We were born to make history~

𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 (𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂!𝐅𝐍𝐀𝐅 𝟏)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Didn’t expect this, did you? To be completely fair, I didn’t really expect it either. This probably won’t be a regular thing, but I decided to try to at least write one of the requests.

You were a teenager who often enjoyed visiting your favorite childhood pizzeria - Fazbear’s. It filled your heart with bliss, watching all the young children laughing happily as they chased each other around, played on the machines, or listened to the animatronic band.

And it was absolutely your luck that a listing had happened to come out for a job at Fazbear’s; the infamous night shift. The shady restaurant chain decided to hire a teenager, despite the obvious implications of becoming even more liable for the death of a minor.

Was it even luckier for the restaurant that the animatronics were very... selective on their prey?

ooooo, this

This is a really interesting prompt bc outside of the posters and things and The You Know What we haven’t seen the og animatronics in quite some time (rip to the legends)

Anyways here’s some HCs, as a treat🥰 (sorry these took so long! I got invested and wrote all day lol)

Friendly reminder to y’all that requests are open! (Yes I’m still working on the Monty Gator thing but it’s gonna be so good just wait)

-

Glamrocks + Gregory x og animatronic!reader Headcanons

TW: mentions of the original FNAF child murders, mentions of a little verbal abuse?, swearing, a little trauma

Author’s note: I made this kinda angsty at the start but it gets fluffy I promise / gender neutral!reader

-

I can imagine,

- Regardless of what kind of animal you are, you’re in rough shape from years of not being used (literally no idea how you’re still alive homie)

- Pretty safe to say as soon as FazBear Entertainment found you again, they were immediately thought of ways they could profit off of you

- That’s how you ended up at the Pizzaplex, you have a small section of the museum where you’re stationary as part of a photo attraction

- The section is small but so realistic to the original pizzeria where you were murdered that it’s like living your death all over again, and it’s worse than being stuck in this robot

- When they had you repaired, your animatronic body was in shambles of rust and decay. Now you can move again, albeit slower than the Glamrocks due to your servos and joints being so old

- Parts and Service were unable to install the animatronic AI in you however, so you’re left with your original voicebox that hasn’t been used in years

- While your body repeats the same phrases over and over during the day, shifting poses occasionally, you barely have the strength to use your real voice after hours when the PizzaPlex closes

- Your afterlife couldn’t be worse, until you meet the others..

Freddy would be the most curious to check out the newest installation to the museum, and that’s where he unexpectedly finds you one night.

- Papa Bear(TM) here would absolutely comfort you if you were frightened by this new place, and especially once he understood what you were and how awful your surroundings made your days

- He doesn’t quite know how to help you beyond that, but he will happily distract you as much as possible by hyping you up and showing you around the Pizzaplex

- Gives the best hugs!!! Even though you’re both animatronics lol

- Appeals so much to your inner child by playing Fazer Blast with you and even Hide and Seek if you suggest it

- First one to scold children/teens/adults who insult you ( “Y/N is not weird or creepy, Y/N is different, and that is what makes them special. If you cannot appreciate their unique qualities then I must request that you leave. Now.” )

- Superstar is basically your name to this bear now

- (THEORY TIME) if Michael Afton is really possessing him..he’ll randomly feel super guilty sometimes whenever he looks over and sees you in your section, in a body you never belonged in..

Monty is initially annoyed by the construction of a new section, even if it’s small, until he actually meets you.

- Is a little weirded out by your design but totally gets into it after awhile because you’re basically the same you just look different and to him that’s super metal dude!! (Literally lmao)

- Takes great pleasure in teasing you like an annoying sibling but is immediately on the scene to deal with unruly children who try to climb on you/make a mess in your section

- Forgets you’re a child stuck in your body sometimes but has grown better about watching his mouth ( “Man I hate when these stupid fu- *remembers* fudgin’, fudgin’ brats leave their food around your spot like this” )

- He doesn’t know how to handle your trauma but he makes every effort to support you by helping you be a kid

- Wanna come hang out in Monty Golf?? He’s not the fastest either, and he’s happy to slow down even more to make you less self-conscious about your stiff joints (will still tease you about tho)

- Don’t know how to play mini golf?? Even better, now you get to learn from the best!! He really fills a hole you had almost forgotten existed in your..”life”

- Would never admit it, but he cares about you, kid

Chica is so excited to meet you!!! She’s heard the construction crew talking about a new animatronic and she can’t stop chirping about how ready she is to make a new friend!!!

- Hears your story and is immediately overcome with emotions. She’s a robot and she can’t really cry but this is the closest she feels like she’s ever come

- Like the others she is determined to find ways to help you adjust but also thrive in the Pizzaplex, so what better ways than her two specialties?

- Poor thing doesn’t initially realize you can’t eat but she’ll invite you to cook things with her all the time!! Pizza cupcakes tacos cookies, you guys make it all

- She won’t admit it but cooking with you helps her avoid the garbage so it’s like y’all are equally comforting each other (brb crying)

- On top of cooking together, she’s going to be all about doing Mazercize together! When you express how stiff your body is, Chica isn’t afraid to cheer you on in loosening up your bolts through some good old fashioned movement ( “Y/N!! You’re improving so much, chickadee! I’m so proud of you for working so hard! Let’s make cupcakes to celebrate!” )

- Also encourages you the most to use your voice and speak your mind after hours, not your lines (even if your voicebox malfunctions and gets squeaky sometimes) because it means a lot to her to watch you open up more

- She’s accidentally such a Mother Hen sorry not sorry but you just bring it out in her, you sweet thing

Roxanne did not care at all about meeting you because she rarely pays attention to new things going on in the Pizzaplex, but once she met you she was surprised by how much she enjoyed your company.

- Definitely took the longest to warm up to you, and teases you nearly as much as Monty does (Chica reminds you not to take it personally)

- Her reaction to your story isn’t as outwardly visceral as Chica or Freddy, but inside she feels her animatronic heart soften for you and how much you’ve gone through

- From there Roxy does little things, like invite you to come jam with her in her room after hours to whatever kind of music you two can get access to/make with her keytar

- She will bring you to Roxy Raceway with the sole intentions of showing off, and when you get so excited to ride in a kart she can’t help but feel her tail wag in anticipation

- Your spirit is only that of a child, and as a child you validate her so much in ways that the kids during the day normally don’t ( “I bet I’M your favorite, Y/N” “Yup!” -and any small amount of confirmation will send her back to her room crying that she’s actually someone’s favorite )

- Roxanne begins to find a great amount of comfort in your presence, and she is fiercely protective of you as a result-this usually means that she and Monty tease the hell out of you, but become the ultimate bodyguards if anyone else has shit to say

- If you have fur/fuzz/a soft outer coating then Roxanne is not afraid to help you brush and maintain it (like a Mother Wolf). Just one of the little unspoken ways that she shows she cares

Gregory did not anticipate you actually being alive when he first saw you, but when he found out you were and weren’t hunting him down, he actually kind of warmed up to you.

- When you encounter him it’s like a total flashback to when you were murdered in the pizzeria and your head actually starts spinning in circles before Freddy calms you down

- Gregory is saddened to hear that you’re trapped here, in a similar way to him, and only a child a little younger than he is. But when you help him hide in your section from Vanessa, he realizes you can help him with a determination the others don’t understand

- This little gremlin has definitely tried to crawl in your stomach hatch but you smack him away every time so the spring locks don’t do to him what they did to you

- Sometimes through the night, Freddy catches the two of you bickering like..well, children, and he almost feels bad that this is the only interaction you’ve had with someone your own age in so long

- At one point you noticed Gregory’s irritability combined with his tiredness as the night wore on, and so you took his hand and walked to the kitchen out of nowhere. When he asks what you’re doing you tell him how Chica helps you think more clearly by cooking, or in his case, eating

- Having already laid several distractions for said chicken, Gregory watched as you made him a small pizza to help him calm down, and as he ate, he realized you were right, and he actually gives you a hug afterwards

- For the rest of the night, you do what you can to help him escape your friends and the night guard. There are several moments between he, you and Freddy which you can’t help but laugh at, and if there wasn’t a killer rabbit lady on the loose you might say this was kind of..nice

- You’re the first to wish Gregory had a gun over the course of the night because YOU have been that kid and everything would be SO much easier (Gregory agrees, but Freddy adamantly disagrees)

ENDING 1 (could work for the endings where you free Vanny, or when Freddy and Gregory steal the van, or even the Burntrap ending): When the time comes to escape the Pizzaplex, Gregory begs you to come along with him and Freddy, and having developed such a connection with the paid, you agree and all of you ride off into the sunset together, 2/3 of you connected to car batteries to stay alive.

forever

he has a nice bird cage perfectly fitted for a human, with all of the things he could possibly want! with mei’s help, he even has playmates, a whole world to explore if he wants to!

Thinking about the fact that Nene being okay with dying parallels Amane being okay with dying, the difference being that he actually acted upon those feelings and doesn't want her to live through the same fate.

WARNINGS - Mentions of bullying and suicide. Name calling, too. Flirty and suggestive Hanako as well.

Everytime I write Midoriya, he stutters and I for the life of me can't figure out WHY!

• Izuku's bullies force him into the girls bathroom on the third floor of Aldera junior high and force him to attempt to summon Hanako-san.

• It actually works but only Izuku can see Hanako. Also Hanako's a boy? Much confusion? Izuku's only gonna judge a little though.

• After laughing at Izuku and putting him down, the bullies exit stage left and leave Izuku with the newly summoned ghost boy.

“Talking to yourself, Deku?” Izuku flinches at Fingers sharp tone, backing up minutely and attempting to make himself smaller in the hopes that his aggressor would lose interest quickly when Izuku proved to be a poor choice of target. Fingers grin sharpens to match his tone.

“You really are as uselessly delusional as everyone says. Do everyone a favor and jump off a bridge or something.” His words, though sharp, are almost casual and they sting all the more for it.

• “Hanako-san of the Bathroom at your service! But you can call me Hanako-kun~!”

• Hanako proceeds to ask what Izuku's wish is, and Izuku explains that he doesn't have a wish, that his friends forced him to do this, but thinks for a moment anyway about wishing for a Quirk, ultimately deciding against it.

