Swift expressed gratitude for the crowd’s energizing presence throughout the night, stating that they fueled her performance. She hinted at playing one of her cherished songs from her album, Tortured Poets, which she had never performed live before. With a few strums of her guitar, she introduced the opening lines that fans had quickly embraced since the album’s release: “Drowning in the Blue Nile/ He sent me ‘Downtown Lights’/ I hadn’t heard it in a while.”

The crowd at Friends Arena erupted in excitement as the performance started. Fans online also expressed their enthusiasm, sharing memes of Post Malone dancing to “Guilty as Sin?” and joking about the missed opportunity of witnessing the live debut of the track. Taylor Swift’s lyrics in the song from her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, invite listeners to contemplate what could have been – from fleeting thoughts of intimate moments to the longing for forbidden romances. The poignant words leave us questioning, “How can I be guilty as sin?”

During her 89th show on the Eras Tour, fans were delighted by Taylor Swift’s surprising rendition of “Guilty as Sin,” which she opened with the line “he sent me downtown lights” from the song released in 1989. A fan on X, previously known as Twitter, highlighted this connection to the band The Blue Nile and their song “Downtown Lights.” (Saturday’s show marked the 89th date of the tour, which began in March 2023).

Another person mentioned that they are handling the disappointment of Guilty As Sin’s loss quite gracefully. They even provided proof, in the form of screenshots, showing that they had blocked both IKEA and ABBA’s accounts as a response to Sweden’s unexpected victory in the song contest.

“Feeling Guilty?” – followed by a piano medley of “Say Don’t Go,” “Welcome to New York,” and “Clean” in 1989, continued to gain popularity on X after Swift’s performance. Watch a snippet of the entire song performed live below, along with fan responses to not being able to experience “Guilty as Sin?” live.