Green Bay Swiftie who went viral in 2020 for protecting a box of signed Taylor Swift CDs had 'best day of my life' at Eras Tour
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Days after seeing Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Brandy Baenen is still somewhere between “I have goosebumps,” “I’m floating” and “I have no words.”
That's how good it was.
“Best day of my life to date,” said Baenen, who has already logged a couple of pretty sweet Swiftie moments.
She saw the Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018 at Soldier Field in Chicago, a previous contender for best day of her life. Then in 2020, while waiting for The Exclusive Co. to open so she could buy one of the autographed “Folklore” CDs Swift shipped to independent record stores, a UPS Inc. driver asked her to sign for a package for the store and drove off.
It turned out to be the box with 30 signed “Folklore” CDs — something she figured out from the return label and her keen Swiftie sense. She didn’t open it. She didn’t walk off with it, as she easily could have. She kept it safe until manager Tom Smith arrived 15 minutes later to open up.
His social media post about her good deed led to a Green Bay Press-Gazette story that was picked up by USA TODAY, the "Today" show and elsewhere and quickly went viral in the Taylor Swift universe.
So yes, she’s that Swiftie.
Baenen made a TikTok video before last Saturday's concert to let the superstar know her “Green Bay Swiftie” who kept the package safe and Baenen's boyfriend Garrett Lloyd, who was with her that morning outside The Exclusive Co., would be in attendance.
“I wanted her to know I was there. Five thousand people saw it, and I’m just hoping one of them was her or one of her people who told her I was going to be there, because I’m proud of her,” Baenen said.
It was her way of telling Swift, “I’ve still got your back.”
The two have never met, but Swift does know who 29-year-old Baenen is. A couple of weeks after her "Folklore" protective mission, Baenen received a box stuffed with Swift merchandise, including a vinyl copy of the “Lover” album signed with a note. There was also a handwritten card, complete with Swift's personal wax seal on the envelope, telling Baenen what an awesome person she is.
“Any time I’m having a bad day, that is what I think about,” Baenen said.
She went to Nashville concert dressed as 'The Archer'
Lloyd suggested maybe she should have a T-shirt made with the newspaper story on it to wear to the Eras Tour, but Baenen said she didn’t want to make the experience about her. It was about Swift and her musical eras, and Swift didn’t disappoint, playing for roughly three and a half hours.
“I started bawling through each (era), because it was like you were going through a 4D storybook with Taylor Swift and she was your guide,” Baenen said. “It’s like you’re connected with her the entire time. ... The whole next day I just kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, did that happen? Oh my God, that happened!’”
She and Lloyd were in the first row of the lower bowl. She wore a pink dress with wings and a cupid’s bow, a nod to “The Archer” off of 2019’s “Lover” album. The back of Lloyd’s shirt was spray-painted with the word “karma” just like it is on the 13th Street Station wall in “The Man” video.
Baenen spent the night screaming along with the stranger next to her over every song, because that’s how Swifties roll.
Swift’s entrance was “otherworldly, beautiful, poetic ...” Baenen still gets goosebumps talking about it. She said the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” felt like 60 seconds, and when “My Tears Ricochet” transitioned into “Illicit Affairs,” the emotion was almost too much.
Swift made an onstage wardrobe change into a magic trick with umbrellas and somehow made a stadium show with 70,500 people feel intimate, probably because “she is a literal angel on our Earth,” Baenen said.
“My boyfriend had no words for the first 20 minutes. He could not believe it. I told him, ‘Isn’t it going to be funny when people ask you what is the best concert you ever went to and you’re going to have to say Taylor Swift?’ Because he’s like a rap guy.”
Baenen marveled at Swift’s endurance during a marathon performance on what was the second of three nights in Nashville — after the Friday night when Swift announced the re-recorded "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" drops July 7 and before the Sunday night that turned into an epic rain show. She heard a lot of husbands and boyfriends talking on the way out about how much talent and stamina it took to pull it off. (Check out former NFL player J.J. Watt’s Instagram post after catching the tour's opening weekend in Arizona.)
“I’m out of breath from screaming to one song and she’s skipping and spinning and singing, and I’m like how does she do it?” Baenen said. “She must just run on a treadmill all day long. She does not sleep.”
'Fearless' album got her through difficult times as a teen
Swift’s music is deeply meaningful for Baenen, who was 14 when her parents were going through a divorce. She would retreat to her room and play Swift’s songs off 2008’s “Fearless” album over and over and write her own poetry.
“I felt like all of my 14-year-old wounds healed hearing ‘Fearless’ live with her,” Baenen said. “As I always say, she is the reason I am still alive. I don’t want to put that pressure on anybody but that 14-year-old girl needed an outlet, and she was my outlet and she still is my outlet. I’ve grown with her. I’m so proud of her. I’m so proud that she’s still someone to be proud of.”
The coolest thing in the package Swift sent to Baenen in 2020 was an envelope with 13 autographed photos and a note telling her to share them with other fans. It has been a way for her to give others just a taste of the rush she felt when Swift surprised her. She has carefully considered each one she has handed out.
"I’m not going to just give it to my friend if they’re not a Swiftie, as much as I love my friend," she said. "I wanted them to be people who are really going to feel it when they get it.”
She has one left and has a pretty good idea of who it will go to, just as soon as she comes back down to Earth after a concert experience she expects will have her floating for at least the next six months.
“It's a dream,” she said. “... I literally live in Tay universe, because she just keeps giving us so much."
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Taylor Swift fan who went viral in 2020 says Eras Tour 'a dream'