• “Hmmmmm~? Those guys didn't seem much like your friends to me~.” Hanako looked thoughtful, noting to himself that friends don't tell friends to go die. Or call them useless. “Hey~! If you wished for it, I could make them leave you alone! Do you want that?” Hanako sing-songs.

“T-thank you but n-no, thank you. T-they j-j-just… getalittleroughsometimesisall!”

Hanako looks doubtful but doesn't press the issue, instead focusing his attention on getting the very obviously bullied kid in front of him to make some sort of wish. Hopefully one that would improve his bully situation, price be damned.

• Hanako brings up the matter of Izuku's wish again, insisting that since he was summoned a wish has to be made and granted.

“For every wish I grant, however, there's a price that corresponds, so think carefully~.” Hanako drawls, floating languidly in a circle around Izuku. Izuku shudders at the chilled presence brushing softly against his skin.

• So Izuku thinks on it and thinks some more, muttering up a storm under Hanako's observant eye and eventually reaching a decision.

“Could I… Could I wish for a-anything?” Izuku finally stutters out. Hanako's smile is soft when he answers.

“Almost anything, so long as it's harmless. All I need is your full name and wish~.”

“M-my name is Midoriya Izuku a-and I… I want a-a f-f-friend!” Izuku clenches his eyes shut tight and can feel as his face quickly heats with a blush. Hanako hums, pulling a notebook and fountain pen from his gakuran jacket, jotting down Midoriya's name and wish.

“Alright~! Do you have anyone in mind? Or would just anyone do~?” Hanako's tone is suggestive and Izuku's sure he resembles a tomato by now, covering his face with his arms in a futile attempt to hide how red its become.

• Izuku explains once calm that, no, no one comes to mind. He's Quirkless, he says, which means no one in school will give him kind words or waste their time on a useless Deku like him.

“Quirkless, huh?” Hanako says, tapping his pen against his notebook. When he was still alive, Quirks weren't a thing. No human (barring Exorcists) had any sort of superpower like people nowadays have. They were utterly ordinary.

“That's rare now, eh?” And Izuku nods.

“O-only 20% of the worlds population i-is without a Q-Quirk. Most w-w-without one usually don't live p-past high school.”

“And there's no one who would want to be your friend?” Izuku shakes his head.

“No one.”

And wow this kid was reminding Hanako more and more of himself. That was generally never a good thing.

• As Hanako thinks and ponders, Izuku suddenly looks like he has an idea.

“H-Hanako-san?”

“Hmmmmm? Yeeesssss~?”

“Could I….. Wish for you to be my f-friend?” Izuku's voice is quiet but hopeful.

Hanako falters for a moment, stunned, before bursting into a fit of giggles so strong he briefly forgot how to float, knees hitting the bathroom floor with a dull thud as he held himself around the middle.

“Y-y-you do-don't…?” Izuku starts but Hanako interrupts.

“I-it’s not that!” Hanako bites out through his laughter. “Consider your wish granted, Shortstack~!” Izuku wilts with the relief rushing through his blood.

“S-shortstack?” Izuku questions as Hanako manages to remember how to float.

“Duh, you're tiiinnnny~!” Hanako sing-songs and Izuku looks embarrassed. “And as for the matter of your price~.” He puts a hand to his chin in mock thought, smiling playfully all the while.

“I could use you~.” Izuku feels like he could die from the embarrassment.

“I’ll have you be my human assistant~!” Hanako winks, huffing out a laugh when Izuku sighed in relief.

“Oh~? Were you thinking something dirty, Shortstack~? Naughty naughty~.”

Heyyyyy I am posting this super late I’m sorry!! Today has been crazy!

Anyway, this is for Day 5, Forbidden Love/Devotion! It kinda fits both themes. I wrote it for my beloved @anubis-005‘s birthday in May, but I waited until now to share it with you all!! I really hope you enjoy it!! 💖 A very big thank-you to all of you who are participating in this event. It has been so fun to run this and see your creativity. I am loving the experience so much, and I hope I can host more events in the future! A non-alcoholic toast to the HanaNene Nation! 🥂

=============================================================

Title: Liquid Courage Pairing: HanaNene Rating: T (mentions of alcohol) Wordcount: 11,128 Summary: The Toilet Trio faces off against a shoujou, a creature that can turn any liquid into an intoxicating substance. This leads to some rather awkward circumstances. Also available on: Ao3

===========================================================

Day 5: Forbidden Love/Devotion

Liquid Courage

Nene had never been more certain that her school was the weirdest place on earth. Something crazy happened here every other day, and the students and faculty just carried on like it was all completely normal, even now.

Supposedly, the supernatural they were after this time wasn’t violent or even particularly dangerous. Shoujous were wise, benevolent, ape-like sea spirits who usually just liked playing around and drinking wine, according to Hanako. They were even known to share their wisdom with humans on occasion.

Unfortunately, the one on the loose in their school was putting people under a spell that made them act goofy and clumsy and sometimes over-emotional.

Basically, it was making everyone look like a drunk.

So far, this had only resulted in people falling over, bursting into random tears or laughter, calling their exes, making inadvisable love confessions, or falling asleep all the time, but still! This was a school! Alcohol wasn’t allowed!

“I’m not really sure why the shoujou would do this,” Hanako admitted as the Supernatural Squad (that was what Nene was going to call the three of them, because the Toilet Trio just didn’t sound very glamorous) peeked around the next corner in the hallway. “They hardly ever mess with humans…”

“It doesn’t much matter why,” Kou said, resolute. He held his staff a little higher in both hands. “Just matters that we take ‘em down!”

“We are not 'taking down’ the shoujou.” Hanako’s tone was firm as he floated in front of Kou’s line of sight, crossing his arms. “They can be powerful allies if treated well. We would be wise to try negotiating first.”

“Since when are you a fan of negotiating first?” Kou grumbled.

Hanako made an offended noise. “Excuse me, I always try negotiating and asking politely first!”

“Except when you decide to hang off me,” Nene chimed in. “You never ask politely first then.”

“Aw, I don’t need permission for that, do I?” As if to prove her point, he wrapped his arms around Nene’s shoulders, making her shudder at the sudden cold.

“Of course you do! Get off me!” she barked, trying to shove him away but going pink in the cheeks anyway. Kou attempted to use Raiteijou to pry him off, and the apparition reluctantly let go of her.

“I’ll ask later, then,” Hanako promised with a frown, “after we’ve dispelled this little problem.”

“I don’t really see why we’re just sitting here right around the corner, anyway,” Kou commented next, frowning and squinting bright blue eyes.

“We’re here because of that.” Hanako pointed to something in the center of the hallway—a drinking fountain. “The shoujou is using the water fountain to intoxicate the students.”

“Scary…” Nene shivered, and turned from facing the hallway to look dubiously at Hanako. “You think it’ll just… show up here, then?”

“Well…” Hanako didn’t sound certain, but then a spark of recognition raced across his features, and a triumphant smile lit up his face. “No. I know it will show up, because it’s already here.”

Nene whirled around again, peeking out from behind the corner. Sure enough, there was a hairy, orangutan-like creature with a red face ambling up to the fountain, glancing around as if checking for spies. It didn’t seem to spot the three watching it, though, because it continued on its way and reached out a hand towards its target.

“Shoujou,” Hanako finally said before the spirit could touch the fountain, floating out from his hiding place. “We’ve been looking for you.”

The ape creature did not look concerned, and in fact even smiled. “Why, you must be Lord Seven! I’ve heard tales of your deeds around this place.” Its teeth, which included worryingly pointy canines, were an unpleasant yellow. “It’s an honor to finally meet you.”

“Save your pleasantries,” Hanako scoffed, and crossed his arms again. “I mean you no harm, but I have to ask you to stop inebriating the students here. You’re causing all kinds of trouble.”

“Trouble?” The shoujou crossed its arms, too, looking contemplative. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m just helping these adorable humans attain their heart’s desire. Sharing my knowledge with them.”

“Knowledge of what?” Kou’s voice was a little too belligerent as he rushed out into a battle stance near Hanako. The leader of the Seven Mysteries did not look quite as imposing with a scrappy blond middle schooler slinging a golden stick standing there, too. “How to embarrass yourself in public?! That’s all people are learning so far!”

The shoujou blinked at him, and scratched under one arm. “I do believe you already have enough knowledge of that, my boy, but if you desire more on the topic, I suppose I could help.”

Nene’s kouhai flushed. “H-How dare you!”

Heyyyyy I am posting this super late I’m sorry!! Today has been crazy!

Anyway, this is for Day 5, Forbidden Love/Devotion! It kinda fits both themes. I wrote it for my beloved @anubis-005‘s birthday in May, but I waited until now to share it with you all!! I really hope you enjoy it!! 💖 A very big thank-you to all of you who are participating in this event. It has been so fun to run this and see your creativity. I am loving the experience so much, and I hope I can host more events in the future! A non-alcoholic toast to the HanaNene Nation! 🥂

=============================================================

Title: Liquid Courage Pairing: HanaNene Rating: T (mentions of alcohol) Wordcount: 11,128 Summary: The Toilet Trio faces off against a shoujou, a creature that can turn any liquid into an intoxicating substance. This leads to some rather awkward circumstances. Also available on: Ao3

===========================================================

Day 5: Forbidden Love/Devotion

Liquid Courage

Nene had never been more certain that her school was the weirdest place on earth. Something crazy happened here every other day, and the students and faculty just carried on like it was all completely normal, even now.

Supposedly, the supernatural they were after this time wasn’t violent or even particularly dangerous. Shoujous were wise, benevolent, ape-like sea spirits who usually just liked playing around and drinking wine, according to Hanako. They were even known to share their wisdom with humans on occasion.

Unfortunately, the one on the loose in their school was putting people under a spell that made them act goofy and clumsy and sometimes over-emotional.

Basically, it was making everyone look like a drunk.

So far, this had only resulted in people falling over, bursting into random tears or laughter, calling their exes, making inadvisable love confessions, or falling asleep all the time, but still! This was a school! Alcohol wasn’t allowed!

“I’m not really sure why the shoujou would do this,” Hanako admitted as the Supernatural Squad (that was what Nene was going to call the three of them, because the Toilet Trio just didn’t sound very glamorous) peeked around the next corner in the hallway. “They hardly ever mess with humans…”

“It doesn’t much matter why,” Kou said, resolute. He held his staff a little higher in both hands. “Just matters that we take ‘em down!”

