ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
London is a sea of pink and glitter tonight. It's Taylor Swift's last concert of the summer there - a city where she's performed more than any other this year. Swift used to live in London, and some of the city's neighborhoods feature in her songs. NPR's Lauren Frayer went to visit some of the singer's old haunts.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Now, this looks like a timeless London pub with locals drinking in the afternoon, except...
EVA MOSS: Except Taylor Swift wrote a song about it.
FRAYER: Eva Moss works at a bar near Vauxhall called The Black Dog...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BLACK DOG")
TAYLOR SWIFT: (Singing) Some bar called The Black Dog.
FRAYER: ...Which is the name of a song on Taylor Swift's latest album, about seeing her British ex, a London boy, with another woman at this very pub. And when the pub staff heard it...
MOSS: We kind of saw it, and we thought, is that about us? And then, yeah, within about 24 hours, we were flooded on social media.
FRAYER: This is what they call the Taylor Swift effect - her Midas touch. The pub says it's tripled its revenue with Swift in town for eight concerts this summer.
MOSS: Taylor Swift seems to turn everything to gold. She's had an impact on the entire economy of the U.K.
FRAYER: It comes at a poignant time. Three young girls were fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last month. Swift met with survivors and invited victims' families to her show at Wembley Stadium tonight. Her Vienna shows were canceled because of a terror threat. Security here is high as Swifties descend on the city, including its iconic museums.
KATE BAILEY: Make some space for other visitors, please. Thank you.
FRAYER: There's an uncanny number of teenage girls in this museum that's otherwise about 15th-century British decor.
BAILEY: Yeah. I mean, I don't think we've ever seen anything quite like this. This is a phenomenon of the Swiftie fandom.
FRAYER: Kate Bailey is a curator at the vaunted V&A, the Victoria and Albert Museum, which this summer has been swarming with fearless Swifties in friendship bracelets...
Two-hundred thirty friendship bracelets.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah, approximately.
FRAYER: ...For an exhibition called the Taylor Swift Songbook Trail. It traces an invisible string through Swift's outfits. There's a sparkly, gold catsuit, a bejeweled microphone with a curling snake and the beard she wore in her video, "The Man."
BAILEY: What I decided to do with this one was to place it on this incredible marble staircase, where she's flanked by Venus and Diana.
FRAYER: A 17th-century gilded music room has been outfitted with speakers blasting Swift's greatest hits. In London this cruel summer, there are Swiftie cocktails. But be careful if you're wearing high heels on cobblestone. With August slipping away, there's still time for Swiftie tours.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL DINGING)
PETER MULCAHY: Hi. I'm Peter, your London cabbie. I'm going to take you to where Taylor has her coffee when she's in London.
FRAYER: Peter Mulcahy has been ferrying fans on rainy cab rides to Camden Market, Highgate, Shoreditch, Hackney, which all feature in Taylor's lyrics.
MULCAHY: Dropped them at Wembley - it was carnage.
FRAYER: Carnage of friendship bracelets and...
MULCAHY: It was...
FRAYER: ...Pink cowboy hats?
MULCAHY: ...Insane.
FRAYER: Wembley Stadium, which seats 92,000, has been sold out every night. There's glitter on the floor, sequined fans singing their way into the arena.
HEIDI CONWAY AND MOLLY SHEEHAN: (Singing) Betty, I won't make assumptions...
FRAYER: Heidi Conway and her daughter, Molly Sheehan, came all the way from Boston. It's been the best day, they say, because Swifties...
HEIDI CONWAY: They're everywhere - cool outfits...
MOLLY SHEEHAN: When I look on the ground...
CONWAY: ...(Laughter) Fun.
SHEEHAN: When I was looking on the ground at the train station, all I saw was sparkles.
FRAYER: Taylor Swift can still make the whole place shimmer as she says, tonight, so long, London.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAYLOR SWIFT SONG, "FEARLESS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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