Taylor Swift opens up about her friendship with Beyoncé and comparisons between Renaissance and The Eras Tour

Since the beginning of The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift is reported to have made record-breaking $850 million, and is estimated to have boosted the US economy by over $5 billion, making her the most powerful woman in media and entertainment, and the fifth most powerful in the world, according to Forbes.

During her interview with TIME in celebration of being their Person of the Year, Swift revealed that she began training for the tour six months before it began. “Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud. Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs. Then I had three months of dance training, because I wanted to get it in my bones. I wanted to be so over-rehearsed that I could be silly with the fans, and not lose my train of thought.”

She goes on to add that in order to do the best by her fans who show up for her unconditionally, she has trained herself to be able to perform under any circumstances, and will only cancel a show due to reasons outside of her control. “I know I’m going on that stage whether I’m sick, injured, heartbroken, uncomfortable, or stressed. That’s part of my identity as a human being now. If someone buys a ticket to my show, I’m going to play it unless we have some sort of force majeure," she says.

Taylor Swift tells TIME that she began training for the ‘Eras Tour’ six months before it started:

“Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud. Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs. Then I had three months of dance… pic.twitter.com/aJRS54WzcG

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 6, 2023

Elsewhere in the conversation, she referenced the age-old music industry knack of trying to pit women against each other – more specifically, the comparisons between Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour, and her own.

“There were so many stadium tours this summer, but the only ones that were compared were me and Beyoncé. Clearly it’s very lucrative for the media and stan culture to pit two women against each other, even when those two artists in question refuse to participate in that discussion.”

The pair have publicly shown support for each other, and even turned up to the world premieres for each other's concert films. In a photo of the pair at the premiere of TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR posted to her Instagram account, Swift wrote: "I’m so glad I’ll never know what my life would’ve been like without @beyonce‘s influence. The way she’s taught me and every artist out here to break rules and defy industry norms. Her generosity of spirit. Her resilience and versatility. She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale."

Continuing the thread of praise with TIME, Swift added that Beyoncé is “the most precious gem of a person. When I'm talking to her, she is so warm and open and funny. She's such a great disruptor of music-industry norms. She taught every artist how to flip the table and challenge archaic business practices.”

Taylor Swift to TIME on the comparisons between the ‘Eras Tour’ and Beyoncé’s ‘RENAISSANCE’ tour:

“There were so many stadium tours this summer, but the only ones that were compared were me and Beyoncé. Clearly it’s very lucrative for the media and stan culture to pit two women… pic.twitter.com/K6vgidJ6cB

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 6, 2023