“We are not 'taking down’ the shoujou.” Hanako’s tone was firm as he floated in front of Kou’s line of sight, crossing his arms. “They can be powerful allies if treated well. We would be wise to try negotiating first.”

“Since when are you a fan of negotiating first?” Kou grumbled.

Hanako made an offended noise. “Excuse me, I always try negotiating and asking politely first!”

“Except when you decide to hang off me,” Nene chimed in. “You never ask politely first then.”

“Aw, I don’t need permission for that, do I?” As if to prove her point, he wrapped his arms around Nene’s shoulders, making her shudder at the sudden cold.

“Of course you do! Get off me!” she barked, trying to shove him away but going pink in the cheeks anyway. Kou attempted to use Raiteijou to pry him off, and the apparition reluctantly let go of her.

“I’ll ask later, then,” Hanako promised with a frown, “after we’ve dispelled this little problem.”

“I don’t really see why we’re just sitting here right around the corner, anyway,” Kou commented next, frowning and squinting bright blue eyes.

“We’re here because of that.” Hanako pointed to something in the center of the hallway—a drinking fountain. “The shoujou is using the water fountain to intoxicate the students.”

“Scary…” Nene shivered, and turned from facing the hallway to look dubiously at Hanako. “You think it’ll just… show up here, then?”

“Well…” Hanako didn’t sound certain, but then a spark of recognition raced across his features, and a triumphant smile lit up his face. “No. I know it will show up, because it’s already here.”

Nene whirled around again, peeking out from behind the corner. Sure enough, there was a hairy, orangutan-like creature with a red face ambling up to the fountain, glancing around as if checking for spies. It didn’t seem to spot the three watching it, though, because it continued on its way and reached out a hand towards its target.

“Shoujou,” Hanako finally said before the spirit could touch the fountain, floating out from his hiding place. “We’ve been looking for you.”

The ape creature did not look concerned, and in fact even smiled. “Why, you must be Lord Seven! I’ve heard tales of your deeds around this place.” Its teeth, which included worryingly pointy canines, were an unpleasant yellow. “It’s an honor to finally meet you.”

“Save your pleasantries,” Hanako scoffed, and crossed his arms again. “I mean you no harm, but I have to ask you to stop inebriating the students here. You’re causing all kinds of trouble.”

“Trouble?” The shoujou crossed its arms, too, looking contemplative. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m just helping these adorable humans attain their heart’s desire. Sharing my knowledge with them.”

“Knowledge of what?” Kou’s voice was a little too belligerent as he rushed out into a battle stance near Hanako. The leader of the Seven Mysteries did not look quite as imposing with a scrappy blond middle schooler slinging a golden stick standing there, too. “How to embarrass yourself in public?! That’s all people are learning so far!”

The shoujou blinked at him, and scratched under one arm. “I do believe you already have enough knowledge of that, my boy, but if you desire more on the topic, I suppose I could help.”

Nene’s kouhai flushed. “H-How dare you!”

5th May 2015– Tokyo Dome, Tokyo: night 1

“There are 55,000 people here tonight. 55,000 people on the first night of my world tour. What do you think about that, Tokyo? I know, we’ve got 50,000… 55,000 people here tonight – I can only assume that maybe some of you at one point or another have gone through a hard time in your life. Um, and I can only assume that the way you deal with sadness, or tough times, is the same way that I deal with it. I turn to music, and, really, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t turn to music in hard times; I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t turn to music. And it makes me feel that we have that in common. Um, I think that it is probably very possible that a lot of you have experienced a lot of rainy days that never really got brighter, or maybe you fell in love with a person or something that is bad for you and couldn’t quit, or maybe you lost someone that you never expected that you would lose, or maybe you lost yourself; that’s even worse. When you have bad days that just won’t let up, I just hope that you will look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not. You are not your mistakes. You are not damaged goods or money from your failed explorations. You are not the opinion of someone who doesn’t know you. You are a product of the lessons you have learned. You are wiser because you went through something terrible. And you are the person who survived a bunch of rainstorms and kept walking. I… I now believe that pain makes you stronger. I now believe that walking through a lot of rainstorms gets you clean.”

6th May 2015 – Tokyo Dome, Tokyo: night 2

“You know, I’m looking at 55,000 people, so I can only assume that, maybe, some of you have been through a hard time once or twice in your life, or a really lonely phase in your life, or a phase where you felt really misunderstood, or maybe you felt like it was raining every day, and you just never saw a possibility of it getting brighter. Or maybe you were really heartbroken by someone you thought would never break your heart. Maybe you lost yourself in the whole thing. Or maybe you didn’t feel special that you didn’t know where you were gonna go next, or, um where you wanted to end up. That can be really confusing, but the fact that you’re here tonight means that one thing we all have in common is that, when we feel those things, we turn to music. That’s why I’m here. That’s why you’re here. It makes me feel less alone that you exist, and I hope that it makes you feel less alone that I exist, because we have each other. And when you’re feeling those things, I hope you remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not. You are not damaged goods. You are not… you’re not your mistakes. You’re not a result of the things you thought you could have done better, or times you felt you chose the wrong path, instead of the right one. You’re not somebody else’s opinion of you. You are wiser because you’ve made those mistakes. You are someone who’s brave enough to take chances. You are someone who was rained on over and over again, and kept on putting one foot in front of the other. I think that’s so much better than never having made a mistake, never having messed up or having failed. I think that the pain we go through when we make mistakes makes us stronger. And I think that being rained on over and over and over again can actually make us clean.”

15th May 2015 – City of Rock, Las Vegas | Incomplete

“Maybe you lost your way. Maybe you lost someone you thought you’d never lose. Maybe you lost yourself. Maybe you fell in love with a person or a habit and couldn’t quit; it was bad for you. Maybe you have absolutely no idea where you’re gonna go next. And I think that, when we get to these places in our lives where we feel like there are so many rainy days in a row and it never seems to get brighter, I just hope you’ll look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not. You are not someone else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made a few mistakes. You are wiser because you’ve made mistakes. You are someone who’s been rained on over and over again and kept putting one foot in front of the other.”

20th May 2015– CenturyLink Center, Bossier City | Incomplete

“Maybe you felt like it was a bunch of constantly rainy gray days that never really got brighter, maybe you lost a person you never thought you would lose, maybe you lost yourself. You know, I think that we all go through things like this. We all have questions about where we’re going or where we been or where we should have been at that time. I hope that when you do that –because there is no option you’re not doing that, you’re going to have these moments of doubt in your life – but I just hope that when these moments happen to you, you look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not. You are damaged goods just because you made mistakes. You are not someone else’s opinion of you. You are wiser, and smarter, and stronger because you took the chances it took to make mistakes. You are someone who was rained on every day, for a long time and kept putting one foot in front of the other, and I think at this point in my life I’m still learning every day. But the one think I do know is that pain does make you stronger, and that walking through a bunch of rainstorms makes you wish to keep on going. It doesn’t make you damaged goods, doesn’t make you dirty, or muddy, from those failed adventures. It makes you clean.”

22nd May 2015 – LSU Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge

“When we’re going through something confusing, or complicated – sometimes we feel that the only thing that can understand us at that time is a song. Is that true with you, too? So I can only assume that, if you’re here tonight, then music helps you when you’re having difficult times – that maybe you’ve had some difficult times in your life, whether it was that you didn’t feel that you fit in, or you didn’t know where you were going with your life, or you fell in love with a habit or a person that was bad for you, but you couldn’t put it down. And all of those things can make you feel like you’ve lost yourself, or that you’ve lost your way, or can make you feel like you’re going nowhere. It’s never a good feeling to feel like you’re standing still. But, when you’re feeling like you’re standing still, I want you to look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not, okay? You are not someone else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made a few mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. On the other hand, you are wiser for the mistakes you have made. You are brave because you were bold enough to put yourself in a position to take risks and make mistakes. And you are someone who has walked through a bunch of rainstorms and kept putting one foot in front of the other. And I think… I think that I keep learning every day, but after learning for 25 years, the one thing I do know is that pain does make you a stronger person. And I do know that walking through a bunch of rainstorms, and continuing to put one foot in front of the other, makes you clean.”

30th May 2015 – Ford Field, Detroit

“When I go through difficult or complicated times in my life, I turn to music and I turn to you, and that’s why I’m so happy to see you in person – to thank you for that. And maybe what you went through was falling in love with someone or something that was bad for you but you couldn’t quit, or maybe what happened to you was that you didn’t know where to go next, and you felt confused about where you were even headed. Or maybe you felt like you didn’t fit in anywhere, in any corner of the room. Maybe you lost someone you never thought you would lose, or maybe you lost yourself which is the worst thing out of all of it. I know that you’re going to go through more of it in your life and so am I, and that people are going to say things about us that aren’t true. And I just want you, in those moments, to look in the mirror and understand what you are, and what you are not. You are not somebody else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made a few mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t arrived at your final destination yet. What you are is wiser and stronger because you made mistakes. What you are is brave for living your life in a daring way that would cause you to take the risks it takes to make mistakes. What you are is someone who’s walked through a bunch of rainstorms, but continues to put one foot in front of the other. And I think that at 25 years I’m still learning every single day, but one thing I do know is that pain actually does make you stronger, and walking through a bunch of rainstorms does not make you damaged. If you keep on going, it actually makes you clean.”

