I ever made and hung out with outside of work things. When Speak Now dropped, I bought my friend’s record (as you do!) and listened to the whole thing in my first car, sitting still in the driveway. It’s my favorite Taylor Swift album for so many reasons.”

3. Beabadoobee

Beatrice Kristi Laus, known as Beabadoobee, is a 22-year-old singer-songwriter who experienced viral success from early EPs, especially “death bed (coffee for your head)” — a song that went viral as a sound on TikTok. She started out opening Swift’s shows in Las Vegas, but has now wrapped her shows on The Eras Tour.

She expressed appreciation for the opportunity in a recent People interview.

“It didn’t feel real,” she told People. “Imagine someone that you’ve listened to growing up and almost shaped your childhood being like, ‘This for young Bea.’ ... She’s just so awesome. ... It’s just mental that someone I’m a massive fan of appreciates my music as much.”

4. girl in red

Marie Ulven, the artist behind girl in red, is one of many songwriters who have cited Swift as their “primary influence,” she told Teen Vogue. She also mentioned that she’s a fan of Conan Gray and Olivia Rodrigo and told Teen Vogue that she can hear Swift’s influence in their work.

“I feel like I can hear that in both Conan and Olivia’s songwriting, that there’s this melodic and rhythmic and lyric thing that just feels so available and so easy to the ears,” Ulven told Teen Vogue. “It’s just really great songwriting.”

In 2021, Swift put a shoutout for girl in red’s album in her Instagram stories, calling it “spectacular.”

“i will never be able to recover from taylor swift saying my album is spectacular,” girl in red tweeted.

5. Muna

When MUNA made their Eras tour debut in Arlington, Texas, Swift praised the pop band of three during her set, saying, “They’re a band I love so much. They’re honestly all over every playlist of mine and I’m so happy they joined us tonight because they’re fantastic and they absolutely killed it,” per NME.

Prior to going onstage, the trio tweeted jokingly, casually mentioning the show, saying, “feeling normal about playing totally normal show tonight. we do this kind of thing all the time so it’s really quite casual in fact.”

In an interview with Variety, they also expressed gratitude for the opportunity.

“Obviously, Taylor’s been around for such a long time and definitely, we all have memories from back in the day of when certain albums came out,” Naomi McPherson told Variety.

“I cried so much over my high school boyfriend listening to that song ‘Last Kiss,’” Katie Gavin told Variety. “... Anyway, it was important for me to grow up with a woman who was writing about her own experiences and thinking that her own story was important enough to share.”

6. Haim

The Haim sisters are personal friends of Swift, and this is not the first time they will be joining her. They appeared in the opening of her music video “Bejeweled,” and have collaborated on Swift’s “No Body, No Crime,” as well as Haim’s “Gasoline.”

When talking to Elle UK, the sisters praised Swift’s impeccable work ethic.

“Seeing how hard she works is insane,” Danielle Haim told Elle UK. She added, “She never complains. She’s the most incredible performer, and so inspiring as a friend.”

“She loves what she does,” Este Haim told Elle UK. “We’d play a show and she would just want to hang out after.”

“When we met, it was ‘game over’ — we just connected on so many levels,” Alana Haim told Elle UK. “We have the same musical tastes. It just kind of clicks. As friendships do.”

7. Gayle

The 18-year-old musical sensation Taylor Gayle Rutherford, or her musician name “Gayle,” is opening for Swift, who Teen Vogue says is “her musical idol.” She also told Teen Vogue that Swift was her inspiration to start playing guitar in the first place.

She got the opportunity to meet Swift in person in 2022 backstage at the Nashville Songwriter Association International, and she told Teen Vogue that she gushed to Swift: “You’re amazing, queen. Thank you for existing. You’re really great.’”

8. Gracie Abrams

Gracie Abrams is on her way to becoming one of the queens of sad girl music, and she has mentioned Swift as a major influence in her life and songwriting.

She told Teen Vogue that going onstage for the first time on the tour was “madness” and said she has to look at the audience members closest to her to stay grounded performing in front of such a large crowd.

“Otherwise I think I would only be able to think about how I’m playing on the same stage as my favorite artist in the world, and she’s granting me that opportunity, and how did life get from being 10 years old and crying to her music in my room to being on this stage and celebrating her career in this way?” she told Teen Vogue.

Swift even dedicated one of the two surprise songs she sings at each show to Abrams, saying she knew Abrams was hoping she would get to hear her perform “Clean” from her “1989” album.

“That song has been kind of a constant security blanket since it came out,” Abrams told Teen Vogue. “I have so many little memories listening to that song at times when I needed it. To hear her so thoughtfully dedicate it, I was like, ‘I could die now and be totally thrilled.’”

9. Owenn

Christian Owen, who goes by artist name “Owenn,” first started working with Swift as a professional backup dancer for her “1989” and “Reputation” tours. In 2019, Owenn appeared as her lover in her music video for “Lover,” and during filming, he showed her some of his music. He told iHeartRadio that after that, she became an advocate for his music career.

“She actually contacted the head of Republic herself on my behalf, which was kind of crazy. I get to the meeting,” Owenn said during an Instagram live, per Entertainment Tonight Canada. “They were like ‘Yo, why is Taylor Swift so adamant about us signing you? We want to see you perform!’”

When he found out he would be launching his singing career by opening for Swift, he told iHeartRadio, “I cried like a little baby.” He also said that “Taylor helped me so much.”

10. Sabrina Carpenter

The 24-year-old Sabrina Carpenter will be joining Swift as the opening act of The Eras Tour on the Latin American leg of the tour. During the American Music Awards in November 2022, Carpenter presented Swift the award for Favorite Music Video for “All Too Well.”

After the announcement that the two will be heading on tour together, fans resurfaced this tweet from Carpenter in March 2010.

“The Taylor Swift concert was amazing, had so much fun I cant wait to have a world tour someday like hers! lol with 2 sold out shows!!!!!” she tweeted.

Over 13 years later, she tweeted, “i went to sweet angel princess island and everybody knew me,” announcing she would joining The Eras Tour.