Welcome to the 1989 World Tour!

It was magical, it was something I'll remember forever. The words, "Hello I'm Taylor, and welcome to the 1989 world tour!" stick in my head. Taylor Swift is a global pop star who took the world by storm. She is known for singing about real life experiences the trials, tribulations, and hardships of love and what a breathtaking, beautiful thing love can be when you find the one.

It is still so unreal I saw Taylor Swift up on stage with two of my favorite people who really made me have such a fun experience. The whole concert situation doesn't matter who you're going to see I truly believe it's with the people that you go with. You have to go with people who are going to jump up and down, who will scream the lyrics back to the singer as they scream to you. You have to go with friends who will enjoy the experience as much as you will, who will smile so much you think you'll never frown again.

This is my story of how I experienced Taylor Swift the first time and hopefully not the last. I took lots of pictures! I'll try and make this post short but it's hard to write something short when what you lived through was something truly extraordinary. 

Setlist:

Welcome To New York
New Romantics
Blank Space (Written with Max Martin & Shellback.)
I Knew You Were Trouble
I Wish You Would
How You Get The Girl
I Know Places (Written with Ryan Tedder Of One Republic)
All You Had To Do Was Stay
Mean
Clean (Taylor flies around the arena for this song. And no not with fairy wings, she's on a balcony.)
Love Story
Style
Bad Blood (my favorite song!)
We Are Never Ever Getting back Together (Electric Guitar version.)
Enchanted & Wildest Dreams Mash up
 Out Of The Woods (Written with Jack Antonoff from the band Fun.
 .........and then we got to Shake It Off (Which was the encore.)

In between songs we got to see Selena Gomez sing 'Good For You,' Lisa Kudrow from friends sing, 'Smelly Cat.' and Justin Timberlake, 'Mirrors.'

I was immensely blessed to meet Taylor's brother, Austin Swift. He was so sweet and told me that Taylor works so hard to make sure every show is special for her fans whom she calls family and he let me know his family including himself hope I enjoy the show.

(Swift Tip: If you are going to an upcoming show I would encourage you to pre-order your Merchandise online before you go to the arena if you have the opportunity to do so. The merchandise lines were extremely long and sometimes they run out of items.)

Taylor's opening acts were Vance Joy who sang, 'Georgia,' 'Mess Is Mine,' 'Fire In The Flood,' and, 'Riptides.' Next Taylor's best friends HAIM opened for her. Three sisters who are such a great act. They really got the crowd hyped up for Taylor. The genre of their music falls into R&B/Soft rock and roll. I was also super blessed to meet bassist of the band, Este. She was sitting in one of the seats next to me after playing and she graciously stopped for a picture.
Taylor came up out of the stage after her back up dancers for the first song, 'Welcome To New York,' the crowd was taken to the streets of New York. The stage was set up with benches, signs, and light poles. As always Taylor is very enthusiastic and has such a girly fashion sense. She wore a black sparkly crop top and a sparkly purple skirt with black pumps which as well were sparkly.

My favorite performance would have to be her number one hit song from the album, Blank Space. We all know this song as Taylor speaking of herself as a crazy, psycho girlfriend who is enthralled with her boyfriend one minute and wants to kill him the next. At the end of Blank Space Taylor takes a golf club and runs two of her dancers off stage screaming at them as the crowd cheers her on.



Taylor has this amazing song called Clean. One of my favorite songs on 1989. It's about becoming (finally.) clean after you were in a bad relationship or free of a breakup or free of an addiction. Before Taylor sung she reminded us we are not damaged goods. We are human and we make mistakes because what human being doesn't? A mistake is called a mistake to learn from it. In Taylor's words, "It's horrible because no one can see your face when they comment hateful things or why do you bother? No one can see how much it hurts you, you just have to live with it and I just wanted to let you know that I think that's unfair and I don't know how to fix it but can I just tell you I love you and I'm sorry if that's ever happened to you."  

Taylor Swift concerts are the best concerts. It's where you go for the music, to see a girl that truly believes in your dreams because you believed in hers. It's where you go to be surrounded by the nicest people, it's where you go to jump up and down. It's where you go to treat everyone like what they are worth and that's a lot. It's where you go though to feel better to cheer up because Taylor is such a comfort to so many people. If your mad just know you can let all your anger out with Bad Blood, If someone has hurt you sing to Mean, and if you have a broken heart Taylor has it covered ;)

I hope all of you get a chance to see Miss Taylor live because not only was she named most charitable person of 2014, not only was she named entertainer of the year three times in a row, but she is a friend, she's your friend.

