How did Taylor Swift respond emotionally to the Vienna attack that killed three fans?

Taylor Swift goes back to one of the most unsettling moments of her record-breaking Eras Tour - right at the start of her new Disney+ documentary, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour | The End of an Era, which dropped Friday, December 12. Two episodes dropped so far, paired with The Eras Tour | The Final Show, now streaming on Disney+, filmed during her last Vancouver performance in December 2024, landing shortly after her groundbreaking twelfth release, The Life of a Showgirl.

The first part shows the 35-year-old musician talking about a foiled terror scheme that made her cancel three concerts in Vienna during August 2024.

According to AP's 2024 reporting, one article noted that police in Austria ended up arresting three people, uncovering plans linked to the Islamic State; intelligence from the CIA suggested it might've led to many deaths.

Taylor Swift steadies herself through fear, grief, and tour turbulence

Taylor Swift’s new documentary segment, The End of an Era, captures the singer in a rare moment of visible strain as she grapples with the fallout from multiple security scares and abruptly canceled shows. Right before getting back on stage in London, the film tracks her during a shaky stretch, prepping for her comeback gig after scary threats messed up earlier plans.

From her hotel room ahead of the Wembley concerts, she says these last Europe stops feel fragile, even though she's already done over a hundred performances; it's the close calls haunting the tour, plus what happened at a fan meet-up in Liverpool, that keep things feeling off.

Taylor Swift said regarding the incident (as reported by People):

"It's just kind of a weird feeling going into these last five shows in Europe because it sort of feels like we've done like 128 shows so far, but this is the first one where I feel like... I don't know, like, I'm skating on thin ice or something. We've had a series of very violent, scary things happen to the tour. We dodged, like, a massacre situation. And so I've just been kind of all over the place. There was this horrible attack in Liverpool at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party, and it was little kids that ... I have a hard time explaining it..."

She continued (via People):

"From a mental standpoint, being like afraid that something's gonna happen to your fans at any moment, this is a new challenge. I want to keep all of the nerves I have away from the crowd. Because when you're sort of the ringleader of this show, they can sense any kind of shift energetically in you and you have to really focus on that and factor that in, that you're at the Eras Tour, nothing's wrong."

Taylor Swift’s new docuseries reveals raw moments from her comeback tour - haunted by threats against it, plus heartbroken over the loss of three girls in a knife attack at a dance event inspired by her in Southport, England on July 29.

She said:

"It’s gonna be fine, because when I meet the [families of the victims], I’m not gonna do this. I swear to God, I’m not gonna do this. I’m gonna be smiling. Any of this [crying and being sad] gets out of the way before you ever go upstage. You lock it off for three and a half hours. They don’t have to worry about you. It’s like you’re a pilot flying the plane."

She continued:

"And if you were like, ‘Ooh, there’s turbulence up ahead; I don’t know if we’re actually gonna land in Dallas; I’m gonna try hard, but I don’t know if I can actually figure out how to land through this turbulence,’ everyone on the plane’s gonna freak out. You just have to have a calm, cool, collected tone of, ‘We will be landing in Dallas at 6:05 p.m. Got a little tubulence up ahead, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Just keep your seat belts fastened and welcome to the Eras Tour."

Before hitting London for five nights straight, she quietly spent time with survivors and loved ones; one scene shows her in full orange outfit - bright jacket, heavy boots - weeping offstage as her mom tells her simply:

"I know you helped them. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I know you helped them."

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