Welcome to the (unofficial) Eras Tour!
The record-shattering, stadium bumping and happiness generating adventure through Taylor Swift’s 11 eras lives on through singer Charity Eden and her Lover Tribute Band.
“Taylor really is my biggest inspiration,” Eden says over a video call. “It’s just the relatability of her music and how her experiences are my experiences. It’s her ability to create a soundtrack to our lives.”
What fans may be shocked to learn is how fast the 35-year-old learned the lyrics and dance moves to 50+ songs. Surprisingly, she had never scream-shouted to “All Too Well,” danced to “Shake It Off” or harmonized to “Willow” until 2022.
“I honestly only listened to Christian music up until three years ago,” she says. Eden’s introduction to non-Christian music was the superstar’s 10th studio album. “When ‘Midnights’ came out, it wrecked me and literally changed my life.”
A friend invited her in 2023 to see the Eras Tour in Dallas, where she was indoctrinated in Swift lore. As the “Karma” confetti enveloped her at the end of the show, she knew she wanted to recreate the magic of the three-hour show. She just didn’t know how.
‘OK, I guess I’m doing this’
At Eden’s birthday party in June 2023, the University of North Texas music grad performed some Swift covers for her family and friends.
“My friend and now drummer,” she explains, “told a venue booker shortly after, ‘My friend Charity does a Taylor Swift tribute, you should call her.’ I got a call and was like, ‘OK, I guess I’m doing this.’”
The little white lie propelled her into a full-fledged career. She quit her finance and wealth management job and dived in, enlisting friends to join her 10-person team of bandmates, dancers and stage managers. She styled her hair like Swift’s signature blonde bangs, sharpened her cat eye and donned a bold red lip.
“This is what I was born to do,” she says. “I love when people come up after the show and say, ‘I wasn’t able to go to the Eras Tour and it feels like I got to go’ or ‘I was able to go to the Eras Tour and it feels like I got to go again.’”
Long live the Eras Tour with our enchanting book
Eden bought a bunch of spangly outfits on Etsy and had them professionally altered. Her portable closet of gowns, catsuits and jackets has followed her across the U.S. and to Japan, Canada and Kuwait.
“The costume changes are the craziest 2 minutes every 12 minutes,” she says. “In the beginning, I didn’t realize how long it would take. I had three friends backstage helping me do everything. But I learned a few tips and tricks like investing in high-quality zippers. There was one show where four zippers broke.”
She perfected the transitions between eras and now only needs one assistant to help backstage. And like Swift, she sings live.
“I’m not going a full three hours. It’s usually two,” she says. “There are days I don’t talk at all, just to fully recover my voice. I try to be as healthy as I can.”
Booked through 2026
Eden makes a point to emphasize she’s not affiliated with Swift’s team and her intention is to spread some of the sparkly and shimmery magic to cities and countries that never got the chance to see the show.
The tribute is as close to the Eras Tour as a fan can get, aside from turning back time. Eden hands out a “22” hat, plays a moss-adorned piano, faints after “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and sings “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.”
Her most memorable performance happened last Fourth of July for an audience of troops stationed in Kuwait.
“It was almost all men and it was fun to see how in the beginning, the crowd was maybe 50 feet from the stage and they weren’t really interacting,” she says. “During the ‘Fearless’ era I went out into the audience and slowly started luring them in. By the end of the show, they were right at the stage. I loved singing ‘Karma’ because they were all dancing and singing it down the octave.”
The Lover Tribute Band is booked through February 2026 with trips to Canada, Mexico, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, Oklahoma, Bermuda, Virginia, Utah, Minnesota, Ohio and Florida.
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Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network’s Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
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