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00:00And now for something completely different to music and the global phenomenon that is
00:06Taylor Swift. She has arrived in Paris. She will be playing four nights tonight just outside Paris
00:13at the La Référence arena and she is here. Swifties are camping out at the venue and I'm
00:20joined by Olivia Salazar-Winspear who's here to tell us all about it. This is unbelievable. Tell
00:27us how this cultural phenomenon as we're all calling it came about. Well yeah we're calling
00:31it the Taylor Swift effect of course and that is a very tangible effect because it's economic
00:36as well. It's been measured in the United States since so many fans travel, stay in hotels, use
00:41local businesses and services when they go to her concerts. The North American section of the
00:46era's tour is estimated to have had a 10 billion dollar economic impact and for example her opening
00:53night performance in Arizona brought in more revenue for local businesses than last year's
00:57Superbowl which was held at the same venue. She's playing 18 dates here in Europe starting off with
01:03four concerts in Paris so it should be very lucrative as well. Many people traveling from
01:07country to country to see her play. So positive knock-on effects for the locals but the real
01:11winner is of course Taylor Swift herself. She became a billionaire last year largely thanks
01:16to this tour. She became the youngest billionaire on Forbes annual list and that success didn't come
01:22out of nowhere. This is a 17-year career she's been building in which she sold 200 million albums.
01:27She's won 14 Grammy Awards and the most recent album that she just released at the Tortured
01:32Poets Department immediately became the most listened to album on Spotify ever. The previous
01:38record had been held of course by one Taylor Swift. And she has this army of fans who are
01:45wedded to her and her influence over them isn't just really musical is it? She does
01:51exert a certain influence over them. Yeah they're extremely loyal. They're most active online.
01:56They're responsible for all those streams on Spotify all those record sales but they'll also
02:00jump to her defense if there's any sort of feud on social media. Recently Kim Kardashian lost
02:04hundreds of thousands of followers because Taylor Swift referenced a feud that she had with her ex
02:09husband the rapper Kanye West. And beyond the virtual world, Swifties as they're called recently
02:14overwhelmed a pub in London that she'd mentioned in a song. But that influence as you say does
02:18extend to more important things. They embrace her beliefs even her political positions because
02:23she spoke out in 2018 against a Republican candidate in her home state of Tennessee.
02:28She spoke out against Donald Trump in that time and she endorsed Joe Biden for the election.
02:35The effect that it had was that voter registration among the young demographic did go up at the time.
02:40A recent poll was done in the United States saying that 18 percent of Americans would follow
02:46Taylor Swift's endorsement given the upcoming election next year. So I spoke to
02:51journalist and author Morgane Giuliani who's just published a book about Taylor Swift
02:56and asked her whether Donald Trump should be scared of the pop star given the upcoming election
03:02and this is what she said. I think he's already scared of her because like clearly conservatives
03:09are talking about her a lot. It's the fact for example on Fox News where they tell her like
03:15you should stick to the music you don't belong in politics which is like just telling a woman
03:19just stick to the kitchen you don't belong outside of your home you know because they know that she
03:24has this power to rely especially young voters to register to vote and then to vote progressive.
03:31So he is afraid of her because he knows that she is such a massive force right now that she could
03:37really maybe change the game change the outcome of the presidential election just by herself which
03:42is also a great deal of pressure for a single artist. So we explored the Taylor Swift phenomenon
03:48in a bit more depth with Morgane on a special show here on France 24. You can catch that
03:53at 5.15 Paris time. It's also on our website too. Thanks very much Olivia.