Inside Taylor Swift’s Miami Eras Tour: Rain, new outfits and a few only-in-Miami moments

It’s been a long time coming for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour to return to Florida. The extravaganza triumphantly pulled into the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens Friday night, the first of three sold-out shows. The tour kicked off its final leg in Miami two months after a record-setting series of five shows at London’s massive Wembley Stadium. Fifteen more dates will follow before Eras concludes Dec. 8 in Vancouver, Canada.

“Miami! We are so back! That’s right,” a beaming Swift said three songs into the opening “Lover Era” set to introduce her rousing female empowerment song “The Man.”

“The way you are treating me is starting to go to my head. You’re making me feel really powerful,” she said.

Photo gallery: See a glimpse of Taylor Swift’s performance at the Miami stop of the Eras Tour

Floridians were particularly stoked in the months leading up to the Miami shows, already tickled that the state is name-checked in two songs on her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department” — “ Florida!!! ” and its first single, “Fortnight.”

The exclamatory former tune, with its exhortations, “Florida is one hell of a drug/Florida, go on [expletive] me up,” made its stateside debut on an Eras date Friday in Miami — about 650 miles from a Panhandle location also touted in the satirical song, “a time-share down in Destin.” London’s Florence Welch, who sings on the recording, was her surprise guest for Miami’s performance, reprising their duet performance from the final Wembley show in August.

Miami even delivered one of its more infamous special effects of late — rain, which came and went almost as if orchestrated by Swift to complement her visuals.

“I officially declare this a rain show,” Swift said an hour in, her hair dusted in water. She thanked her Miami fans, repeatedly, for turning out for the “joyous celebration of my longest tour ever.”

A chorus of Swifties

Friday, after so much anticipation and social media bonding, strangers within and outside of Florida became instant besties and background singers.

She asked if anyone minded if she sang one more song for the “Red Era” segment of the concert — the 10 minute version of “All Too Well.”

No one declined.

“You call me up again just to break me like a promise ,” 61,000 instantly accredited members of Swift’s “band” for the night joined her in unison. “ So casually cruel in the name of being honest, ” Swift and Swiftie, alike, continue the hook of her finest song, “All Too Well.”

“The volume you are singing every one of these songs is astonishing,” Swift gushes.

Millions have seen this moment in the Eras Tour movie that set box office records last fall. But there’s something so kinetic live in real time. Call it a kinship. Swift, by virtue of her sheer magnetism, ingenious staging conceived by the star in tandem with choreographer Mandy Moore, and the opulent stage itself that lets Swift slip with ease into more than a dozen characters over its 49 songs, takes control. She’s built a community whose primary rule is to celebrate and support.

Photo gallery: Take a look at the scene outside Hard Rock Stadium before Taylor Swifts’ Eras Tour in Miami

Swift’s ability to connect with her fans — from the lucky kid at the lip of the stage who scores the hat off Swift’s head during “22” in the “Red Era” to the StubHubber in the upper deck perch more than 100 feet up — is peerless. Sure, the concert has its scripted moments but Swift feels genuine and makes her entire audience, not just the VIPs, feel seen . And isn’t that what we all want?

On its last leg, but still fresh

Fans who couldn’t get tickets for Tampa’s shows last year or simply wanted to wait for Miami and who saw the resulting Eras Tour movie last fall will be happy to know the staging and costume design has remained largely intact for this last leg. You’re not seeing a secondhand Eras Tour from an exhausted performer.

In-the-know fans noticed some outfits differed, however. She sported University of Miami orange and green colors for her “1989” era. Swift tailored some lyrics specifically for the Miami audience. The closing vamp of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” now reads, “ Pero , like never.”

Swift still opens the show in the “Lover” era, clad for the opening and abbreviated “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” and fan-favorite “Cruel Summer” in an icy-hot sparkly orange Versace body suit atop studded orange and pink Louboutin boots, a change from lavender in previous dates. Her treadmill-toned tour legs go on for a country mile.

For the thrilling “Reputation” era, Swift’s in ‘80s rock goddess mode in a one-legged black bodysuit with iridescent gold snakes winding ‘round her limbs as she slinks into the segment’s first song and then explodes on “Ready for It…” as the electro-rock rhythm demands.

Read More: What were the surprise songs for night 1 of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour stop in Miami?

Read More: Here is the entire setlist for night 1 of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Miami

This outfit, too, differed, as did the snake’s positioning on her leg. No, Swift did not use the moment to announce a Friday drop of “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)“ as some fans predicted on social media pages. Could the outfit change be one of Swift’s famed Easter egg teases?

Vocally, Swift was in fine form. Her lyrical mezzo soprano voice has gained burnished colors over the last decade, and her stamina is remarkable nearly two years into this tour.

More than two hours into the show she finally introduced “The Tortured Poets Department” segment to U.S. audiences for the first time — cheekily introduced with the subtitle, “Female Rage: The Musical.” The energetic delivery of eight of its songs trumped the album’s sometimes soundalike chamber pop tone.

The segment also delivered an unscripted moment. During the opening ‘But Daddy I Love Him,” Swift’s white taffeta Vivienne Westwood dress seemed to pop open in the back. One of Swift’s dancers quickly adjusted the wardrobe malfunction.

During the segment’s “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” that forms the emotional crux of her Eras Tour, Swift delivered her boldest jab at detractors who surmise sinister motives in her every move.

“Put narcotics into all of my songs/And that’s why you’re still singing along.”

Whatever she puts in those songs, Miami wants more.