2nd June 2015 – KFC Yum! Center, Louisville

“You know, I look out at this crowd and I see people of absolutely just all ages, probably of all different types of interests, came from all different places. But, you know, the one thing that we do all have in common is – well, tonight we’re all very sparkly, that’s one thing we all have in common – but we also have in common the fact that we would not be in this room if we didn’t turn to music whenever we’re sad, or upset, or confused. I think that, um… I think that it’s the most incredible compliment that, um, you know, you are the same type of person as I am – you turn to music when life confuses you, when it gets all complicated, and then you’ve chosen my music to be that for you. It’s cool, you guys. And the thing, you know… the thing about happiness is that I’m so happy looking at you right now. I really am. And I hope that as many of you out there as possible are happy looking back at me right now. Cause, um, here’s… here’s the myth about happiness. The myth is that we’re gonna be happy all the time, because that… that isn’t true. And I think that for us to be expected to feel happy all the time would be unfair. Happiness is fleeting, happiness is… it happens in these unique, rare, beautiful, fantastic moments – these little glimpses we get of it. Like right now, this is a glimpse I’m getting of happiness. Um, and I’m not always going to feel happy, and you’re not always going to feel happy. We’re going to go through these phases in our lives, some of which are like a bunch of rainy days in a row, some of the phases we’re gonna go through are going to feel like… like the sun’s never gonna come out, and they’re never gonna clear up. But, in those moments, um, when you turn to music and you turn to me, when you don’t understand what’s going on – just know that I turn to you and I think about you when I’m going through that. So we’re in this together, aren’t we? And, moving forward, when you are having those moments where you just don’t understand why things are happening the way that they are happening, or you don’t know where you are going with your life, or you lose someone that you never thought you would lose, or you lose yourself – I want you to look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not, okay? You are not someone else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods because you’ve made mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you’re not where you wanted to end up yet. Here is what I want you to remind yourself of what you are. You are someone who is wiser because you have the bravery to make mistakes. You are someone who has walked through rainstorm after rainstorm and keeps putting one foot in front of the other. And here’s one thing I learned in 25 years of life – and I’m still learning every day – but I have learned that pain does make you stronger and walking through a bunch of rainstorms doesn’t make you damaged goods. It makes you clean.”

3rd June 2015 – Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland

“Here we all are in this room, and there are 15,000 of us, and we’re all here – we all have different interests, we all are different ages, we’ve all come from different backgrounds, we want different things in life. But the one thing we do all have in common is that when we go through something devastating to us, or confusing to us, we turn to music, and that’s why we’re all in this room tonight together. And every time that I read one of your letters, or talk to you online, or just talk to you about what’s going on with you, I realise how many things we’re up against in 2015 just dealing with the way we feel about ourselves, the way we feel about our past, the way we feel about our future. I think that, whether what you’ve gone through in your life, or what you will go through in your life that’s hard is falling in love with the wrong person or the wrong habit that you couldn’t quit, or you don’t know where you really want to go with your life and that absolutely paralyses you with fear, or you feel like the people around you don’t really know you, you feel alone. All those things are just inevitable in life, you know. I don’t want you to ever feel guilty for feeling those things. Cause that’s even worse – first you feel bad, then you feel insecure, then you feel guilty for not being happy all the time. Um, discontentment, unhappiness, loneliness is a fact of life. And I’m just so happy and so honoured that you choose my music in those moments of weakness, and sadness, and loneliness. When you feel that way, you know, you’re gonna feel that way again. I’m going to feel that way again. But when you do, I just hope that you don’t let it get the best of you. I hope that you look in the mirror, and you remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not. Okay? What you are not is that you are not the opinion of someone else. You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. So just take a deep breath, and remind yourself of what you are, okay? You are someone who is brave enough to question whether you’re in the right place. You are someone who took risks – the kind of risks you have to take in order to make mistakes, but also those risks will get you to places you want to go in your life. You are someone who walked through a bunch of rainstorms and kept putting one foot in front of the other, even though sometimes you didn’t want to. I just think that the one thing I’ve learnt for sure is that pain, and all those terrible things we go through, those days where we just don’t know what’s what… those days can get through them, can make you stronger, and walking through a bunch of rainstorms doesn’t make you damaged. It makes you clean.”

6th June 2015 – Heinz Field, Pittsburgh

“We all come from different backgrounds, and we all have different interests, we’re different ages. But the one thing that I know for a fact – all 55,000 of us have in common – is that when life gets tough, we turn to music to make us feel better. That’s the reason you’re in this room, that’s the reason I’m in this room. And this started for me in my bedroom when I was a little kid, just a ways across this state. I started turning to music when life got difficult. And I know from talking to you, that you go through the same things that I go through, and you have moments of self-doubt, and confusion, and things just feel so complicated you feel overwhelmed by everything – and that’s inevitable, that’s life. Right now, looking at you, I am so unbelievably happy.  And I know enough about life to know that that’s not something I’m going to feel every day – that’s rare. This moment, for me, feeling this way, is so rare, and so you learn to appreciate the moments of happiness so much more, looking at something like this. But I know that there are going to be times moving forward when you and I both feel like we’re having rainy days that don’t really let up, and when that happens to you, I just hope that you’ll remind yourself what you are, and what you are not, because sometimes it’s easy to lose focus. You are not someone else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods if you’ve made a few mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you’ve haven’t gotten to where you want to go yet. You are wiser because you made mistakes. You are someone who is brave enough to take chances and make mistakes. And you are someone who has walked through rainstorm after rainstorm and continues to put one foot in front of the other. That’s what you are. We’re so afraid of making mistakes and we’re so afraid of feeling pain, but in 25 years I’ve learned that making mistakes and feeling pain is terrible, but it makes you stronger. And going through terrible things and continuing to move forward doesn’t make you damaged goods, it makes you clean.”

8th June 2015 – Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte | Incomplete

“People lose their way, people lose the love of your life, people lose themselves, and I guess moving forward – if you take anything away from tonight, please take this with you – that when you are having one of those horrible moments, or those long strings of gray, rainy days that never seem to get brighter, or when you are doubting yourself or where you’re going, I hope you look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not, okay? What you are not? You are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods if you’ve made mistakes in your life, and you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to end up yet. Let’s talk about what you are. You are someone who is wiser now because you’ve made mistakes. You are someone who is brave enough to take the chances you have to take to make mistakes in life, because those choices are the same things that will make you successful – being brave. I think in 25 years I keep learning every single day, but one think I do know for sure is that going through painful situations is awful but it does make you stronger. And walking through a bunch of rainstorms is horrible at the time, but when you put one foot in front of the other and keep going if you make it through that, it doesn’t make you damaged. It makes you clean.”

9th June 2015 – PNC Arena, Raleigh

“I don’t know, like being here again makes me think about all the times I’ve come to see you in the past and, um, it’s been 10 years of me touring, and coming to North Carolina, and looking at you, and you looking at me, and us singing together, and dancing together. And, um, you know, I just… these days, I try to be really, really aware of when I’m absolutely, blissfully happy, and I’m so happy right now. And, um, you know, having spent the last 10 years touring, I’ve… I’ve come to see you at times in my life when things weren’t so easy, and I’ve gone through phases were people were saying really terrible things about me, or, you know, headlines were saying things that weren’t true. But you always showed up, didn’t you? And it’s moments like this that make me realise that as long as you put your focus on the people who actually care about you, and the people who actually love you, and the people who actually do understand you… um, that’s a way to be a lot happier in life. And I think that looking out at you makes me realise that every single person here in the audience, um, I hope is having a really happy night, but we have no idea what they’re going through. So, you know, looking out at you makes me think about all the bad things you might be finding, or all the insecurities you might see when you look in the mirror, or all those things that you might be ashamed of, or all the things that you hope people don’t feel about you when they meet you. And, um, I think the one thing that all 15,000 of us have in common is that we are all in this room because when those things arise, when life gets difficult, we turn to music. And that’s what unites us. And, um, you know, all of us are gonna have terrible times, or rumours spread about us, or we’re gonna feel left out, or we’re gonna lose somebody we thought we would never lose, or maybe even lose ourselves and then find ourselves again. And we’re going to go through that together, I hope, if you will keep coming back. But when you have those moments, I just hope that – instead of giving up, or giving in to those insecurities, or the voices of people who don’t matter – I hope that you’ll look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not. Okay? You are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you. You are not the results of your past, just because you have a past, just because you’ve made mistakes. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Okay, this is what you are, though. You are someone who is wiser because you’ve gone through terrible days and you’ve continued to get out of bed and get on with things. You are someone who maybe even has a lot on your mind right now, but you’re at a concert, having the best time ever. And I think that a lot of us – if we’ve walked through a bunch of rainstorms, or we’ve been through a bunch of things – we feel like we might have scars from that, we feel insecure about that, we feel like we might be damaged goods, or something. But one thing I’ve learned in 25 years, um, and I’m still learning every day… but I did learn this – pain and going through pain is awful at the time, but it does actually make you stronger. And having insecurities is terrible, but it does drive you to do more and accomplish more. And you being here tonight is something I will never ever forget in my entire life, and I’m so happy to see you, Raleigh. I’m going to play you a song that I wrote with a woman named Imogen Heap when I was in London, right after I cut my hair and I decided to move to New York City. This is a song called Clean. Please sing along with it if you know the words.”

12th June 2015 – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia: night 1

“When we’re going through something, all 50,000 of us turn to music, and that’s why we’re here tonight. That is why Shawn Mendes is here tonight, that’s why Vance Joy is here tonight, that’s why Echosmith was here tonight, to sing for you. Because it’s not just sounds to us – music is a coping mechanism, music is a best friend, music is the only thing we have that understands us at our lowest points. And I know that I spent a lot of lonely nights in my bedroom writing songs as a kid, and I think that talking to you as much as I do, and hearing what you’re going through as much as I hear you – I know that we’re all here, and we’re having a good time, and we’re dancing, and we’re singing. But every single person next to you is going through something, and has something on their mind, and maybe they don’t show it, but that’s why it makes me so happy to look out into a crowd and see people who didn’t know each other before dancing together and singing the same words – because we’re all in this together on a Friday night. And everybody has different ghosts, and everybody has different things that are triggers, or scars, and maybe you fell in love with a person or a habit that was bad for you and you couldn’t quit. Or maybe every time you looked in the mirror you thought that you were ugly, or maybe every time you walked into the lunchroom you had nowhere to sit, or maybe you lost someone you never thought you would lose… maybe you lost yourself, that’s the worst one. But when we go through things like that and when we have these horrible phases that feel like endless rainy days that are never gonna get better, let me just tell you that, first of all they will, and, second of all, I want you when you look into the mirror to be very clear in realizing what you are, and what you are not. You are not someone else’s opinion of you who doesn’t know you. You are not the product of your mistakes. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Let’s talk about what you are. You are your own definition of beautiful and no one else’s. You are someone who is wiser because you made mistakes in your life. You are someone who was brave enough to take the risks that it takes to make mistakes. Let me tell you something about taking risks – yes, they can end up with you making mistakes, and feeling stupid, or feeling embarrassed, or feeling humiliated. Or they can also end up with you standing on a stage talking to 50,000 of your friends on a Friday night, Philadelphia. A couple of years ago every single magazine and newspaper thought it was cool to say things about me that weren’t true, and things about me that were mean, and things I couldn’t correct them on. But you did. And I just want you to know that I’m never going to forget what you did. That you showed up for me when my hands were tied behind my back and I couldn’t say anything to fight back. You fought back, and you kept showing up, and kept filling stadiums, and here we are. And in those years while you were sticking up for me, I was writing a new album called 1989. And I moved to New York City, and I spent a lot of time by myself, and I spent a lot of time with my friends, and I cut my hair short. And one day I took a trip to London, and I went to the house and artist I really love – her name is Imogen Heap – and I told her what my life had been like for the last couple of years and I played her this idea for a song. And once we wrote the song the album was done, and the name of that song was Clean.”

