An Open Letter to Taylor Swift
By Nora Lewis
Dear Taylor,
First off, big fan! At the time of writing, Midnights (your tenth studio album) has not been released yet, but I’m sure I am crying to all of the songs on there. Staying up until 3 am for your “chaotic surprise” and sleeping through my classes is worth it. I can afford to lose some participation points for such a historical event.
Second off, some rumors online have been circulating that you plan to go on tour in 2023, your first one since Lover Fest was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic (rip). We all know that your tours are phenomenal- The Reputation Stadium Tour, for example, made well over $100 million dollars and is credited as one of the highest-grossing tours in U.S history. This unfortunately means that your tours are phenomenally expensive- Reputation tour tickets were around $300/seat in some states and countries, according to TicketNews. Yeesh!
Speaking as a college student working 2 part-time jobs, that’d be my entire paycheck. This was before your most recent album releases (Grammy award-winning best album Folklore, the forgotten middle child Evermore, and the Fearless and Red re-recordings) which have done nothing but skyrocket your popularity, meaning demand for these hypothetical tickets would be through the ROOF. As much as I love you, Taylor, I do need to eat. Unless you’re handing out Trader Joe’s grocery packages at your tours free of charge, I guess I’ll go hungry for a week!
I propose, as a compromise, at each tour, you sell a limited edition of “student tickets.” I’ll show you my AUID that I totally still own and haven’t lost, I’ll show you my homework, and I’ll even show you my grades. I’ll get a letter of recommendation from a professor, I’ll write you a cover letter, I’ll do anything. In return, college students would get a discount on their tickets. Even 10-20% off would allow me to have juuuust enough money to survive, especially combined with the high of seeing a Taylor Swift concert. Let the Swifties who have full-time jobs and careers battle it out for the pit tickets that you literally have to sell your soul to get!
Of course, this is all hypothetical if you aren’t planning on touring (but you really really really should tour that’d be so cool). If you’re unwilling to humor me with this solution, I totally get it. Just let me know in advance when TicketMaster is dropping the prices so I can take a loan out to cover the costs, or I can recreate “Getaway Car” and steal some British man’s money (sorry Tom Hiddleson!).
Much love,
Nora
PS: when are you releasing Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)? I need about a week to prepare to hear Dear John (Taylor’s Version) and I’d like to notify my professors in advance