Support truly
independent journalism
A man has been detained on suspicion of stalking Taylor Swift ahead of the first of three shows by the pop star, German police have said.
The man was detained following tips from organisers of the event, police said in a statement. The man previously made threats against the singer, according to local media.
They gave no more details of the man or the background to the incident.
Police said that Wednesday evening’s concert, attended by about 60,000 people, went peacefully.
The American superstar has shows in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as part of her Eras Tour.
Ahead of the concerts, the city put up signs temporarily renaming itself “Swiftkirchen” and honoured the singer on a “Walk of Fame” that commemorates local celebrities.
A yellow city sign with the new name — which translates roughly to “Swift's Church” — was unveiled Tuesday by Swift fan Aleshanee Westhoff, who suggested the name to the city's mayor and started a petition a few weeks ago.
Mayor Karin Welge thanked the teenager for her “great idea” in a letter accepting the proposal.
The concert took place in Veltins Arena, the home of German football club Schalke 04, and around 200,000 "Swifties" are expected to flock to the city this week.
After record-breaking concerts across Europe, Ms Swift took to the stage in Gelsenkirchen and greeted fans in German:
"Willkommen zur Eras Tour! (Welcome to the Eras Tour!)" she said. "Schön, euch zu sehen! (Nice to see you!)" she added, to huge cheers.
Continuing in English, she promised: “It won’t be that long before I come back again.”
The pop star last performed in Germany nine years ago.
After Gelsenkirchen, Swift plans concerts in two other German cities, Hamburg and Munich.
Earlier this week, Taylor Swift’s concert in Dublin created ‘seismic activity’ that could be detected up to 100km away, according to new research.
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies set up 21 seismometers to detect tremors outside of the Aviva Stadium, which are being dubbed ‘Swiftquakes’.
The song which caused the largest seismic activity was her 2008 hit ‘Love Story’, and some tremors could be detected as far away as Wexford.
PhD candidate, Eleanor Dunn said of the study: “It’s amazing that we’ve been able to measure the reaction of thousands of Swifties through our data... seismicity happens every day without us knowing.”
Additional reporting by AP
