After news of the concert terror plot in Vienna, Taylor Swift’s chilling comments about the Manchester Arena bombings have re-emerged.
The Long Live singer has cancelled her Eras Tour shows in Austria after a suspect, identified as Beran A, was detained over plots to attack the venue.
Both London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Metropolitan Police have reassured fans that gigs in the UK capital will go ahead next week, despite concerns.
Swift, 34, is yet to publicly address the incident. But an interview from 2019 in which she addresses the Manchester Arena bombing has now resurfaced, with the megastar calling concert threats her ‘greatest fear’.
‘After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour this time because I didn’t know how we were going to keep 3 million fans safe over seven months,’ Swift said five years ago.
Two years before in 2017, Ariana Grande’s concert was the target of a terror attack that left 22 dead and 1,017 people injured, many of them children and teens.
The May 22 bombing is one of the most horrific in British history, with the assailant’s brother receiving 55 years in prison for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy — the longest sentence ever issued.
Grande, 31, took a break from touring but returned to the city just two weeks later for the One Love Manchester concert, raising a total of £17 million for victims.
Speaking to ELLE in a rare interview, Swift explained she had put extra planning, expense and effort into keeping fans safe at her scheduled Lover tour.
The tour would later be cancelled due to Covid and replaced by the now iconic Eras Tour which began in 2023.
Swift noted that her ‘fear of violence’ had leaked over into her personal life too, as she would ‘carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds.’
‘Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I’ve ever had online,’ she explained. ‘You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things.’
Swift’s closeness to her fans is a huge part of the singer’s success, cultivating unwavering dedication and a fierce protective bond.
At the Eras Tour fans have been dressing up in outfits inspired by her music and swapping friendship bracelets with each other.
Even in the face of the cancelled Vienna gig, Austrian fans took to the streets and sang her hits together in protest of the attacker.
In the interview, Swift added: ‘Every day I try to remind myself of the good in the world, the love I’ve witnessed and the faith I have in humanity.
‘We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears.’
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