On June 15th and 16th, American superstar Taylor Swift’s reputation Stadium Tour arrived on Irish shores. It was her second stop on a three-city European leg, comprising also of Manchester and London. With the 110 foot tall main stage dominating the floor of Croke Park, facing two smaller B stages, any seat in Ireland’s biggest stadium would have a decent view of the ten time Grammy winner’s performance.

Charli XCX, along with former Fifth Harmony member – and quickly maturing pop artist – Camila Cabello were high-energy openers, priming the audience before Taylor took to the stage in front of a mostly full stadium and overcast (what else?) skies. Each audience member, many dressed up in merchandise or thematic costumes (my personal favourites being either the full replica of her 2009 Fearless tour marching band tearaway uniform, or the massive Diet Coke can – in reference to her past sponsorship with the brand – waddling around pitch seating), were also given LED bracelets which lit up as part of the production’s special effects.

After a brief visual display explaining the meaning behind the album reputation (Swift reclaiming the ‘snake’ image she received following a feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian), the concert started with the fast paced electropop album opener “…Ready For It.” The titanic stage opened with a roar from the stadium as  a hooded, intimidating-looking Swift emerged from the dry ice effects.

Playing all bar one song off reputation, interspersed with snippets of ten songs taken from her previous five albums, the gigs delivered a wide range to accommodate anyone from casual listeners to true Swifties. Following the opener came crowd favourite “I Did Something Bad;” “Gorgeous”, and then some of her older songs: “Style” (from 2014’s 1989), and parts of her adorable breakthrough hits “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me”, tunes so well known that the audience sang along in a not-so-harmonious harmony. Despite the extremely choreographed nature of the set allowing for little modification, the talented songstress did find time to heighten crowd energy, on night two in particular, by greeting her fans to the tour as Gaeilge, while sporting a 13 (her lucky number) on her right hand: a concert tradition which had ceased back in 2012, until that night – the thirteenth show of the tour.

Utilising as many effects as possible to breathe further energy into already high-powered songs, the stage was awash with costumed dancers, and props such as a gigantic snake rising into the sky during reputation lead single “Look What You Made Me Do”. During the mellow “Delicate”, the singer donned a sparkly rainbow dress and flew suspended above the crowd on her way en route to the B stages towards the back of the venue, where she performed a number of tried and tested hits, along with an acoustic set, from her back catalogue: Speak Now’s “Mean” on night one, and 1989’s album cut “How You Get The Girl” on night two. To move from one B stage to the next, she walked through the crowd, grabbing fans’ hands and kissing their cheeks.

The singer slowed things down to close out the show, with a heartfelt mashup of classic “Long Live” and the more recent “New Year’s Day” on piano, complimenting the lit up wristbands enveloping the darkening stadium as night fell, with the final song being another mashup: this one of 2012 number one stormer “We Are Never Getting Back Together” and reputation’s punchy “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”. The music, fireworks, special effects and dancers all combined for a truly awesome climax.

The contrast between the vibrant and anthemic set pieces on the main stage, the cozy acoustic set on the B stage in the 70,000-strong crowd, and the dreamy piano pieces, meant nothing was left on the table. With the seamless costume changes and transformations between the old and new Taylors, Swift showed definitively why she’s the one of the most popular artists in the world – and the first female artist to headline Croke Park on two occasions.