The first time I realized my dad was a Swiftie, I awoke to the din of Taylor Swift reverberating through the shared wall between my bedroom and my dad’s office.
It was the first week of the COVID-19 lockdown. I was still living at home, and furious over the abrupt end to my precious pre-work slumber. Like any good melodramatic daughter, I stormed out of my room — eyes still heavy with sleep — and barged in through the open doors of my dad’s office.
The sight of my father, 49 at the time, gleefully bouncing in his chair and singing along to Swift’s 2019 pop-feminist hit “The Man,” stopped me dead in my tracks. We locked eyes as he turned down the music. His face immediately flushed beet red. After exchanging quick good mornings, I smiled, and slowly turned away. He had finally been caught.
Lockdown forced many of us to learn things about our loved ones formerly masked by our daily lives, and in my case, it was that every morning, after I’d left for work, my dad’s a.m. ritual consisted of getting up, making a cup of coffee, and then proceeding to blast Swift’s music through our apartment. In his words, it was “windows open, curtains open, and a grown-ass man singing about ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts.’” What?
Since that fateful morning, my dad and I have cranked up our friendship to 13 — yes, my dad is one of my best friends — blasting Swift’s bops on our car rides around LA, throwing a Midnights release party (at midnight, naturally), and most recently, making the trek to Inglewood to catch her record-breaking sold-out, six-night “Eras” tour run at So-Fi Stadium.
Taylor Swift performs for the fourth night of the Eras Tour in Los Angeles. Swift is ending the first U.S. leg of her tour with a six-night stint at SoFi Stadium. Photo by Sandy Hooper-USA TODAY.
Swift’s tour, which wrapped up its first leg Aug. 9, is expected to gross more than $1 billion by its 2024 end. Each show includes hits from across the singer-songwriter's 17-year career and has been an economic boon for cities countrywide. She even got a name-check in Philadelphia’s edition of the US Federal Reserve’s Beige Book. At SoFi (and elsewhere), fans who couldn’t get tickets “Taylor-gated” in the parking lot to attend the concert outdoors. All of which is to say: It takes more than gaggles of screaming teenage girls to power this machine. Swiftmania is real.
More: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is like mini Super Bowls for local economies
A few nights before T-Day, my dad is making Swift-inspired friendship bracelets on the coffee table in anticipation of the show. He asks me if I’ve started making mine yet (I haven’t).
He tells me about watching a video on social media about Swiftie dads wearing handmade merch — only to admit that they’re only wearing them because their daughters wanted them to (in solidarity, of course).
“Hrmph,” my dad scoffs. “They’re not real Swiftie Dads.”
Real Swiftie Dads make friendship bracelets. Photos by Marco Chiriguayo.
To be clear, my dad beat me to the punch in undergoing his own Swiftiecation, putting in the time to pour over her discography, new and old. It was through him that I learned Swift sang a cover of one of my favorite ‘80s songs during the LA stop of her 2011 Speak Now World Tour: “Bette Davis Eyes.” The “Anti-Hero” singer has even topped my dad’s Spotify Wrapped for the last three years in a row.
Of course, he’s not the only Swiftie Dad out there (“real” or otherwise). Many others have made recent headlines about their love and devotion to Swift. But hey, when’s the last time you and your #GirlDad marathon-session screamed at the top of your lungs, alongside thousands of other fans, for one of the biggest pop stars in the world?
So, like any diligent journalist, I sat down with my dad to talk about his experience at Swift’s blowout bonanza at SoFi Stadium, and how he became enchanted to begin with — it’s me, hi, I’m the problem.
Father and daughter duo Danielle and Marco Chiriguayo during the “Speak Now” set at the Eras Tour. Photo by Marco Chiriguayo.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about your relationship with Miss Americana, with Miss Taylor Swift herself. Where did it all start?
Marco Chiriguayo: It's a little fuzzy at the beginning, but it did start off as a song that I heard [“You Belong With Me”] that I didn't hate, that I would play ironically. And then I started tapping my foot. And then I started humming lyrics. And then pretty soon I was singing lyrics. It's very reminiscent of the scene in Easy A with the greeting card and “Pocketful of Sunshine.”
I slowly became obsessed with it. The more I heard the song, the more I liked it. The more I liked it, the more songs I looked up. Then slowly but surely, there were music videos, and then there was an ironic shirt gift I got from you, which I never wore until recently. I'm actually wearing one of the shirts that you gave me right now.
You blame me, right? I started all of this.
It was one of those, you listened to her, so I listened to her. It was just like, “Oh yeah, Taylor Swift? How do I not know about Taylor Swift?” And [her music] just ear-wormed. You and I share that whole "a tune gets stuck in your ear and you can’t get rid of it." It was more of a slow, gradual process, and then I just went full crazy Swiftie.
I always thought Taylor was going to be a fleeting fixation for you. We both have these interests that take hold and they fizzle out. What is it about Taylor and her music that solidified its grip on you?
The variety in her music and lyrics. Aside from being catchy, they have powerful messages — at times whimsical ones, others, in your face call-outs. The ones that I like to call "crazy Taylor" are the more fun ones, where she just doesn't give a crap, where she's irreverent. Every now and again, I'll hear a song, and then I'll hear something that I hadn't heard before. Or something that'll trigger a different reaction and be like, "Oh, I never thought about that lyric." [Author’s note: He’s not kidding. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a text that read, "Wait, Taylor meant THAT?"]
You’ve fallen down the rabbit hole, haven’t you?
I already fell down the rabbit hole. I’m talking to the worm now.
Marco Chiriguayo’s prep for his Eras Tour outfit. Photo by Marco Chiriguayo.
In the past, you felt differently about going to a Taylor Swift concert.
