Maren Morris presented Taylor Swift with the iHeartRadio Tour of the Year Award, a fitting tribute since Morris previously joined Swift for one of Swift’s Reputation Tour dates last year.
“Proud of you, Taylor Swift,” Morris wrote. “It isn’t about ticket sales, it’s not about numbers… you just make it about your fans and how they feel before, during, + after your show. I was honored to present Tour of the Year to you.”
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Swift, whose Reputation Tour broke several attendance records, acknowledged from stage that the tour exceeded almost everyone’s expectations, except maybe her own.
“I think one of the most wonderful things about the way that this whole tour turned out is that for the entire six months leading up to the first show of this tour, every headline that I read about the tour was ‘This is going to be a massive failure, this is going to be a flop tour,’” Swift said. “And, you know, it really did wonders for my self-esteem. It was really great to hear people saying that I was gonna be playing to nearly empty stadiums.
“I’ve learned a lot, and one of the things I’ve learned is that life is really unpredictable, and people can make forecasts and make predictions, but those predictions and forecasts may not come true if there’s an unforeseeable factor involved. And that unforeseeable factor in this case was my fans. I honestly owe everything, everything in my life to you … You guys are the reason this tour, and the only reason why this tour, wasn’t a massive failure and ended up being the highest-selling tour in US history.”
This has been a busy week for Morris, and not just because of the iHeartRadio Awards. The 28-year-old performed a sold-out show at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, as part of her Girl: The World Tour.
“I’ve been on this stage before, and I’ve felt the weight of these halls, these windows, these beautiful stained glass windows,” Morris said from stage. “A few years ago, I opened for this guy, Chris Stapleton. It was really monumental, because my parents got to come up. It was my first Ryman set I was getting to do.
“That was three and a half years ago now,” she continued. “To think about all the things that have transpired since then is just pretty freaking bizarre. So thank you guys for selling out my first Ryman show!”
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Jeff Kravitz
