When Taylor Swift sings “Don’t Blame Me” during her Reputation set on the Eras Tour, dramatic lights shoot up into the air and brighten up the night sky during it. So, when she performed the song in Tampa, Florida, the lights created a moving rectangle in the sky, and some Floridians thought they were seeing a UFO. However, in this scenario, the monsters, or aliens, turned out to be just lights.
When Taylor Swift plays “Don’t Blame Me” it’s a dramatic experience. The song is big, bold, and basically a religious experience to Swifties – especially if you saw how she staged it on the Reputation tour, which can be streamed with a Netflix subscription. So, on the Eras Tour, the fan favorite Rep track gets the extra treatment it deserves as the stage lights up with projections of candles, and lights shine directly up into the sky from the stage. In the stadium, the beams of light look like bars surrounding the singer, however, in the sky they look like one big rectangle. Due to the size and scope of the singer’s tour, these can be seen from outside the stadium, and one person thought they were seeing a UFO rather than a T-Swift concert.
@yourtampabayrealtor ♬ original sound - YOURTAMPABAYREALTOR ®️
As you can hear in yourtampabayrealtor’s TikTok, expletives are thrown left and right, and one person even jokingly said “they’re coming for you.” While someone does throw the idea out that it might just be the Taylor Swift concert, the person filming the video was positive that it was not the pop star, it was a UFO.
In their defense, seeing a random moving light in the clouds would make me a bit nervous too. However, if they knew they lived so close to the stadium, it could also be easily inferred that this was not aliens, but just Taylor Swift doing her thing on stage.
In an effort to clear the air, and make sure everyone knew aliens were not flying over Tampa, Florida, Swifties at the concert stitched the original TikTok, and followed it up with a clip of what caused the flying lights. For example, littlesophiebug posted this funny video about the situation:
@littlesophiebug ♬ original sound - sophie bug ✨
Another person, fwedish.swish, took to TikTok to just post a clip of how the lights shoot into the sky, which helps explain why such a bright shape was seen by the folks who thought they were seeing aliens.
@fwedish.swish ♬ original sound - ally?
Swifities may have been quick to debunk this conspiracy theory about aliens in Tampa, however, we can’t deny that Taylor Swift’s fans come up with some wild theories themselves. In the past they've overanalyzed the Eras Tour surprise songs. They've spent a lot of time talking about how the “Anti-Hero” singer might drop all her music at the same time. Plus, over the last few months, they've been trying to decode all the Easter eggs in the “Bejeweled” video. So, when it comes to Swift’s upcoming projects, her fans are always scheming and hypothesizing about what could be coming next. And while they aren’t trying to prove aliens are on Earth, sometimes their theories are just as out of this world.
Overall, I find it hilarious that this happened. While Taylor Swift’s fans were practicing their Eras Tour etiquette and participating in traditions, those outside the stadium got to witness the show from a completely different view, one that made them think they were seeing aliens. If anything, this whole situation goes to show how this pop star’s show takes over a city while it's there, and even if you don’t plan on going, you will feel or see the impact of the phenomenon that is the Eras Tour.