13th June 2015 – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia: night 2

“Alright. I am looking out at this glorious crowd and um, you’re all lit up so the thing is I can see every single one of you; even if you’re at the top and you think that I can’t, I can. I see every time you move, I see every time you jump, I see every time you’re dancing around, and I’m looking at you and I’m thinking about the fact that we have lot of people who travelled to be at this concert from other places – thank you for doing that. We also have a lot of people who are from the great state of Pennsylvania who are here tonight. I was thinking about that. I was thinking about how lucky I am to be in this room full of people who are all, we’re all from different backgrounds, we’re all different ages we have different hobbies. We have one thing that connects us and one thing in common – all 50,000 of us – and that thing is when life gets difficult for us the first thing we turn to is music. That is why Shawn Mendes is here tonight, it’s why Vance Joy is here tonight, it’s why Rachel Platten is here tonight. And it’s why you’re here tonight – because we all process pain the same exact way and we process joy the same way. We need a song that describes those emotions and when we find that song it’s like falling in love. Um, and you know I, I talk to you on the internet, and I talk to you when I meet you, and when we talk, it becomes very clear to me that every single person here could be going through something really tough, and really difficult, and you’re putting on a smile, and you go to a concert, and you’re being strong, and you’re powering through it, and you’re having  fun in spite of whatever is complicated in your life, and I want to thank you for that, thank you for having fun with me tonight. Cause here’s the thing – in 2015, even if someone else isn’t trying to tell you you’re not good enough, or you’re not the right definition of beauty, or that you’re not the right standard of perfection – even if someone else isn’t telling you that, sometimes we look in the mirror and tell ourselves that. And there’s nothing that you can really do to stop having those bad days, and there’s nothing you can do to avoid those going through really tough times where it feels like… it feels like things are kinda pointless sometimes. And, um, it feels like you’re walking through all these rainy days and it’s never getting brighter. And I want you to know that every single one of us in this room has gone through that, too, and we will continue to have to fight those battles our entire lives. But…but, when this happens to you please, please if there’s one thing you to remember from tonight, I want you to look in the mirror – instead of telling yourself that you should be like someone else, or you should be something you’re not, or you should know the answers to questions that you don’t know yet – I want you to look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not. Alright? You are not someone else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods if you’ve made mistakes. You’re not going nowhere just because you haven’t arrived at your final destination yet. Those are the things you’re not. Let me tell you what you are, alright? You are your own definition of beautiful, and worthwhile. That’s what you are. You are someone who is wiser because they made mistakes, and you are someone who I consider brave if you’ve taken the risks it takes to make mistakes in your life. That’s what you are. And, lastly, you are a person who has gone through tough times, who has had insecurities, who has felt out of place, who could going through any of those things right now – but instead, you decided to put one foot in front of the other, move on with things and go have the best time ever at a concert on a Saturday night. That’s what you are. And I am a person who has had things said about me that wasn’t true and I have read things on headlines that felt wrong, and I always had you to count on. And so I had the courage to move to a new city, and cut my hair, and go to London and write a song with an artist I had always admired

– her her name is Imogen Heap and this song that we wrote together is called Clean.”

19th June 2015 – Lanxess Arena, Cologne: night 1

“There are about, like I said, 15,000 people in this room tonight and that´s all the room fits, that´s it. You guys completely sold it out, you sold out tomorrow night, too. I´m so incredibly grateful for this. Thank you so, so much. And you know tonight is the very first night of the European leg of the 1989 world tour. And we´ve got people here from completely different backgrounds who speak different languages. Everyone here could be going through different things, different issues – but the one thing that we all have in common is that the reason we are here is because when life gets complicated, or difficult, or terrible, or painful, we turn to music, and that´s why we´re all in this room tonight. You could be going through a breakup, or a hard time, or a time where you feel insecure about one thing or another, and we all go through that. And we all continue to go through that throughout the course of our lives. And you know, if you look to the person next to you, you have no idea what they´re going through. And the fact that matters to me the most is that, no matter what you´re going through, you decided tonight to forget about it and get up and go have the best time at a concert. That is what matters to me. And when you´re going through terrible times in the future, like we all will, I want you to look in the mirror and remind yourself of what you are, and what you are not, okay? You are not someone else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods, just because you´ve made mistakes in your life. And you are not going nowhere just because you haven´t got where you want to go yet. Let me remind you what you are. You are your own definition of beautiful and worthwhile. That´s what you are. You are someone who is going through whatever you´re going through in your life, has been through difficult times, and you are still here, having a blast at a concert with me on a Friday night. That´s who you are. A last thing – you are the people who have gotten me through the hardest times of my life. That is who you are. And I will never forget it, thank you for being here tonight. A while ago – just a little over a year ago, around the last time that I was playing a show in Germany – I went to England and I wrote a song with a women named Imogen Heap, right before I moved to New York City and cut my hair. And the song is about all the hard times you helped me get through and the song is called Clean. Don´t just sing along, scream the words with me.”

20th June 2015 – Lanxess Arena, Cologne: night 2

“So here we all are, all of us together standing in a giant room, singing together, dancing together. I think it’s the most amazing thing, because we have people here who are all different ages, all different backgrounds, from different countries, maybe speak different languages, but we’re all here dancing together tonight. And that, that is something beautiful, and special, and rare – to share something in common with a room full of 15,000 people. And the thing that we share in common… the thing we share in common is that in moments of great pain, and in moments of great joy – all of us here turn to music, and that’s why we’re standing here. And, um, I think that it’s important that we remind ourselves that everyone here tonight has gone through something difficult, or painful, or troubling, or confusing. Every single person in this room has had a rumour spread about them that wasn’t true – whether it was in a school hallway or on the cover of some tabloid magazine – um, we share that in common and we feel exactly the same way when we have those days where we look in the mirror or we don’t feel good enough, and we don’t feel special, or we don’t feel like we’re headed in the right direction, or we don’t know how to make that happen. These are the things we go through regardless of whether we live in Germany, or New York, or LA, or Israel, or Brazil, or England, or France, or Italy. And I think that it’s absolutely beautiful that you would spend one of your precious summer Saturday nights with me, singing along, dancing, having the best time ever at a concert in Germany. Thank you for coming. Cause I don’t personally believe that if you’ve made mistakes in your life that makes you damaged goods. I don’t think that having scars or having ghosts makes you any less of a person than someone who never took chances and never made mistakes. I think that when we make mistakes, and we feel pain, and we feel regret, or we feel humiliated – those are horrible things to go through, but if you continue to put one foot in front of the other, and make it through, I don’t think that makes you damaged at all. I think that that, in fact, makes you clean”

21st June 2015 – Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam

“So I know that a lot of people here tonight live in the Netherlands, and that’s amazing. And I also know that we have a lot of people who travelled really, really great distances. What I think is so cool about that is that we have so many people here from different parts of the world. And the one thing that we have in common, you know, so many things about our lives being different, is that the reason why you’re all in this room tonight is because when we experience great pain, or when we experience great joy, we turn to music. And, I’m looking out into this crowd and thinking about the fact that it is one of the best crowds that I have ever played to. When I was a little kid, and dream about being a singer – I didn’t even dream about crowds that are this good. And I sit there, and I think about the fact that every single one of you who are screaming and dancing, and being amazing tonight – every one of you – every one of you might be going through something difficult right at this moment. Every one of you might be having one of those insecure days where you just feel like nothing you put on fits, nothing you do to your hair looks good, you can’t figure out where you want to go with your life – we all have these days. And maybe you had one of those days waking up this morning. But the point is, that you got out of bed, and you put on an outfit, and you walked out the door, and you went to a concert, and now we’re having the best time ever. And sometimes it’s not about things being perfect all the time. Sometimes it’s not about being happy all the time. Sometimes it’s about getting on with things, and putting one foot in front of the other. And I just hope, that when you do that – when you make mistakes, when you go through terrible things – I hope that you don’t see yourself as damaged. Because that is not what happens when you experience life. You are not damaged because you have scars, or because you have ghosts. That’s not what happens. What happens is, you become wiser because you have scars, and you become wiser because you have ghosts, and you become someone who doesn’t make the same kind of mistake twice. And if you make new mistakes, that’s fine. But I don’t think that making mistakes makes you damaged. I think making mistakes makes you clean.”

23rd June 2015 – The SSE Hydro, Glasgow

“Now we are here in Scotland, but I know but I know there are people who travelled a really long way to be here. So thank you anyone who got in a car, or train, or plane to be here. You know the thing we all have in common – regardless of how we all got to the show tonight, or, you know, what language we grew up speaking, or our background, or our hobbies – all these things could be different. But the one thing that connects us, the one thing we have in common is that when we experience great pain, or great joy, the people in this room turn to music, and that’s why we’re all here tonight and that’s what we have in common, And um, one thing that hits me really hard about knowing you, and about talking to you, and about hearing your stories, and looking into your eyes, and having you being a big part of my life is, um, it occurs to me how very difficult it is to be happy in 2015, How we all want it so badly – how we all want to be happy all the time, but it’s just unrealistic to think that we could be when every day we can go online and see the highlight reel of somebody else’s life, but we only see the behind the scenes of our life. And we compare ourselves – and that’s natural, that’s human nature to compare ourselves to other people, or other scenarios, or maybe “my life should be like this instead of like that” – and it’s really easy to get confused about what matters, and it’s even more easy to get confused about who we actually are. Um, so I guess right now what I would like to do is to take a moment to remind you of what you are, and what you are not. Okay, Glasgow? You are not somebody else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods if you’ve made a few mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Alright, now I want to talk about what you are. You are your own definition of beautiful, and worthwhile, and no one else’s definition. You are smarter, wiser, and stronger because you took the risks you took to make mistakes in your life. And last, but not least, you are a person who is probably going through a lot at this very moment, but instead of wallowing in it, you got up, got dressed, and went to a concert and we’re all having the best time ever on a Tuesday night. That’s what you are. And I think sometimes we get confused because we think things are supposed to be perfect all the time or we’re supposed to feel perfect, or act perfect all the time, and that’s not the case. I don’t think that’s the case. I think sometimes it’s… I think sometimes you get credit for just showing up and getting on with things, getting out of bed in the morning, going to school, going to work. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you do have to keep going. And, um, I think sometimes we can get confused and think that because we have ghosts, or because we have scars, or because we’ve walked through a bunch on rainstorms, that makes us damaged, or less than other people. But I think those things that I just mentioned don’t make you damaged. I think walking through a bunch of rainstorms actually makes you clean.”

