Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” hits different when it’s Pride Month.
During the first of two Eras Tour shows in Lyon, France on Sunday, June 2, Swift added a special holiday message during the Lover portion of her set.
“Happy Pride Month, Lyon,” Swift, 34, exclaimed in between verses of “You Need to Calm Down” at the Groupama Stadium.
The Grammy winner dropped the Lover track in 2019, notably taking on homophobic haters. (Swift has long referred to herself as a straight ally of the LGBTQIA+ community.)
“You are somebody that we don’t know / But you’re coming at my friends like a missile / Why are you mad? / When you could be GLAAD?” Swift sings. “Sunshine on the street / at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Making that sign, must’ve taken all night.”
She continues, “You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace / And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate / ‘cause shade never made anybody less gay.”
🚨| Taylor Swift wishes a Happy Pride Month to all during “You Need To Calm Down” at today’s show! #LyonTSTheErasTour 🏳️🌈
“Happy Pride Month Lyon!”
— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) June 2, 2024
The music video for “You Need to Calm Down” also featured several queer icons from Queer Eye hosts to a selection of beloved drag queens.
Swift made a similar Pride Month speech to Sunday’s during her June 2023 Eras Tour concert in Chicago.
“I’m looking out tonight [and] I’m seeing so many incredible individuals who are living authentically and beautifully, and this is a safe space for you,” she gushed on the stage. “This is a celebratory space for you. One of the things that makes me feel so prideful is getting to be with you and watching you interact with each other, being so loving and so thoughtful and so caring.”
At the time, Swift gushed that singing lines like “shade never made anybody less gay” is extra special during Pride Month.
“Being with you during Pride Month, getting to sing the words to ‘You Need To Calm Down’ where there are lyrics like, ‘Can you just not step on his gown?’ or, ‘Shade never made anybody less gay,’ and you guys are screaming those lyrics [with] such solidarity [and] such support of one another,” Swift said last June. “[There’s] such encouraging, beautiful acceptance and peace and safety. I wish that every place was safe and beautiful for people of the LGBTQ+ community.”
Swift has often championed the queer community.
“Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male,” she told Vogue in an August 2019 profile. “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of. It’s hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud. When I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It’s clickbait, and it’s a part of my life story, and it’s a part of my career arc.”
