Why is Taylor Swift so big? She 'wants it more than anyone'

The star will take to the stage shortly after 19:00 BST, playing to almost 73,000 fans, who’ve come from all over the world to see her career-spanning, three-hour show.

It will be the first of 17 UK dates, culminating in a record-breaking eight-night run at London’s Wembley Stadium.

By then, she will have played to almost 1.2 million UK fans, with an average ticket price of £206.

Swift arrives in Scotland as the biggest musical phenomenon of her era, achieving a cultural weight not seen since the heyday of Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 1980s.

Her 152-date stadium tour is on pace to make more than $2 billion (£1.5 billion) by the time it wraps up in Canada this December. And that’s not including merchandise sales, or the $261 million (£204 million) her tour film made at the box office last year.

Local economies say they’ve received a “Taylor boost” of tens of millions of pounds when her show rolls into town; and one show in Seattle was said to have generated seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake,

To mark her arrival in Edinburgh, trams have been decorated with her picture, and Loch Tay has been renamed “Loch Tay Tay” for the weekend.

With all the excitement, it’s easy to forget that the last time she played in the UK, on 2018’s Reputation tour, stadiums failed to sell out. According to one report, the opening night in Manchester had 18,000 empty seats.

So what’s changed?

Her pandemic era albums Folklore and Evermore were a significant turning point – with the subtle, indie-folk arrangements winning over critics and fans who had previously been unimpressed by her country and pop hits.

The rise of TikTok introduced her to a new audience, while the on-going project of re-recording her first six albums rejuvenated her older hits.

“She is just one of those rare timeless artists who gets it right every time,” says fellow pop star Raye. “She’s an absolute powerhouse.”

“She’s such a fantastic role model,” adds Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall.

“She’s got the resilience and the chutzpah to be the boss of an enormous machine, employing thousands of people. To be able to handle that and handle what’s coming at her publicly, you’ve just got to be a one-off.”

Lana Del Rey, who duetted with Swift on the 2022 song Snow On The Beach, has another theory about the star’s dominance.

“She wants it,” the singer told BBC News.

“She’s told me so many times that she wants it more than anyone. And how amazing - she’s getting exactly what she wants.

“She’s driven, and I think it’s really paid off.”