When Swifties go to the Eras Tour, they often show up prepared to sing every word for the entire three-plus-hour show. In fact, other than seeing which stunning costumes she’s wearing and which surprise songs she sings, there’s very little that changes from show to show. But not even Taylor Swift can control everything. She’s performed in downpours, for instance and needed help from her backup dancers due to stage malfunctions. Bugs are another thing that have proven to be an issue for the chairman of The Tortured Poets Department, and a fan’s video showed her reaction to swallowing a bug while performing.
Taylor Swift has been on the European leg of her world tour, and this weekend saw her in Milan, Italy, where she treated fans to two mashups during her acoustic set. After performing “The 1” and “Wonderland” on guitar, she sat down at the piano and began what would be a medley of “I Almost Do” and “The Moment I Knew,” only to be interrupted by a bug flying down her throat. See the moment we all knew, as one fan shared on X (Twitter):
girlie swallowed a bug #MilanTSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/INsjCTGMeXJuly 13, 2024
The artist coughed and stopped singing, immediately explaining to the crowd that, “There’s so many bugs here tonight,” and saying she’d be fine, she just needed to cough a little. She turned away from the microphone to do so, and then proceeded with the mashup — with no water or anything. That’s a pretty baller move, and it’s possible that she handled it so well because it wasn’t the first time.
In fact, this was actually the third time Taylor Swift has participated in involuntary insect consumption while on the Eras Tour. The first instance was in Chicago on June 4, 2023, with fans growing concerned when the singer suddenly stopped talking, grabbed her mouth and started choking. She then explained what happened, joking, “Oh, delicious!” and asking if there was any chance nobody had seen that, after she turned her back to cough.
It happened again on June 23 of this year, during her third concert in London. Swift swallowed a bug while singing “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” encouraging everyone to “keep singing” as she choked through a couple of lines before recovering.
The clowns like to come out anytime there’s a hint of coincidence surrounding Taylor Swift and any upcoming projects, so it didn’t go unnoticed by Swifties that both nights she played “The Moment I Knew” as one of her surprise songs, bugs flew in her mouth (Chicago’s third show and Milan’s first). However, I think even the biggest conspiracy theorists would agree swallowing bugs probably won’t be involved in the announcement of Reputation (Taylor’s Version)’s release date or whatever else the mastermind’s got planned.
We’ll just have to wait to see what’s next for Taylor Swift (and how many more bugs she eats), and until then you can keep reliving the best moments of The Eras Tour movie on Disney+, one of the best streaming services to subscribe to.