24th June 2015 – Manchester Arena, Manchester

“What we have in common is that when life gets really hard, we feel great amounts of pain, or when we feel great amounts of joy, we turn to music, and that’s why we’re all here in this room tonight. And, um, speaking about great amounts of pain, um, from talking to you so much I’ve never been so sure that it’s treacherous and difficult to be happy in 2015. I think that navigating your life, navigating your self esteem, your self-image – I think that’s harder than it’s ever been before, and I think it’s because every day – and trust me I love the internet, okay; I love the good parts of the internet. But there’s also this dark side of how we’re all so, it’s so available to us to see the highlight reel of someone else’s life. All the pictures of when they look the most awesome and when they’re on some great trip, or they’re having the best time ever at a party, and you get like. In your own life you’re seeing the behind the scenes, not just a highlight reel. You’re seeing like when you get out of bed in the morning and you’re like, “oh, God, this is not a good hair day, this is not going good today, how are we going to fix this?” Or, you’re like you feel like you don’t know where you’re supposed to go with your life, or you just went through the most horrible sense of rejection because someone you know spread a rumour about you that wasn’t true. You’re seeing all these angles of your own life, and then you compare it to other people’s lives when you don’t see what they’re going through. You just see the good parts of what they’re going through. Am I right? And so I say to you when you start to compare yourself to other people, please change the channel in your mind to something else, because I think that when it comes to how we see ourselves, other people are really mean, but we’re really mean to ourselves. And so it’s easy to get confused. And when you do get confused, um, and you start feeling like you’re not special, or you’re not different, or you have nothing important to say – we all feel like that sometimes. What I want you to do right now, if there’s one thing you remember from tonight, remember what I’m about to say. You need to look into the mirror in the morning and not tell yourself that you’re not special, or you’re not good enough, you’re not pretty, or you’re not awesome. I’m going to tell you right now the things you actually are not, okay? These are the things you really are not. You are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t got where you want to go yet. Those are the things you actually are not. Now I want to tell you what you are. You are your own definition of beautiful and worthwhile; that’s what you are. You are someone who is wiser because you made mistakes – not damaged – wiser. You are somebody who could be at this moment right now sitting there, there, there, there, there, there, there, you are going through whatever you are going through in your life that’s stressing you out, or confusing you and making you feel upset. But you got out of bed, and you put on an awesome outfit, and you came to a concert, and now we are all having the best time ever on a Wednesday night. You know it’s not about perfection. It’s about just getting on with things, sometimes. Sometimes, you just get credit for getting up and going on with things – you don’t have to do it perfectly. And I think that we mistake our mistakes for damage and we think other people will judge us for them. But I want you to know that the way I see mistakes, they don’t make you damaged. They make you clean.”

27th June 2015 – Hyde Park, London

“There are people here from all over the world, so if you travelled to be here, thank you so much for coming. And, you know, looking out at you, thinking about the fact that we all come from different places, maybe we all have different accents, we have different hobbies, different backgrounds, whatever. But there’s one thing that we have in common that I know for sure. That thing is that when we feel a great amount of joy, or a great amount of pain, we turn to music. That’s why we’re all at Hyde Park tonight. From talking to you so much, and getting to know you, it’s never been more apparent to me how difficult it is to feel okay about yourself in 2015. Real talk. I mean, every single day we go online – and trust me, I love the internet, okay? Love it – but, every day we go online and we scroll through the highlight reel of other people’s awesome lives. But we don’t see the highlight reel of our awesome lives – all we see is the behind the scenes. We see every single moment, from when we wake up and we’re like “oh, God, not feeling my hair today. Not going to be a good day today for the hair”. We see our doubts, we see our fears, we see our concerns. You are the only one who is inside your brain feeling all of your anxieties and the voices who are telling you that you can’t be who you want to be, or that you’re not who you want to be, or that you want to be more like that other person over there. Let me tell you, people are mean to each other, but no voice is as mean as our own voices are to ourselves. Is it true or is it false? It’s true, right? Okay, so if there’s one thing that you come away from this night remembering, I want it to be this – every day when you look in the mirror, and your mind is telling you all the things you are not – if those things are that you’re not cool enough, you’re not pretty enough, you’re not popular enough, you’re not successful enough, you’re not special, you’re not wanted, you’re not unique – those are not the things you are not. Let me tell you the things you are not. Okay? You are not somebody else’s opinion. That’s what you’re not. You are not going nowhere just because you’re not where you want to be yet. You are not damaged goods just because you have made mistakes in your life. Those are the things you are not. Let me tell you the things that you are. Would you like to hear the things that you are? You are your own definition of beautiful, and worthwhile, and no one else’s definition. You are wiser, stronger, and smarter because you made mistakes in your life, not damaged. And lastly, London, England, you are someone who is probably standing here tonight going through your own battles, fighting your own ghosts, trying to cover your own scars, stressing about your own stresses. But, rather than wallowing in them, you got up, you put on an awesome outfit, and now we’re all standing here together having the best time of our lives at a concert on a Saturday night. I realise that it’s not about being perfect, it’s not about feeling perfect. I think that sometimes it’s just about getting on with things and realising that you’re happy today. That’s all that matters. I just want you to know that one thing I have learned in 25 years, and I’m still learning, is that if you get rained on, you walk through a bunch of storms, life is constantly coming at you – that doesn’t make you damaged. It makes you clean.”

29th June 2015 – 3Arena, Dublin: night 1

“I think that one thing that happens to every single one of us is that we go online, and we have the ability to scroll through everyone else life’s highlights, like – and trust me, I love going online, I think it’s amazing – but there is also the darker side to it, where we go online and we compare our lives to other people’s lives. And the mistake that we are making is that when we scroll through the pictures that other people post online of their lives, you see the highlight reel of the most excellent, shiny, fabulous moments of their lives. But when you look in the mirror at yourself, you are seeing all the behind the scenes, all the stuff that no one else sees, and you are hearing your own insecurities, you are hearing the voices inside your head telling you that you might not be good enough, you might not be as cool as other people, or what if you are not having as much fun as other people, or what if you are not special enough. It’s just endless. I think that people are really mean, and I learned that, you learned that. But I think that time made me realize that sometimes we are so much, so much more mean to ourselves, than other people could ever be, in our heads. Don’t you agree? If there is one thing you leave this concert with – one thing – let it be this, okay? Instead of looking in the mirror every single morning and letting the insecurities in your brain tell you that you are not cool enough, not pretty enough, not special, not going where you want to go, not there yet, not fun, whatever. I want you to realize that all of that is completely invisible to other people and it is irrelevant to you. Those are your fears talking. Let me tell you what you actually are not, okay? Here is what you actually are not. You are not somebody else’s opinion of you. You are not damaged goods if you have made mistakes. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Those are the things you are actually not. Let me tell you what you are. You are your own definition of beautiful and worthwhile. You are wiser, stronger, smarter, better because you made mistakes, not damaged. And last, but not least, you are someone who is standing here tonight with 13,000 other people, all of whom are probably going through something stressful, complicated or confusing in their lives, at this very moment. Every single one of you decided to ignore those things and put on an awesome outfit and go to a concert and have the best time ever. That is what you are. So, I’m still learning new things every day, but the one thing I have learned is that making mistakes, or having scars, or having ghosts – those things do not make you damaged. Those things make you clean.”

30th June 2015 – 3Arena, Dublin: night 2 | Incomplete

“Everyone here tonight has an individual storyline, with all different kinds of things that make you happy; things that have marked your life, you know, times that you went through that were really difficult for you. Everybody’s got those things. Those things that haunt them. Those things that scare them, or confuse them. Memories you wish you didn’t have. Memories you wish you could forget. Somehow, all 13,000 of us decided to put those away tonight and have the best time ever on a Tuesday night at a concert. I don’t know, I don’t know which one it is, which thing you were going through, whether you lost someone you never thought you’d lose or you lost yourself. Or you fell in love with a person or a habit that was bad for you, and you couldn’t quit. You never felt like you fit in, or you didn’t know where you were gonna go with your life. All these things can be very paralysing if you let them, and I think it’s wonderful looking out into this crowd of people who seem to have left their insecurities at home to be here and to dance and to sing with me tonight.”

