Arizona city announces temporary name change to honour Taylor Swift's 'Eras Tour' kickoff

In line with Taylor Swift's highly anticipated The Eras Tour at the State Farm Stadium on March 17, Mayor Jerry P. Weiers has announced that Glendale, Arizona will be temporarily renamed in her honour. NBC affiliate KPNX and Fox 10 Phoenix report that the name change will remain in effect until March 18.

According to the news stations, Glendale wanted to do "something highly unusual" for Taylor to commemorate the start of her long-awaited national tour. Glendale's new name is set to be revealed soon as the "Eras Tour" is fast approaching.

The Glendale's Westgate Entertainment District shopping complex is also expected to display multiple welcome messages for the musician, while local restaurants plan to offer menu items inspired by the "Karma" singer.

Swift will have two shows in Glendale on March 17 and March 18 and is scheduled to perform in Las Vegas next on March 24. Coming along with her are opening acts Paramore, Beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, Girl in Red, Muna, Haim, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn. Each show is expected to be a collaboration with a combination of two artists from this list.

In November, the singer-songwriter announced the dates of her upcoming U.S. tour. High demand for her concert tickets caused the Ticketmaster fiasco, where multiple site crashes and glitches prevented millions of people from buying "Eras Tour" concert tickets.

The "Eras" 2023 tour sold more than 2.4 million tickets on its first day of presales. This set a new record for the most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day. In December, Billboard reported that the "Eras Tour" had grossed an estimated $554 million with projections placing the tour to finish with $591 million. This would break Madonna's all-time female record, which she set during her "Sticky & Sweet Tour," which grossed $407 million in 2008-2009.

However, millions more were not fortunate enough to secure a ticket which created controversy as the monopoly of Ticketmaster was publicly questioned. Taylor Swift has since released a statement calling out Ticketmaster's shortcomings (without naming them directly) and expressing her frustrations over curating "so many elements" of her career to create the ultimate experience for her fans but being forced to outsource key elements like ticket sales and distribution with which Ticketmaster has a monopoly in the U.S.

The songstress wrote, "I've brought so many elements of my career in-house. I've done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans' experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse."

Following the singer's monumental wins, her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn, has also been the focus of social media trends after he became a trending topic during Swift's MTV EMA wins. Hundreds of fans kept on taunting him to fight to keep his position as Taylor's boyfriend as pictures of the enchanting Taylor at the music awards surfaced.

Taylor Swift's chart-topping 10th studio album, "Midnights," dropped on October 21. The eleven-time Grammy winner broke various milestones in streaming, physical and vinyl album sales worldwide as "Midnights" became the fastest-selling album of her career. The "Bejeweled" singer became the first artist to successfully occupy the entire Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

One of the most controversial songs on her newest album is "Would've Could've Should've," a heartbreaking soft rock song allegedly inspired by John Mayer grooming a then nineteen-year-old Taylor. The album's official lead single, "Anti-Hero," is a highly personal record for the singer, who discussed her self-loathing, depersonalisation and anxiety issues. The song also became the best-selling single of 2022.