Remember When Taylor Swift Played a $20 Concert for a Tiny Alabama High School?
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour set the standard for hype in 2023, generating more than $1 billion in sales and setting a Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Taylor hype is at a fever pitch in 2024; her attendance at Super Bowl 58 resulted in the highest ratings in NFL history, and the star set a new record for streams when her Eras Tour film hit Disney+ on March 14.
Related: Inside Taylor Swift's Childhood Home
There was, however, a time when the now-superstar was still paying her dues.
Dust off your Von Dutch trucker hat and squeeze into your skinniest skinny jeans, because we're traveling back in time to 2007, the year Swift played a $20 show in Anniston, Alabama.
Fresh-faced Taylor Swift took the stage in the gymnasium of Saks High School, a suburban public school with a current enrollment of 306 students in grades 8-12. Tickets were only $20 for the concert, with proceeds supporting the Saks High football team.
Swift started her five-song set with "Our Song," followed by "Teardrops on My Guitar." She then played "Should've Said No" and "Tim McGraw" before closing with "Picture to Burn."
She made time to greet her fans, even snapping photos that would become treasured by burgeoning Swifties.
Seventeen years later, Swift is the biggest star in the music industry. Tickets for the latest leg of the Eras Tour are almost impossible to come by, making it the most popular tour of 2024, too, with baseline prices starting at $365 a seat — if you can get your hands on one — a far cry from those $20 Saks High days.
Taylor Swift's 11 Best Country Collaborations, Ranked
Gallery Credit: Carena Liptak
PICTURES: See Inside Taylor Swift's Stunning Manhattan Apartment
Gallery Credit: Sterling Whitaker