Taylor Swift touches down in L.A. for The Very First Night
Sarah Paulson, Brie Larson and many others livestreamed, traded friendship bracelets, and took the moment and tasted it at Taylor Swift's first night in L.A.
“When I hear [insert first lyrics of your favorite, non-setlist Taylor Swift song] on a grainy livestream of a show I’m not at…” begins a popular Tiktok meme, often set to an “I am done with Taylor Swift” audio. Unfortunately (or maybe this would have softened the blow), fans of surprise songs “I Can See You” and “Maroon” who weren’t in attendance for the first stop of Swift’s six-night L.A. stay may have had their hearts broken by a familiar face: Sarah Paulson.
The queen of American Horror Story leaned in extra hard to what we’ll affectionately call Eras-core. She livestreamed the bulk of the show on Instagram, featuring clips of her dancing, singing, and drunkenly shouting out how much fun her sister was having. She posted confetti stowaways on her story. She traded friendship bracelets with Brie Larson and Lupita Nyong’o. All three really took the moment and tasted it (or at least tasted a whole lot of Casamigos tequila, which sponsored the celebs’ box and featured heavily in Larson’s story.)
Paulson, Larson, and Nyong’o were far from the only familiar faces at Swift’s SoFi stadium show, the last leg of (what is now part one) of her U.S. tour, before the star heads to Mexico City later this month. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Mindy Kaling, and Ashley Tisdale all showed up in Style, as did Madelyn Cline, Molly Shannon, Katie Couric, Elizabeth Banks, Zach Braff, and many others (per Entertainment Tonight).
Perhaps the most touching audience moment of the show happened between Taylor and Kobe Bryant’s six-year-old daughter Bianka, who sat near the front of the crowd with her mom Vanessa and sister Natalia. In a fan video, Taylor gives Bianka her bowler hat after performing “22" before the two embrace. “We love you @taylorswift,” Vanessa Bryant also wrote in an Instagram post capturing the moment.
Despite all of this star-studded love, however, not everyone in L.A. is on board with Swift-mania. Last week, striking hotel workers called on Swift to cancel her run of shows in the city, citing Ticketmaster-esque “junk fees” added onto rooms due to the high demand. A number of politicians also joined the call—including California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis—in solidarity with the hotel workers’ union.
The shows are obviously still very much on, of course, much to the delight of L.A.’s larger Swiftie population—at least if the day-ahead, three hour merch line is anything to go by.