As the world is experiencing ‘The Eras Tour’ this year, which Swift embarked on in March 2023, her life and persona have become a global phenomenon fuelled by her fans
Updated On: 2023-11-18 06:44 PM IST
Compiled by : Nascimento Pinto
Delhi-based Ira Malik, who is only 16 years old, says she has been a Taylor Swift fan for as long as she can remember but more specifically it was when she released ‘Speak Now’. Today, Malik not only owns vinyls of most of her albums but has a lot of merchandise related to the singer. While she sports the merchandise often, she also listens to the vinyls often.
Apart from owning vinyls, Malik also went for The Eras Tour Film recently and the feeling of being in a room with absolute strangers but still feeling so connected to them was special for her. Such is her fandom, that Malik has already watched the film two times and plans on watching it again with fan groups in the city.
Bengaluru-based Fathima Ashraf became a Swiftie even before the term existed, way back in 2008. The high school girl in her loved the singer's storytelling and catchy lyrics. She even remembers learning all the lyrics and doing sing-alongs and all the very cheesy stuff with her friends.
Even though the second album made her an eternal fan, Ashraf says her favourite is ‘Lover’ (2019), which is the most recent of the 10 albums she has released till now. The uniqueness about Taylor Swift is that she is versatile according to her, and how she can do pop, country, folk, alt-rock. Ashraf days she wouldn't be surprised if Swift gets into hip-hop one day.
Even Mumbaikar Alifiya Joel, who has settled in New Zealand and has been a ‘Tay Tay’ fan, as she calls it, for over a decade now, the American singer is beyond just her music. Swift, she says, is a great mix of creativity and business. She not only writes all of her songs, but she also knows how to sell them at the right time to the right audience. Re-releasing her albums was a daring business move and she did it anyway. She is a benchmark for someone who works in the marketing and advertising industry.
Arunima Joshua, another Mumbaikar, became a 'Swiftie' when she heard 'Blank Space' from the 1989 album. She was very much an indie music fan because she would listen to Devendra Banhart and Karen O and Jamie xx and not much pop but Joshua couldn't get ‘Blank Space’ out of her head and would loop it all day and that's when the Mumbaikar accepted that she loves pop music.