As night ascended on Munich, Germany, Taylor Swift slung her acoustic section guitar over her shoulder and smiled.
"Welcome to the acoustic set," she said, donning a tangerine dress and strumming a few strings. "This is a portion of the show that I look forward to every night."
During tonight's show, fans anticipated an announcement because Swift's team conducted a 15-minute live on YouTube three hours prior. One user on a live stream of the concert pointed out that during her "Red" era, "SHE WORE THE TAYLOR'S VERSION ONE!!!" − but it isn't uncommon for her to wear the "This is not Taylor's Version" sequin-shining shirt during her song, "22."
What's uncommon is the YouTube livestream.
Taylor Nation, Swift's in-house marketing and public relations team, rarely uses the live function on the Eras Tour. The only exceptions include announcement nights of "The Tortured Poets Department" variants, album rereleases of "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" and "1989 (Taylor's Version)" and music video reveals of "Karma" and "I Can See You." (The only time a live from Taylor Nation resulted in nil was night one in Singapore when they broadcasted for five minutes during Swift's acoustic set. The next night, they went live again for her to announce the "Black Dog" variant of "Tortured Poets.")
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Surely, fans thought, she had an announcement up her sleeve.
The singer performed a mashup of "I Don’t Wanna Live Forever" from the "Fifty Shades Darker" movie soundtrack with "imgonnagetyouback" from "Tortured Poets."
Swift set her guitar down and sat at the piano to meld her two songs "loml" from "Tortured Poets" and "Don't You" from "Fearless (Taylor's Version)."
Once finished, she dove into the Eras Tour stage leaving behind the possibility of any new news.
Taylor Nation goes live on YouTube
The 15-minute live test run on YouTube was during Paramore's set. The video was deleted shortly after sending Swifties into a frenzy.
Paramore is Swift's opening act as she makes her way through 18 European cities. During the live, the technical director cut to different tight shots of the instruments, wide shots of the massive set-up and medium shots of lead singer Hayley Williams owning the stage. The livestream was filtered through Restream.io, a company that enables Fortune 500 companies, media, politicians and celebrities to reach, engage and monetize their audiences.
Alexander Khuda, Restream.io's CEO and co-founder, told Forbes Magazine in 2015 that his company delivers "video content live to 30+ services like Youtube, Twitch and Ustream simultaneously. Creators stream to our server and we multiply their broadcasts and deliver to streaming services. Creators don't need to multiply the bandwidth, as Restream covers it on our own side."
Khuda added a benefit to his brainchild was allowing creators to "generate more revenue."
Taylor Swift thanks 120,000+ fans in Munich, Germany during Eras Tour
Swift expressed her gratitude for Germany Sunday night during the "Lover" section of her show.
"We are lucky enough to play this show for 74,000 beautiful people inside this stadium," the star in a purple jumpsuit said. "And if the reports are correct, about 50,000 beautiful people outside of the stadium."
The roaring crowd could be heard through the open-roofed stadium to the surrounding hills of Olympiapark München. Fans covering every inch of green grass were "Taylor-gating," or enjoying the star's three-hour concert for free in the park next door. Social media videos showed Olympia Berg Hill, a 200-foot mound with a view inside the arena, engulfed with tens of thousands of Swifties.
"Thank you for coming to the Eras Tour whether you are inside the stadium and outside the stadium," Swift said. "We are so lucky to be here with you and this is actually a really special night, because this is our last show in Germany. I cannot express to you how wonderful the German crowds have been to us over the last few weeks."
Swift has played nine nights of eleven eras in Germany: three in Gelsenkirchen, two in Hamburg and two in Munich.
"I am going to be so sad to be leaving you," she said, "but we will be back, we will be back to see you. Don't forget that." Swift has three cities left on her European excursion. She will wrap August 20 in London, England.
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