When a musician can invoke that much good in the world, it is worth a deeper dive into understanding why.
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on November 18, 2024.
OTTAWA—Canada has gone “Swiftie” this week.
In anticipation of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Toronto and Vancouver, the country is abuzz with excitement.
The Toronto Star is auctioning off tickets to raise money for the Santa Claus Fund. According to The Star, the fund has been donating gift boxes to vulnerable children since 1906. What could be more Canadian than that?
Swift herself donated $13,000 to the fund last year, and she wasn’t even visiting Toronto. This year, she is donating again. Two Nov. 22 concert tickets are being auctioned off by The Star, which is also encouraging concert-goers to donate to their own favourite charity.
Social media is calling on fans to follow Swift’s example by donating to something worthwhile as she has done.
Stories of charitable acts surrounding the Swift tour abound.
CTV reported that an Ottawa boy with a rare spastic paraplegia was gifted two tickets to the concert that his friends had auctioned off for $20,000.
The tickets were originally sold off to fund seven-year-old Jack Laidlaw’s experimental treatment in a Boston hospital.
Someone donated $20,000 for the seats, with an anonymous matching donation.
But the person who purchased the tickets was so moved by Laidlaw’s story that she donated the tickets to him, and he will attend the concert with his father.
Stories of similar goodness are popping up all across the country.
Taylor’s performances started on Nov. 14 with six concerts in Toronto, moving to Vancouver for three performances in early December.
Some 60,000 people will attend each sold-out concert with thousands more expected to attend the pre-concert Taylgate ’24 at the Metro Convention Centre.
Taylor Swift Way has been temporarily installed in Toronto with 22 street signs wending their way from Queen Street West to John Street, Front Street, and Blue Jays Way.
Official Swift merchandise is being sold in only one location, and hundreds of fans lined up to purchase posters, shirts, and other memorabilia when the shop opened.
Some clearly don’t understand the Swift mania that has gripped the nation.
Globe and Mail sports columnist Cathal Kelly wrote a scathing critique of Taylor’s music, writing: “On a scale of musical impact, she is somewhere north of Barry Manilow and south of Elton John. She is a less interesting Diana Ross, or a Madonna with better business instincts.”
Cathal goes on to say it is not Swift’s fault, but rather a reflection of “the enormous vacant space in cultural history that she represents. … Six nights in Toronto is another portent of mediocrity.”
He may be right, but I can’t help but wondering why thousands of people—including members of my own family—are struck with Swiftmania.
My niece won two tickets in a lottery at a cost of $500 apiece. As of last week, those tickets could be sold on the internet for up to $8,000 each.
But she prefers to go to the concert, and forego a possible $15,000 cash payout.
Like Kelly, I just don’t get it. Maybe it is just the older generation that is living in ignorance as the world moves to embrace Swift’s social media stardom.
When a musician can invoke that much good in the world, it is worth a deeper dive into understanding why.
Of course, the woman and her team are obviously marketing geniuses. That goes without saying.
But her judicious use of social media and the global response to her music is giving the world something to share in a time when, according to the young, everything else seems to be falling apart.
Perhaps Swift’s influence is overstated.
She came out courageously and loudly in favour of electing America’s first woman president. Swift was Kamala Harris’ biggest booster, much to the ire of Donald Trump.
While her fans may have been cheering, they did not all jump on board because if they had, Trump would have lost the election.
So perhaps her followers are thirsting for a brief moment, a three-hour escape from the reality of the world in which they live.
Surveys show many young people don’t even want to have children today because they are afraid of how climate change is destroying the globe. World wars and environmental disasters dominate the news.
There aren’t many moments when these disasters can be minimized.
Swift concerts, and the crazy prelude leading up to her arrival, are one way that troubles can be forgotten.
Perhaps her music won’t last for a half-century like that of the iconic Beatles.
But the Swiftie Moment is here to stay.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.