6th July 2015 – Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa

“Keeping tabs with you guys, what I’ve seen a lot of lately is you posting things about what’s going on with your life, or you had a cute outfit on, or you decided to take a picture with no makeup on or really cute makeup, or you’re out with your friends or whatever – you very innocently post something and then all of a sudden there is a comment down below it and it says something really horrible for no reason at all, completely unprovoked. And maybe you have 10 of your friends saying nice things about you, but the only thing you’re gonna remember is that one person who said, like, you’re so annoying, or that’s such a lame outfit, or something absolutely deflating and defeating like that. When I see this happen, it makes me think about how, when we were little kids and we’re on the playground – if you want to go up and say something mean to someone, you have to look and see the expression on their face after you say it. And it teaches you the feeling of remorse of seeing what it’s like to someone else cry, or to make someone else hurt. Today, no one has to see your face when you read a comment that says that you’re ugly, or everyone hates you, or why do you even bother. No one has to see how much it hurts you because you have to live with it. And I just wanted to let you know that I don’t think that’s fair, and I don’t think that’s right, and I don’t know how to fix it, but I love you and I’m sorry that that’s ever happened to you. We have enough of our own mean voices saying things into our minds, telling our own self that we’re not good enough. We don’t need other people; we have insecurities. That’s bad enough. And, so I guess if there’s one thing that you remember from this concert, please let it be this – instead of trying to tell yourself every single day the things that could be wrong with you, telling yourself that you’re not good enough, that you’re not special, or you’re not living your life the way you should, or you’re not popular enough, or you’re not cool enough, whatever. Let me tell you that those things are completely wrong, irrelevant, and untrue. Let me tell you what you actually are not. These three things are the things you really are not, okay? Number 1, you are not someone else’s opinion of you. Number 2, you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Number 3, you are not damaged goods just because you’ve made mistakes in your life. Okay, now I want to tell you what you are. You are your own definition of beautiful, cool, worthwhile. Those things are what you are – your own definition of them. You are someone who is wiser, stronger, and smarter because you made mistakes, not damaged. Those are the things you are. But most importantly, you are someone who either there, or there, or there, or there, or wherever you’re standing – you’re going through your own set of problems, dramas, insecurities, issues, tragedies, ghosts, scars – you have your own set, your own unique bag of problems that you are dealing with every moment of your life. But what you are is a person who decided not to dwell on them, and to put on a cool outfit, and go out to a concert and have the best time ever. You’re hanging out with a bunch of other people who’ve made mistakes. You’re hanging out with a bunch of other people who have all kinds of dramatic, complicated scenarios. You’re hanging out with a bunch of people who are having fun anyway. And you know what? Mistakes don’t make you damaged. They make you clean. So if you know the words to this song, don’t just sing them with me. Scream them with me.”

7th July 2015 – Bell Centre, Montreal | Incomplete

“I’ll scroll down, and I’ll look at the comments, and, you know, you’ll have a bunch of your friends that were like, “you look cute today. I love this picture Amy, you look great.” And then you’ll have some random who came on here and was like, “you’re stupid, Amy. Why’d you post this picture, you look ugly. You’re a loser.” And it’s like I know that when you look at that picture, you’re going to ignore all the nice things your friends said, and you’re gonna focus on that one person who said you’re not good enough, or not cool enough. And then that person’s ideas, those irrelevant, thoughtless opinions are gonna go into your brain forever, and those are gonna be your new thoughts, and your new insecurities. And when you have a bad day, you’re gonna look in the mirror and you’re gonna hear, “you’re not special enough. You’re not cool enough. You’re not pretty enough. You’re not ‘something’ enough.” But, first of all, I wanna tell you that I don’t know how to fix this, but I love you, and I’m sorry that this happens, if this has ever happened to you. “

[gap between videos]

“I’m about to tell you 3 things that you’re actually not. Okay? This is, I feel, the truth of the matter. Number 1, you are not the opinion of somebody else who doesn’t know you. Number 2, you are not damaged goods if you’ve made mistakes in your life. Number 3, you’re not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Those are the things you actually are not. Let me tell you the things you actually are. Number 1, you are your own definition of beautiful, and no one else’s. Two, you are wiser, smarter, and stronger if you have made mistakes in your life, not damaged. And three, most important one, you are someone who is probably going through your own set of ghosts, scars, challenges, struggles, problems, drama – and instead of wallowing in them, and focusing on them, and dwelling on them, you decided to put on a cool outfit, string yourself up in lights, memorise my album, and come have an amazing time at a concert tonight.”

10th July 2015 – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford: night 1

“So I know looking at this crowd that we have so many people from different places, different backgrounds, or different hobbies. Also, different insecurities and different fears, different scars, different ghosts. We have a lot of different people here tonight, but the one thing I do know we all have in common is the fact that when we feel great amounts of joy or great amounts of pain, we turn to music and that’s why we’re here tonight. I’m very well aware that it has never been easier to compare yourself to other people and feel like your life falls short. It’s never been easier than it is in 2015 and every single day – you know I love the internet, we all love the internet – but every single day if you’re having a bad day you can go online and scroll through the highlight reel of someone else’s life. All of their glossy, shiny, cool looking memories are readily available for you to see and that’s the highlight reel of their life. But with you when you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror, all you’re seeing is behind the scenes. You’re seeing your fears. You’re seeing things you regret; you’re seeing mistakes you’ve made; you’re seeing things that other people don’t see and so yeah, people are really mean, but we’re so much more mean to ourselves, aren’t we? And I think that from talking to you as much as I do, and from you being kind enough to share your lives with me in a really honest way, I know that every single person here tonight has their own set of struggles and things that are bothering them or things that are absolutely terrifying to them at this very moment. And so, I guess what I’m trying to say to you is, if there’s one thing that you remember from tonight, please let it be this – every single time you have a bad day and you’re just telling yourself that you’re not cool enough, you’re not pretty enough, or sexy enough, or funny enough, or whatever it is that you think you’re not enough of, let me tell you that those things are completely imaginary. They’re not real. Let me tell you the things that you actually are not. Would you like to hear the things that you actually are not? Alright. You are not the opinion of someone who doesn’t know you. You are not the in any way damaged goods if you’ve made mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t figured out exactly where you want to go yet; just because you haven’t reached your final destination. Alright, let me tell you the things that you actually are. You are your own definition of beautiful and worthwhile and nobody else’s. You are smarter, wiser, and stronger because you’ve made mistakes, not damaged. And most importantly, you are someone who is going through whatever problems and complications that life presents itself with right now, but instead of wallowing in those things, you decided to get up and get dressed and come hangout with me and have the best time ever at a concert on a Friday night, didn’t you? I personally do not think that if you’ve walked through a bunch of rainstorms and life just keeps raining on you, and you keep feeling like you’re going through these constant storms over and over again, if you keep going, I don’t think that that kind of thing makes you tarnished or damaged or anything that you’re afraid it makes you. I happen to think that going through a lot and continuing to go on with your life makes you clean.”

11th July 2015 – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford: night 2

“I have to also imagine that we have people who are from New York City, and I also know that we’ve gotta have people here tonight who came here from very far distances, travelled a great distance to be at this show. Thank you. So I feel like I’m looking at a group of people who are all from different places and different backgrounds, have different hobbies and things like that and it’s all different. But I feel like there’s one thing that every single one of us has in common. And that one thing is that when we all feel great amounts of joy or great amounts of pain, we turn to music, and that’s why we’re in this stadium tonight. And sometimes when I’m looking at you, I start to think about every single individual story that is playing out, that has all converged to lead us to all be in this room. And with you all lit up like this I can see every single one of you, even at the top, I can see every person in this stadium. And I’m not naïve enough to think that just because you’re having an amazing time at a concert right now, that there’s nothing going wrong in your life. That there’s nothing you’re struggling with. That there’s nothing that’s hurting you, or haunting you, because that would be unrealistic. The fact is everyone’s got scars, and ghosts, and regrets, and things they wished they had done differently – things they wish they had said, things they wish they had never said, you know? And I don’t know what it is for every individual person. Maybe you fell in love with a person or a habit that was bad for you but you couldn’t quit. Maybe you trusted the wrong person. Maybe you never really feel like you fit in anywhere. Maybe you’re so confused about where you’re supposed to go in life and it overwhelms you and you feel like you can’t move. Maybe you lost someone you never thought you would lose, or maybe, the worst one – you lost yourself. Regardless of what is going on in your life that scares you, regardless of what is going on in your head that tells you you’re somehow, someway, not cool enough, or good enough, or special enough. Regardless of that, what I would like to make note of, is that instead of wallowing in those things and focusing on them and allowing them to defeat you, you got out of bed, and you went to a stadium on a Saturday night in the summertime of 2015 and now we’re having the best time ever. I personally don’t think that we should strive to have some kind of perfect life. I just think we need to stop comparing our lives to other people’s, and I think we need to stop being so mean to ourselves. Because the voices of other people who are mean to us are hard enough to ignore, but if you got it in your own head that something about you isn’t good enough, or just because you’ve made mistakes in your life that makes you tarnished or damaged goods – that’s wrong. That is not true. And I guess what I’m trying to say to you is, if there’s any part of you that is insecure about having made mistakes, I just want to let you know that I don’t believe that that is a bad thing. I think that sometimes making mistakes is the product of taking risks. But I also know that me standing here in front of you is the product of taking risks and making a lot of mistakes. So yeah, if you’ve gone through a lot of rainstorms and it seems like it’s never going to stop coming down on you, I want you to know that if you keep going, it doesn’t make you tarnished, or damaged. It makes you clean.”

13th July 2015 – Nationals Park, Washington DC: night 1

“From talking to you, and learning what you guys are going through – it’s never been more clear to me that self-esteem and self-image and how to feel about your own self has never been more tricky than it is in 2015. Like, every single day, we have the option to go online and check out the highlight reels of somebody else’s life – all their most awesome experiences, all the times they looked the most awesome and they were doing cool stuff. That’s their highlight reel. Sometimes we have a tendency to see other people’s highlight reel and compare it to the behind the scenes of our own lives – our regrets, our ghosts, our scars, the things we wished we’d never would have said, the things that we said but would give anything to be able to take back – we see everything that happens in our life, but we only see the cool stuff that happens in other people’s lives. That’s where the imbalance is. So I guess, I guess it’s impossible not to look at other people’s lives and compare it to our own. And it’s impossible not to hear people that are mean to you. But I think what I wish that we would all do is be a little bit nicer to ourselves. We have enough going on in the world that can make us feel terrible – you’re not special enough, you’re not cool enough – we don’t need our own minds telling us that, too. So if there’s one thing that you do after this concert – take it easy on yourself, a little bit. Do that for me. Do me that favour, okay? We all mistakes in our lives. Everybody has scars, everybody has ghosts, everybody has lost someone who they thought they would never lose, everybody lost themself for a period of time. Every single person that you see here tonight is going through something. But rather than wallowing in what you’re going through, and dwelling on it, and letting it define you – you decided to get up, and walk out the door, and go to a concert and have the best time ever on a Monday night, didn’t you? I’m going to sing a song for you called Clean, and I hope you’ll sing along.”

