Toronto seems completely enamored with Taylor Swift, with her fans starting to flock to one of her six sold-out shows this month.

The city is quickly showing its love for the Grammy Award-winning singer by changing street signs in her honor, limiting construction and increasing transit service to pave the way for crowds of “Swifties” to come. will head towards the Rogers Centre. over the next two weeks.

Numerous events will also take place across the city to honor the “Blank Space” singer (including a “Taylgate” pre-show).

Toronto has never given the same treatment to any other musician before, so why is this Pennsylvania-born singer getting so much attention?

Stephanie Burt, an English professor at Harvard University who has taught an entire course on Taylor Swift and her world, wouldn’t call the singer’s appeal universal — since it says virtually nothing about the human experience . But she highly values ​​Swift because of her ability to connect with her audience through her music.

“She is extremely gifted in the technical aspects of songwriting. She just has the ability to create a lot of melodies, a lot of song structures and a lot of phrases that people really enjoy hearing over and over again, remembering, repeating and singing along to,” Burt told CTV News Toronto.

“She has maintained this ability across 11 albums, which is quite unusual without repeating herself.”

It’s a testament that Swift honors through “The Eras Tour,” aptly named as she journeys through each project throughout her career – from her sophomore album “Fearless” to her recent “The Tortured Poets Department.” – during his three and a half years. -half-hour show.

Throughout Swift’s eras, the singer has managed to maintain, if not propel, her popularity, with Billboard giving her a dozen number-one songs on its Hot 100 list and 59 top 10 hits. Her albums have also been in topped the charts, with “1989” and “Fearless” each spending 11 weeks at the top of the chart. List of Billboard 200and his latest feature “The Tortured Poets Department” reigns supreme for 15 weeks.

Burt credits Swift’s wide range of literary and musical references in her songs through the use of simple vocabulary as another key to her success. The Harvard professor says she’s able to draw inspiration from Joni Mitchell and Brandy for books like “Rebecca” and “The Great Gatsby.”

“(Swift) has an extremely wide range of references that she can draw on, not only from album to album, but within her albums. She does it in a way that doesn’t seem…overtly intellectual, so it’s great, and it’s something she learned to do by listening and reading and practicing,” Burt said.

Although Swift is handy with her pen – even literally, as she categorizes her songs based on which pen she uses to write each song from a fountain, quill or pen. glitter gel pen – Burt highlighted his ability to collaborate with other musicians as another element of staying fresh and creating consistently catchy music.

“She’s so good at collaborating. She can write an entire album of extremely catchy, well-constructed songs herself, and she did it once to make a point (with the album “Speak Now”), but she’d rather change, change and grow.” , Burt said.

“She’s very good at working with people and that’s one of the reasons she’s been able to stay fresh and do something different with each album.”

Swift has had an eclectic mix of musicians who have developed their talents over the years, from hip-hop mogul Kendrick Lamar on “Bad Blood” to country star Keith Urban on “That’s When” and pop-punk princess Hayley Williams on “Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version)”, just to name a few.

But, aside from vocal features, she has also worked with artists during the songwriting process, including Grammy Award-winning producer Jack Antonoff, who first collaborated with Swift in 2013 with “Sweeter Than Fiction.”

“Both ambitious and relevant”

And while Burt says her ability to collaborate well with other artists reflects her desire to grow and produce albums that are different from previous ones, she notes that Swift’s ability to present herself as both ambitious and accessible is another key element that explains why she is so loved. by the fans.

“The Taylor that emerges from most of her hits and most of her songs, and all of her albums, is someone many of us want to be like, look up to as a great person, aspire to or imagine be, and someone who we feel understands us, knows us, already looks like us, understands us, connects to the problems and challenges we already have in our lives and the role we already play,” he said. she declared.

“It’s hard to do as a writer in any type of writing, especially hard to do in songwriting where you have so many constraints that don’t apply to poetry written in pages or writing novels, or writing screenplays, and she was able to do it again and again to be both ambitious and relevant.

Although brimming with talent in more ways than one, Burt says part of Swift’s success that’s “hard to talk about” is the privilege she enjoys as a white, blonde, and traditionally attractive woman.

“She didn’t choose to be blonde or white or 5’11 or have the build that she has, but it’s important when you think about the success of a pop star to think about how many pop stars at this level – most popstars, especially women, and it’s very gendered, they’re not listened to, they’re looked at,” Burt said.

The Harvard professor also pointed to the “reputation” of Swift’s sixth studio album, which depended on her personality and how the public viewed her at the time (when she was involved in various activities). celebrity feuds and public breakups, and was so I’m reluctant to talk about politics).

“It’s an album about white privilege, which she wasn’t ready to talk about in 2017, she wasn’t ready to talk to the media at all after what she had experienced, but she was quietly writing about it ,” Burt said.

“White privilege and pretty privilege are part of her success, and she knows it, and seeing that doesn’t take away, I hope, from the tremendous talent she’s shown and the way she’s known use, but it does.” a disservice to the study of culture, to its listeners, and to the truth if you don’t recognize it.

Swift performs the first of her sold-out Toronto shows this Thursday at the Rogers Centre. The nearly 21-month “The Eras Tour” is scheduled to end next month in Vancouver.