Taylor Swift can do it with a broken heart — and with a broken stage.
Swift, 34, proved she’s as professional as it comes when part of her stage broke down during her third Eras Tour concert in New Orleans on Sunday, October 27. According to footage shared via social media, the incident occurred during the portion of the set dedicated to Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Swift typically stands on an elevated platform — which fans have playfully dubbed the “roomba” — that moves down the catwalk while she sings “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” During Sunday’s performance, however, the set piece didn’t move forward.
Without missing a beat, Swift hopped off the platform and strutted down the catwalk, spinning wildly across the stage. Her dancers continued behind her as if there was nothing wrong.
“That’s iconic mother behavior,” one fan wrote via social media, praising Swift for keeping calm and carrying on. “Such a pro, I love her,” another user commented.
A third fan was surprised by how powerful the performance still was despite the malfunction, writing, “I actually love it without the roomba???”
The platform also plays a role in Swift’s performance of “Down Bad,” during which she kneels on the moving surface beneath a beam of light shining from a spaceship. With the platform out of commission, Swift did much of the same choreography on the floor of the stage.
Swift first integrated TTPD into the Eras Tour in May, one month after the album’s release. Travis Kelce, who’s been dating the pop star since summer 2023, was on hand when the new-and-improved setlist made its debut in France.
“I had a blast at Tay’s show,” Kelce 35, gushed on a May episode of his “New Heights” podcast. “Her new rendition of The Eras Tour, I suggest everybody go see it. It has her new Tortured Poets Department [album], a handful of those songs in the new show, which means theres a new segment and new lights and new dancing, new everything to the f—ing show. I suggest everybody get out there and see [her]. It is absolutely unbelievable.”
Kelce noted that he “enjoyed every bit” of the “amazing” concert, adding, “It was an all-around lovely night.”
He echoed his praise later that month while speaking with Us Weekly exclusively at his Kelce Jam festival in Kansas City. “Taylor’s shows are unbelievable,” he said at the time. “If you haven’t been to them, you gotta try it.”
Kelce has taken his own advice, supporting Swift at several more Eras Tour shows in Europe and the U.K. throughout the NFL offseason. When she returned to the stage in Miami after a two-month break, however, Travis didn’t join his brother, Jason Kelce, and other family members in the crowd. (Travis and the Kansas City Chiefs played an away game against the Los Angeles Chargers that same weekend.)
“I had all the FOMO in the world with the entire family and a lot of our friends being there,” Travis told Jason, 36, during the Wednesday, October 23, episode of “New Heights.”
Following her shows in Miami and New Orleans, Swift will bring the Eras Tour to three more cities before it concludes in December: Indianapolis, Toronto and Vancouver.