If you would have any questions about this show please feel free to ask in the comments below. I'd love to answer even if it is just to rate the show over all or ask questions about the set.

May God bless you!

-Sammy

Sugar (Analyzation of Maroon 5's hit song.)

Hello you, fearless Catholics! What a week it's been! I feel like it's been non-stop there has always been some kind of errand or commitment that has kept me on my feet and busy. I've been so thankful when I can just go to sleep and rest for a couple hours.

Since I've been running around all this week I've spent a lot of time in the car listening to the radio. The top three songs that I couldn't get away from have been Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran, Bad Blood by Taylor Swift and Sugar by Maroon 5.

It was cool at first. Okay these are songs I like. Good job, radio! But after the fifth time they played I was really getting pretty irritated. There is only so many times I can hear, 'cuz baby now we got bad blood HEY.' in one day.

Anyways, so like I said Sugar plays on the radio about half the day on one radio station or another and there is no way you have not heard it by now. When you listen to this song the first or even thirtieth time it comes off as sort of a sexual lustful song and there's this trigger in my heart that say's, 'You probably shouldn't be listening to this song.' What if I told you this is a sweet innocent song that talks about true love? You'd be surprised. I took time analyzing this song to come up with this blog post and it wasn't hard to listen to it because Maroon 5 is a talented (and handsome) band.

I'm hurting baby I'm broken down,
I need your lovin, lovin' I need it now
When I'm without ya I'm something
weak you got me beggin beggin I'm
on my knees.

Meaning: Whenever this man is away from his soul mate he feels like 
his strength is gone. He loves this girl with his heart, mind, and soul and could not or would not move onto another women. He shows commitment in these lyrics. Commitment, Honesty, and Loyalty. 

I don't wanna be needing your love, I just wanna be deep in your love
It's killin me when you're away oh baby because I really don't
care where you are I just wanna be there where you are and I
gotta get one little taste.

Meaning: Many people see this as lustful lyric, because it is. If you look at it deeper though he is saying He wants to be with her all the time so he can give her unconditional love. It can also be seen as protection so he wants to protect her to be by her side because he will not risk her getting hurt. 

Sugar, yes please won't you come and pour it down on me?
I'm right here, cause I need little love and little sympathy
yeah you show me good lovin' make it alright
need a little sweetness in my life Sugar, yes please
won't you come and put it down on me?

Meaning: The chorus is hard to see past. You hear it as a sexual innuendo but it is all in the way you view it and look at it. Sugar is used as care, love, happiness etc... Their happiness is full of joy and if the relationship you are in is built on sex and lust you won't be happy, overall you will not be happy or you will not have joy. In his relationship with the girl he is fully happy because the relationship is built on loyalty, care, trust, and real love. 

My broken peices, you pick them up
don't leave me hangin, hanging come give me some
when I'm without ya, so insecure you are the one thing
one thing I'm living for

Meaning: Whenever he falls down and gets low she is always there to pick him up. She never leaves him suffering. When you are in a relationship you suffer together not apart. You are in a union with God and will not leave that union. He loves this women so much he is living for her and doing anything he can to have her be happy because he is happy with her. 

REPEAT OF THE CHORUS.  

I want that red velvet, I want that sugar sweet
don't let nobody touch it, unless that somebody is me
I gotta be your man there is no other way cause girl
you're hotter than the southern California bay

Meaning: He compares her to the sweetness of red velvet cake. He also tells her that she may not be lustful with any other guy unless it is him, her husband. Notice he also compares her to the beach where it is always beautiful and warm.

I don't play no games, I don't gotta be afraid
no makeup on that's my sugar

Meaning: This is the last verse of the song before going back to the chorus and the song ending. He isn't playing games with her, this relationship isn't a joke. He wants her to know he takes the relationship seriously and seriously enough to work through the hardchips. It is also a point that he says she looks better without makeup on, he loves her without makeup on, he loves her through the bad days, bad moods, and hardships. 

I hope you guys liked this post. It is easy to see the lustful and sexual things on the surface but once you dig deeper into the lyrics and dig deeper into your faith is where you'll find the real meanings. You can think what you want about this song but you need to find God everywhere and any situation.

God Bless,

Fearlessly Living Catholic.

Sammy