Watch: Taylor Swift welcomed to London by military band at Buckingham Palace
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Buckingham Palace has welcomed Taylor Swift to London with a special Changing the Guard.
The singer is set to perform at Wembley stadium on Friday as part of her Eras tour.
The Royal family tweeted a video of the troops standing outside the palace playing a rendition of Shake It Off alongside the caption: “Can’t stop, won’t stop groovin’”.
The 34-year-old is performing a three-night run of London shows this weekend.
In November tourists watching the Changing of the Guard found themselves witnessing history as the Band of the Coldstream Guards played some modern K-pop songs.
The military band surprised onlookers by playing two K-pop songs in a nod to the South Korean state visit.
The Royal family had hosted the president and first lady among diplomatic guests at Buckingham Palace.
Tourists, and those working at the palace, heard Gangnam Style by Psy, the 2012 song which sparked a galloping dance craze, and Ddu-Du Ddu-Du by Blackpink. They also played the Korean folk song, Arirang.
Swift Tube map
Transport for London (TfL) also recognised the singer’s visit to the capital with a Taylor Swift version of the Tube map.
The revised map of the London Underground network replaces the names of regular stations and lines with references to Swift’s music.
Posting a picture on X, TfL wrote: “And by the way, I’m going out tonight. Introducing Tube Map (Taylor’s Version)”.
Hordes of fans are expected to descend on the 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium on Friday to see Swift perform.
The artist’s Eras tour has just finished a run of shows in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff.
Swift is playing 10 more dates in the UK and Ireland including this weekend’s London shows.
The singer will then head to Dublin before returning to London in August for another set of dates at Wembley.
On Wednesday during a performance in Cardiff she delighted fans by speaking Welsh.
The US pop star kicked off her performance at the Principality Stadium in Wales with a number of hit songs including Cruel Summer, before turning her hand to the Welsh language.
“Shwmae,” Swift told the crowd in videos circulating on social media, which means hello in English.
“Croeso i daith Eras,” she added, which means: “Welcome to the Eras tour.”
Upon the release of Swift’s new album in April fans flocked to a London pub after it was mentioned in the lyrics of a song.
In The Tortured Poet’s Department she namechecks The Black Dog in Vauxhall, south-west London.
The pub is mentioned as “some bar” on a track called The Black Dog. It became so crowded with “Swifties” that staff had to turn away customers.
Fans believe the singer wrote some of her lyrics about her former partners Matty Healy, the musician, and Joe Alwyn, the actor.
She is now in a relationship with Travis Kelce, an NFL American football player.
Swift is set to play in London a day after two women were arrested after Just Stop Oil attempted to spray her private jet at Stansted Airport with orange paint – but failed to find it.
It is understood the two climate activists attempted to target Swift’s jet, claiming they knew its tail number, but weren’t able to locate it. Instead, they sprayed two jets at random using fire extinguishers filled with orange paint. Swift had landed at the private terminal at the Essex airport hours earlier, Just Stop Oil said.
