‘Devastating’: Taylor Swift breaks her silence

Taylor Swift has spoken of the guilt and sadness she felt over the cancellation of her recent shows – and called out those who’d judged her silence.

Taylor Swift has spoken out about the recent cancellation of shows on her Eras tour due to a foiled terror attack plot, saying the dramatic development was “devastating” and left her with a “tremendous amount of guilt.”

Swift officially wrapped the European and UK leg of the Eras tour on August 20, playing the last of five sellout shows at London’s Wembley Stadium.

In a post to her Instagram account today, she took stock of the highs and lows of the European leg of the tour, which started in France in May after her February Australian visit.

Swift said that her most recent shows in London had been “a rollercoaster of emotions. Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” she wrote.

Swift said canning three huge Austrian shows was “devastating.” Picture: Kate Green/Getty

Three huge shows at Vienna’s Happel Stadium planned for August 8, 9 and 10 were cancelled at the last minute after authorities uncovered a terrorism plot that couldn’t seen scores of fans killed and injured. Several suspects were arrested after the al-Qaeda-inspired plot was uncovered, which police said had one aim: to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue”.

Swift thanked the authorities who foiled the plot “because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London.”

Swift also had a pointed message for those who had criticised her for not speaking out sooner about the cancellation of the shows, arguing that it was safer for her to stay silent so as not to inflame the situation.

Ernst-Happel Stadium in Vienna was set to host three sellout Taylor Swift shows. Picture: Alex HALADA / AFP

“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows.

In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that,” she wrote.

While the cancelled Vienna dates averted a potential disaster, the European leg of Swift’s Eras tour was marred by another real-life tragedy: On July 29, an attacker targeting children at a Taylor Swift dance class left three dead and injured ten more in Southport, UK.

King Charles visits the site of the Southport stabbing at a Taylor Swift dance class for children. Picture: AFP

Swift, who was touring Germany at the time, said that she was “completely in shock” over the attack.

“The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families,” she wrote.

Swift’s Eras tour will now take a two-month break before resuming in Miami on October 18 for a final run of shows around the US and Canada.

By the time the tour finishes in Vancouver on December 8, Swift will have played 149 stadium shows across the world for more than 18 months, by far her biggest tour to date.

Originally published as ‘Devastating’: Taylor Swift breaks her silence