Taylor Swift wrapped up her worldwide Red tour on Tuesday evening with the final show taking place in London's O2 arena. The European leg of the tour consisted of five sold out shows in London as well as a one stop trip to Berlin. The tour kicked of last March with the first show in Omaha, NE starting a chain of 66 shows in North America during which she was joined by collaborator and rumoured "are they? Aren't they?" love interest Ed Sheeran. After 7 shows in Australia and New Zealand, Swift set her eyes on Europe for the final leg of the tour.
During the London shows Taylor was joined by "new kids on the block" the Vamps who have recently hit the charts with singles like "Can we dance" and more recently "Wild heart". Their sound isn't necessarily anything new but both their singles come under the status of "earworm", the song that you hear once that remains in your head, spinning around and around for the rest of the day.
However, several surprises were in store for fans as the Vamps weren't the only act sharing a stage with Swift. On her first London show she bought out Ed Sheeran where the two played his hit single "Lego House" together. To be honest, this wasn't a great surprise; he had followed her through 66 shows in North America, it only seemed right that he would play for his home crowd in London. However, Taylor appears to like keeping her fans guessing as on the second night she started going through the same intro building up the part for her surprise guest and most fans in the room were probably all thinking the same name, Ed Sheeran. This idea was soon put to bed as she announced that she would be joined on stage by Sam Smith. Many of you may not be familiar with Smith's individual work but you will most likely recognise him as the voice of one of 2013's most annoying but catchy singles "La la la" from producer Naughty Boy as well as a feature on Disclosure's single "Latch". As Smith joined Swift on stage they both performed his single "Money on my mind". As the nights progressed the concert goers realised that they were in for a surprise act each night as Swift took to the stage with former coach on The Voice and The Script front man Danny O'Donoghue followed by Emeli Sandé were the duo performed her single "Next to me". On Tuesday, the final night of the tour, Swift announced her final surprise guest to be Ellie Goulding. Goulding has been a prominent figure in the music industry despite only being in the spotlight since the release of her first EP "An introduction to Ellie Goulding" back in 2009. Since then she has done various collaborations with artists such as Calvin Harris and Tinie Tempah as well as introducing her own sound with singles like Elton John cover "Your Song" and "Lights". It was in 2013 when Ellie finally made it with the re-issue of her album Halcyon with Halcyon Days. This extended edition featured the single "Burn" that rose straight to the UK number one spot in the summer, the song that she and Taylor played on Tuesday's show.
As the show came to a close Swift showed her quickly changing emotions as she shared a laugh with the crowd and crew members as she removed a stuffed cat from her signature red piano (an act she put down to an end of tour joke before she congratulated her crew for the prank) before moving onto to recurring fan favourite song "All too well" where she shared an emotional silence with the crowd before going into the songs final, powerful verse.
Several singles from previous albums were resurrected for the show such as Love Story, the more child friendly version of Romeo and Juliet. Swift spared no expense with any of her performances and this was no exception as she emerged from a giant music box followed by dancers each with an individual turn-key protruding from their back. The show closed with a more light hearted performance as dancers circled the stage in various circus outfits with Swift as their ringmaster closing the show with possibly her most famous track from the album "We are never ever getting back together".
After the star and her dancers took their final bow the curtains closed and the lights went up, drawing an end to an almost year long tour. It won't be too long to wait before we hear from her again as her new album is rumoured to be released this year following the two year cycle that her previous albums have followed.