Taylor Swift Tops List of Openers Who Went on to Outshine Their Headliners: Who Else is on the List?

Taylor Swift’s most recent tour brought shattered records, but she was once playing smaller stages as an opener. Many popular artists introduced themselves to audiences as openers and have later gone on to gain more popularity than their headlining act. Swift tops the list of the most successful among these, but there are a number of other openers who have gone on to have huge careers.

Taylor Swift was the opener for Rascal Flatts before she hit it big

In 2006, Swift released her debut album, Taylor Swift, and learned she would be headlining for Rascal Flatts on their Me and My Gang tour. She could hardly believe it when she heard the news. She turned to her diary to let out her excitement.

“Oh my God,” she wrote in a diary entry from Oct. 18, 2006 (per Taste of Country). “I am on the Rascal Flatts tour! I got the call yesterday and I screamed louder than I can ever remember screaming before.”

Swift didn’t join them for the entirety of the tour. Instead, they added her at the last minute after their original opener, Eric Church, played over his allotted time. As a result, Rascal Flatts played late and had to pay fines. They decided to replace him with Swift.

“I’m opening up for the last nine dates of their tour,” Swift wrote. “I’m SO excited. My first Rascal show is tomorrow night in Omaha, Nebraska. I am SO excited.”

When Swift got her first gold record, she wrote a thank you note to Church. 

“Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour,” she wrote. “I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor.”

She tops the list of artists who went on to outshine their headliner

Swift is one of the most famous people on the planet, so it’s no surprise that she tops the list of openers who became more popular than their opener.

According to analysis from TicketSource, Swift has had 59 Top 10 singles while Rascal Flatts has just two. She has 84 million monthly Spotify listeners compared to their 10.7 million and 9.32 million monthly searches compared to their 48,000. 

Swift is far from the only act who has grown more popular than the group for whom they opened, though. Lady Gaga opened for New Kids on the Block in 2008 and has eclipsed them in popularity, putting her at number two on the list. Ed Sheeran is next, growing more popular than Snow Patrol after their 2012 tour, and Katy Perry comes in fourth, following her 2009 tour with No Doubt.

The Weeknd and Billie Eilish are numbers five and six on the list. Both acts opened for Florence + The Machine. Gwen Stefani appears on the list again, after the number seven most popular opener, Rihanna, joined her on her 2005 tour. 

Numbers eight, nine, and ten on the list are Noah Kahan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan. All three were openers in 2017, and toured with Ben Folds, The Vamps, and Vance Joy, respectively. 

Taylor Swift was the opener for several acts

Swift has had many opening acts over the years. She is popular enough that many of both the headliners and openers on the list have toured with her. Before this, though, she was the opener for more groups than just Rascal Flatts.

She opened for George Strait in 2007 and Brad Paisley in 2008. She also opened for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their joint tour. This was fitting, as her debut single was “Tim McGraw.”

She joined Rascal Flatts again in 2008 and Keith Urban in 2009. After that, she started headlining her own tours.