I think the dad that would have taken you to the last concert would have gone as a Swiftie Dad. I also don't know if I could have handled 70,000 screaming fans, belting out the lyrics in my ear. I wouldn't have thought I was gonna be that fan.
What changed?
So much good music came from Taylor during the pandemic. I remember the Long Pond Sessions. We got to see Taylor do this acoustic set and heard her thoughts. I watched that a couple times. I got closer to the music with that album. That was the beginning of the end.
You’ve gone through your own set of "eras" as a Swiftie.
Listening to Folklore was a different kind of Taylor. Then, listening to Lover was like, "Oh, my God, this is happy Taylor." I was so used to in-your-face Reputation Taylor. I like that I can listen to all of these different songs and get big and loud, or powerful, or soft and ethereal. She spans the entire spectrum.
Marco Chiriguayo flexes his Eras Tour ‘fit at a pre-show pilgrimage to the Millennium Biltmore hotel, where Swift filmed her video for “Delicate.” Photo by Danielle Chiriguayo.
How did you prepare for our night at the Eras Tour?
We'd been talking about it for weeks now: "What are we going to wear? What are we going to wear?" And I had no clue what I was going to wear. I've been staying away from all the social media posts, because I did not want to know the setlist. I didn't want to know the secret songs. I didn't even know there were secret songs!
Then, I saw a picture of the white t-shirt with the black writing from the “22” music video. They reminded me a lot of the '80s — the Wham! shirts. And I was like, "Oh, that's cool. I could make that." Then you said something about the [heart-shaped] glasses. And then I was thinking, "Oh, the hats! I've got at least one black hat here somewhere.”
You did say no booty shorts though.
I did say no booty shorts. But aside from that, I did go down the friendship bracelet rabbit hole.
Which you beat me to, by the way!
It's funny because they're still sitting here on my desk. I'm thinking that I’m gonna make friendship bracelets until I run out of letters. Next time I get together with my friends, I’m going to give them all friendship bracelets and I’ll probably hide a little Taylor Swift Easter egg in there.
A fan augments Marco Chiriguayo’s Swiftie look after exchanging friendship bracelets on the LA Metro en route to SoFi stadium. Photo by Danielle Chiriguayo.
While we were in line, decked out in our hats, t-shirts, and friendship bracelets, you also tracked down a whole bunch of other dads in the crowd.
My goal was to create a whole bunch of dad friendship bracelets, with dad jokes and dad puns for the dads that were there because they wanted to be there. And the ones that were there because they had to be there.
The first one I did was "dad reputation." Then I made a bunch of "Swiftie Dad" [ones]. I did "karma is a dad." I did "dads for Tay Tay." Every time I hear Tay Tay, I think of when The Rock came out as a Taylor Swift fan. [Author’s Note: Dwayne Johnson also voiced The Man in Swift’s music video for “The Man.”]
So what did you think of the concert?
The show was crazy. It was intense. It was loud. It was fun. It was emotional. The only thing that would have made it better was having floor seats, but I can't complain about our seats. We had amazing seats with a great view of everything.
It felt short. It felt like it was over too quickly. Three-and-a-half hours, 44 songs, and I'm still not over it. I didn't take a lot of photos or a lot of videos because there are people who are way better at it and I can go online and see them. To hear people with excitement and energy and passion — without being there — it's hard to explain.
Danielle Chiriguayo takes in the view from their seats. Photo by Marco Chiriguayo.
Plus all of those ear-piercing screams — and maybe some from me too.
I understand why ear plugs were on a lot of people's list of things to [bring], right after friendship bracelets.
Was there anything that surprised you about the show?
The size of the stage and how Taylor worked the entire stage the entire time. She's running up and down singing. She's a machine. It was insane. She looks like an Olympic-level athlete at this point, and it looked like she was having a good time the whole time. It's such a symbiotic relationship — the fan energy, her energy, completely feeding into each other. I think that that was my biggest "wow" moment.
Marco and Danielle Chiriguayo queue up for the show at SoFi stadium. Photo by Marco Chiriguayo.
If you had to pick your favorite era, what would it be?
If I had to go by what album I've listened to the most, it would be Midnights. It’s Taylor at — hopefully not her peak — but she is rocketing now with her new sound. It’s built up to this moment. I wasn't sure what to expect when Midnights was dropping, and I was pleasantly surprised with how it sounded, because it sounds different than all the other albums.
A close second would be Lover — another album that I can listen to the whole thing over and over again and I like every single song on that album.
More: Ticketless Taylor Swift fans still party outside SoFi for Eras Tour
You’re also always watching Taylor’s NPR Tiny Desk, which features songs off of Lover.
When I was making friendship bracelets, I was watching her Tiny Desk. It's like having Taylor in the same room and she's just having a chill playing session with friends.
What is it about Taylor for you, dad?
Her music tames the savage beast. Her music has a calming effect. I can play it in the background and work, or sew, or clean, or work on my car. It's music that’s wormed its way into all the little cracks of my heart.
Danielle Chiriguayo poses for her dad just before Swift hits the stage. Photo by Marco Chiriguayo.
We hear a lot about the young women who live and breathe Taylor Swift, but we don't often hear about the dads and guys who are big Swifties. What would you say to folks reading this?
To the people who don't or haven't, I would say give it a try. Give her a try. Listen to a couple of songs with an open mind. She says “haters gonna hate,” and a lot of people just dislike her music for no other reason than not having heard it.
When you hear a song you like, it doesn't matter who sings it. But if you like it, it may be the gateway to a few other songs and maybe a gateway to standing in a virtual Ticketmaster queue, trying to fight thousands of fans for tickets.
Looking for where to start on your Taylor Swift musical journey? Check out Marco Chiriguayo’s top 5 tracks from Tay Tay, including some honorable mentions (in no particular order).
