The strumming of a guitar starts and right on cue, thousands of fans join in to belt out the lyrics to Taylor Swift‘s 2008 hit You Belong With Me.
The echo of 10,000 Filipino fans screaming “she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts” fills the packed shopping centre in Quezon City.
But while the trending Eras Tour setlist plays out to a full crowd, Swift is nowhere in sight. And it’s not the 12-time Grammy winner the sea of phones are pointedly aimed at.
The thousands of Swifties are there to see viral drag phenomenon Taylor Sheesh.
Watch the video above.
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If you ended up on ‘SwiftTok’ this year, you likely came across clips on your For You Page of Taylor Sheesh, whose real name is Mac Coronel, impersonating Swift.
“I’ve been a Taylor Swift fan since 2009 when I heard her song Fifteen,” Sheesh tells 9Honey Celebrity.
“I started drag since 2017 and it just popped off to my mind, ‘What if I try to impersonate Taylor since I am a fan and a performer?'” she shares.
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“I tried once performing Look What You Made Me Do and somehow it worked and it went viral around 2017.”
Sheesh reveals she watched The Eras Tour opening night in Glendale, Arizona on TikTok livestream as homework for her drag show.
For one hour, Sheesh embodies the popstar on stage, emulating her dancing and mannerisms, and even wears replicas of her tour costumes spanning her career eras.
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After seeing a video circulating from her performance with 3.5 million views on TikTok and notifications on her phone “exploding”, Sheesh had a hit on her hands.
The Eras Tour (Taylor Sheesh’s Version) started as the Phillippines’ answer to Swift’s headlining act after the star announced Singapore as the only Asia stop.
But the drag show quickly became a hit online. And now, after many Aussie fans missed out on Taylor Swift tickets, Taylor Sheesh’s Eras Tour is heading Down Under in 2024.
Sheesh will be performing at Federation Square in Melbourne on February 16, 2024, and unlike the hundreds – and in some cases thousands – of dollars splashed on tickets to see the Style singer, the drag star is putting on a show for free.
”For the Swifties who didn’t secure the tickets, we can give them at least The Eras Tour by Taylor Sheesh version,” Sheesh says, assuring fans it will be a replica of her viral show.
The drag artist covers all of Swift’s discography from Fearless and Red to Folklore, Reputation and Midnights.
But it’s the classics like You Belong With Me and Love Story that Sheesh enjoys performing the most.
”For the Swifties who didn’t secure the tickets, we can give them at least The Eras Tour by Taylor Sheesh version”
“Those songs are very old, but they will be forever cool,” she says, adding You Belong With Me remains the undisputed hit amongst the Filipino crowds.
“Every time I perform that song they always chant screaming the lyrics out of their lungs.”
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Sheesh has captured attention online for her down-to-the-last-detail replicas of the Anti-Hero‘s outfits.
Fans had to do a double take as clips of Sheesh spinning in the green Folklore dress and strumming a guitar in the rhinestone Lover bodysuit looked like a carbon copy of Swift.
Sheesh reveals the custom costumes are handsewn, courtesy of a friend who is also a drag queen.
Before each show, the drag star is responsible for checking the costumes.
“I always check the fittings and also the stones, the zippers, the small details in every costume. And for the hair, I always flat iron it.”
Sheesh reveals rehearsals for a show tend to go for two to three days. But before glamming up for the stage, you can find her doing one important warmup routine.
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“Before I do my makeup, I watch some [Swift] performances,” Sheesh says, explaining she watches old clips to refresh herself on the singer’s nuances and mannerisms.
It’s only gone up for Sheesh since that first viral video hit social media in May, and she’s had some famous names reach out since – most notably makeup guru Bretman Rock.
While Swift’s team hasn’t made contact yet, Sheesh maintains she is “so proud” and adds, “This is not for myself. This is for also my fellow Filipinos Swifties.”
While The Eras Tour has to end eventually, Taylor Sheesh has no plans of stopping.
“I will still continue to perform, just like Taylor said in her tour that she will not stop writing albums. So we will not stop. We will continue to support her and her music.”
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