Taylor Swift Fires Up Academy Gala With Four Songs in Her First Band Performance Since the Eras Tour

Taylor Swift got the old gang back together for her first full-band performance since the Eras Tour, delivering a four-song set to a black-tie audience Saturday night at the Academy Museum 6th Annual Gala.

As an indicator of just how long she’s been off any kind of regular performance circuit, the gala-capping show included Swift’s first-ever live rendering of “The Fate of Ophelia,” the smash hit single she released just over a year ago, on Oct. 3, 2025. The song is expected to be a leading contender for record of the year and other categories at the 2027 Grammys, for which voters just received their first ballots.

As expected, she also sang her contender for the coming year’s Oscars, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” from the Pixar film “Toy Story 5.” It wasn’t her first live performance of that song — she did it at the Grammy Museum and at a private Ross House FYC showcase — but it was her first time singing it with a full band, as well as by itself and not part of a medley. That song is also up for contention at the Grammys, entered in the song of the year category, as well as film soundtrack and country divisions.

For the remaining two slots in her set, Swift dug farther back into the past, covering both her cynical and romantic sides, opening with “Blank Space” and ending with “Love Story.”

Conan O’Brien introduced her by saying, “It’s an insane, unprecedented honor to introduce a cherished member of our little ‘Toy Story 5’ family. She’s John, Paul, George and Ringo all in one.”

Wearing a Ralph Lauren gown for her performance, Swift invited the formally clad gathering to dance along with her set, saying, “Dancing is absolutely allowed. It’s not mandatory, but it’s more fun.”

Her backing lineup had singers or players who would be familiar to Swifties, but also some differences, stripped down in some regards and packed out in others, as she was joined by two sax players — not a regular staple of her touring outfit — as well as four singers and a guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and drummer.

Among the regular band members participating was Paul Sidoti, who wrote on Instagram, “Great to be playing music with my onstage partner of 19 years for the first time since The Eras Tour at a little party last night in Hollywood.”

Swift posed for photos with attendees including “Toy Story 5” voice actors Joan Cusack and Conan O’Brian and celebs like Cara Delevingne, Sabrina Carpenter, Eli Roth, Charlize Theron, Colman Domingo, John Carpenter, Hannah Waddingham, Dakota and Elle Fanning,