Taylor Swift Encounters Stage Malfunction During ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ at Dublin Show
Taylor Swift‘s stage didn’t perform as planned at the start of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” during Saturday’s show in Dublin.
As the pop icon launched into the first few lines of the track from The Tortured Poets Department — “Was any of it true/ Gazing at me starry-eyed/ In your Jehovah’s Witness suit/ Who the f— was that guy?” — concertgoers noticed the stage was malfunctioning. The elevated section Swift stood on had failed to lower when it was supposed to, leaving her momentarily stranded.
Swift didn’t flinch over the glitch.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long for one of her dancers, Jan Ravnik, to lend a hand and help her down.
In a closeup video from Swift’s Tortured Poets set of the concert posted by a fan, it looks and sounds like the pop star’s trying to hold in laughter as Ravnik offers assistance.
The show must go on, and Swift’s three-and-a-half-hour show did.
Swift’s international Eras Tour was at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium for three concerts this weekend. Next, she’ll take the tour to Amsterdam for a trio of dates at Johan Cruijff Arena from July 4-6.
On Sunday, Billboard announced Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department remains at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a 10th consecutive, and total, week.
At this point, Swift has played the majority of the 31-track collection live on The Eras Tour at least once. The Tortured Poets section of the show includes tracks “But Daddy I Love Him,” a small taste of “So High School,” ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and “Down Bad,” which transitions to “Fortnight.” It wraps up with “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” (usually with a functioning stage) and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”
Other tracks from the album have had their live debut in Swift’s acoustic section, in which she offers two surprise-song performances. This weekend’s firsts included “The Albatross” on Saturday and “Clara Bow” on Sunday for Stevie Nicks, who was in the VIP tent and filming Swift’s song with her cell phone.
See clips of Swift expertly handling the Saturday stage malfunction below.
Ashley Iasimone
Billboard
