Standing in the evening sunlight, surrounded by nearly 90,000 people singing along with Taylor Swift on Friday evening, it was hard to hold back the emotion.
The crowd, made up mostly of women, was collectively having a moment: basking in that feeling of pure contentment you get when you know there’s nowhere in the world you’d rather be.
This may seem like a strange place for a political column to start, but as someone who reports mainly on those in positions of power, it’s hard for me to not consider Swift in this light.
To hold so many people in the palm of your hand or the arch of an eyebrow is quite something. Even those not devoted to the singer are impressed by her ability to understand what a crowd wants and to deliver it night after night, in a way that makes fans feel like they know who she really is.
I suspect this thought wasn’t lost on Sir Keir Starmer, also in the audience on Friday, as the 34-year-old Swift danced and sang for almost three hours. Harnessing even a fingerful of the appeal Swift does would be the stuff of dreams for most seeking the top job in politics – perhaps........