Taylor Swift has continued breaking records on her blockbuster Eras tour.
Actress Julia Roberts and musician Stevie Nicks were among those in the crowd at the third and final concert at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Sunday evening.
Swift told fans it was a thrill and an honour to inform them that they made Eras the first tour to ever sell out the venue three nights in a row.
The 34-year-old went on to say that far from being tired on the third night, nights one and two were “just warm-up shows for you”.
Ireland embraced the excitement of the star’s visit with a beach transformed into a large-scale artwork reading Ireland (Taylor’s version) as a nod to her ongoing re-recordings of her albums.
While the Irish Emigration Museum uncovered her Irish roots, advertising their story as the love story before the love story.
Even Taoiseach Simon Harris appeared to flirt with Swiftmania, joking he had a “bone to pick” with Swift over the lyrics of her Sweet Nothings hit – which mention lifting a pebble from a beach in the Taoiseach’s home county Wicklow.
He also shared on Instagram on Saturday that he had received his first Swiftie friendship bracelet at a service station in Ballinaleck.
Thousands of fans filled the Aviva for three sold-out concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
There was also a nod to Ireland during a rendition of her chart-topper We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, when her dancer Kameron N Saunders jumped in to quip “bleedin eejit”.
On Friday night, Saunders said “Pog mo thoin” – a cheeky Irish-language phrase meaning “kiss my ass”, and on Saturday he said “The Neck of Ye”, where Swift would usually say “Like Ever” in the recorded edition of the hit.
Swift later in the concert pondered which of her Eras was the “most Irish”, continuing the she believes it is her album Folklore.
She recalled starting to write the song “two days into the pandemic”; when she created an imaginary world “living in a cabin in a really green and mossy landscape, very Irish”, adding the album is “all about story telling and you guys are gifted story tellers”.
She is next heading to Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena for her next three shows, running from Thursday to Saturday. Swift will then plays dates in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria before returning to the UK in August for five nights at Wembley Stadium in London.
Elsewhere, she cheered on American gymnast Simone Biles’ floor routine to the Swift track Ready For It? at the Olympic trials ahead of the games in Paris.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday – underneath a video of Biles, Swift said: “Watched this so many times and still unready. She’s ready for it (though).”
By Charlotte McLaughlin and Rebecca Black, PA
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