14th July 2015 – Nationals Park, Washington DC: night 2

“The thing we have in common, even though so many things in our life may be different, [is that] we turn to music when we feel pain or joy, and that’s the thing that bonds us. That’s the one reason I’m here. It’s the one reason that you’re here. It’s that music helps us cope, not only with the most beautiful, incredible moments of our lives, but also the most terrible, unexpected and confusing moments of our lives. I’ll bet that every single one of you has a song that you correlate with, you know, your first heartbreak, or the days when you didn’t really want to get up, or go to school, or go to work because you didn’t fit in. Or a song that reminds you of that perfect first kiss that you had when you were at school, or the person that you were in love with but you were afraid to tell them. I just want to tell you that if any of those songs that you correlate with your memories are mine, I consider it the highest honour, so thank you. Speaking of the things that confuse us, the things that make us feel like we’re not good enough, or insecure. I don’t know if it helps you to know that every single person in this 45,000 person crowd feels that way sometimes. I don’t know if that helps at all. But to know that it’s not good to compare our lives to other people’s, bottom line, in a negative way, in a positive way – it’s not good to look at what somebody else has going on. I think a lot of the time, we end up looking at other people’s lives and thinking ‘my life falls short. They’re doing all that cool stuff. Look at all those pictures. That girl knows how to take a perfect selfie. I can’t take a perfect selfie’ or whatever. I think that if you could just take it easy on yourself – if that could be the one thing that you do for me – please don’t listen to the voices in your head that are telling you that you’re not cool enough, or special enough, or you don’t look the way you’re supposed to look… because those voices are only in your head. No one else is seeing those insecurities. You know, I’ve gone through – sometimes you have a bad week, sometimes you feel like you have a bad month, sometimes you have a really tough year. Sometimes you feel like you’re kinda walking uphill – no matter what you do, it doesn’t seem to be working out. When I’ve had a bad year, or a rough two years or whatever, when people were saying things that weren’t true – you guys were the ones that were on my side, and I’ll never ever forget that. When that happened to me a few years ago, well, I kinda changed a lot about my life. You know, I’ve moved to a big city that used to really scare me, I got a haircut, and kinda just surrounded myself with girlfriends and immersed myself in you. And, on one of those trips, when I was writing songs for this album, and I went and met up with this woman named Imogen Heap and we wrote a song about what I’d been through, and how I felt about it. We called it Clean. Please sing along.”

18th July – Soldier Field, Chicago: night 1

“I know we have a lot of people here from the Chicago area, is that true? Very good. And then I know we also have a lot of people here who travelled a really, really far distance to get here tonight. Thank you for doing that. Thank you to anyone who is here. I’m just thinking about the fact that we have people here from so many different places makes me think about the fact that everybody here has, you know, different upbringings, or hobbies, and different things that they’re scared of, different things that make them happy. But the one thing that we all have in common is that when we feel great amounts of joy, or great amounts of pain, we turn to music. That’s why we’re in this stadium tonight, all of us. Which makes me think about what I said about feeling great amounts of pain, because, you know, we listen to music when we’re celebrating, but we also listen to music when we’re heartbroken, and alone, and scared, and confused. And, um, you know what’s so crazy about, um, about being happy, or trying to be happy, in 2015 is that we have so many ways that we can compare our lives to other people’s, and so many ways that we can find that our life maybe falls short of what other people have going on. So that’s something that we’re all battling as far as self-esteem. And I see it every single day when I… when I go and look at what you’re doing online. I see what you go through in a negative sense. I see, like, the things that make you feel terrified of the future, or, you know, when you look in the mirror and you’re not seeing what other people see – you’re seeing… this voice in your head is telling you that you’re somehow not special enough. You’re not cool enough. Um, and I think that, more now than ever, we absolutely beat ourselves up. And sometimes, you know, other people are mean, but the voices inside our own heads can be so much more cruel, because we don’t know how to turn them off. Um, and I think that what I’m trying to tell you is that it’s okay if you’ve made mistakes in your life – every single person in this 55,000 seat stadium has made mistakes in their life. You don’t have to carry it with you. And I would also like to point out, that looking at every single one of you, I’m very well aware that every single one of you may be missing someone, or might have just gotten really hurt by something, or you’ve got these ghosts and scars that you carry with you. But rather than dwelling on them, you got up, and you put on an outfit, and you went to a stadium to a concert, and now we’re having the best time ever instead of you dwelling on any of it. So no matter what you’ve been through – no matter what you’ve gone through that makes you feel like maybe you wish you hadn’t said that, you wish you had done that – just give yourself a break. Please, for me, take it easy on yourselves. It’s hard enough to live with what other people have to say. Please let the voices in your head be nice to you. And, um, please know that making mistakes doesn’t make you damaged, or tarnished. I think it makes you clean. Will you sing along with this one if you know it?”

19th July 2015 – Soldier Field, Chicago: night 2 | Incomplete

“We turn to music, and that’s why we’re all here tonight. For the same reason. And, um, I think that it’s… it’s very interesting to look into your lives to see what you’re going through – when I meet you, when you write me letters, when you leave me comments. Um, and it’s so strange to me how every single person has something that they’re struggling with. There’s not one of us that doesn’t. There’s not one of us that doesn’t have deep fears, or regrets, or things they wish they hadn’t have said, things they wish they would’ve said, risks they wish they wouldn’t have taken, chances they wish they would’ve. And I think that it’s… it’s never harder to feel okay about yourself than it is in 2015. Um, and I’m looking at you, and I’m seeing every single one of you, individually illuminated. I can see every single last one of you. And I know, that just based on… just based on statistics alone, there’s probably a great amount of you in this 55,000 who woke up this morning and didn’t feel okay about yourself, and you thought, “I don’t like this outfit. I thought I did, but I don’t think this is good. And I’m not cool enough, and I feel like I’m being left out of this. I feel like I’m not enough of that.” But what I want to tell you right now is that, even if that was the case, and you woke up this morning, and your hair wasn’t right, or your body image wasn’t right, or you didn’t feel good about something the way you looked, or the way your life is – rather than wallowing in that, rather than focusing on it, and obsessing over it, and letting it drag you down – you pushed it to the back of your mind, you got dressed, you went out the door, and you went to a concert. And now we’re all dancing together and having the best night ever, aren’t we Chicago? I don’t think any of us can aspire to have some kind of perfect life. I think we can aspire to continue to keep going when our life doesn’t feel perfect. And that’s what you did if there’s anything that you’re struggling with, and you decided to go out and have a good time anyway. And I don’t think that, if you’ve made mistakes in your life, you have to let that damage you. I think you can choose to look at it as something that makes you wiser, and actually makes you clean. If you know the words to this one, sing along, Chicago.”

24th July 2015 – Gillette Stadium, Foxborough: night 1

“So, I’m looking at this crowd, and I’m realising that we probably have a lot of people here who are from the Boston area, am I right? I also know that we probably have a lot of people here who have travelled a really long distance to be at the show. Well… so when I think about that, I think about the fact that so many people from different backgrounds, who have different hobbies, who are from different places are here tonight. And, even with all those things being different about our lives, we have this one thing that we have in common – every single one of us. And that thing is that when we feel great amounts of joy, or when we feel great amounts of pain, we turn to music – and that is why we are here at this stadium tonight, every single one of us. It’s never been so obvious to me, and I’ve never been so aware of the fact, that everywhere we go – whether you’re in a stadium full of 60,000 other people, or you’re in a grocery store, or you’re at school, or you’re at work – every single person, we’re all walking around with a different set of hopes, and fears, and regrets, and things that terrify us. Um, and I think that it’s important sometimes to remind ourselves of that, because every single night at meet and greets, when I meet 200 to 300 people before the show, I hear what they’re going through. And a lot of the time they’ll confide in me, and I just think that, when we’re treating people, when we’re dealing with people in public, and the fact that you’re out there dancing together even though you may not know the person next to you – you have no idea how happy that makes me. That you are being so wonderful to each other, because every single person – regardless of whether they’re smiling or not dwelling on it – every single person is going through something. Maybe you lost someone, maybe you lost yourself, maybe you’re absolutely terrified because you just don’t know what the next few years hold for you, maybe you haven’t decided what you want to do with your life yet and that freaks you out. Or maybe you just… you just don’t feel like anyone gets where you are in your life right now. I don’t know. Every single person is different. But I want to let you know that I’m proud of you for something. Because regardless of what you’re going through at this very moment, you decided not to let it break you. You decided not to stay home tonight. You decided to come to a concert and have the best time ever with us. And I want to thank you so much for that, because these things in life that we go through – life is a series of fleeting moments, and fleeting moments of pain, and all the things in between – the choices you make – are what actually count. And the choices that you make in between to get up to go to a concert – those are the things that are going to make you move on with your life to the moments of happiness that are ahead of you. And the moments of pain that we go through, the moments of regret that we go through – those things teach you the lessons that you’re supposed to learn in life. They do not make you tarnished. They do not make you damaged. I think it’s just the opposite Boston, Massachusetts. I think those things actually make you clean.”

25th July 2015 – Gillette Stadium, Foxborough: night 2

“We obviously probably have a lot of people who have travelled from other states to be here. I, um… I’m looking out at this crowd, and the crazy thing is that I can see every single person, like with this tour. Hey! What’s going on, guys? The thing about this tour that is so overwhelming for me – and, um, you know, I’ve been lucky to get to play stadiums before – but, with this tour, I can see every single person, and, if you think that I can’t, that’s not true. I can see every person all illuminated, and highlighted. You know, a crowd of 60,000 people is a magical thing no matter what, but it’s absolutely breathtaking for me being able to look out and see just how many individuals that is. And when I look at you, and I see that, it makes me think about my crowd – not as a kind of loud, dark entity – it’s a group of individuals. And when I start thinking about that, it’s when I really start thinking. And I start thinking about how every single person here is going through your own set of circumstances in your life. Things that scare you. Things you regret. Things that you’re so excited about. Things that have happened to you in the past. Things you’re afraid of happening in the future. Um, you know, every single person here has lost somebody and maybe even very recently. Maybe… maybe there are so many people here tonight who have gotten their heart broken, or felt betrayed by a friend, or lost somebody they never thought they’d have to say goodbye to. Maybe we have people here tonight who fell in love with a habit that was bad for them, and they had the hardest time in the world quitting, and every single day is a struggle not to go back to that bad relationship, or that bad habit, or that bad addiction. Whatever it is, every single person here tonight has something that they overcame, and over-looked, and did not dwell on, in order to get out of bed, put on clothes, and be at this concert tonight. Keep that in mind when you are next to someone in line. Keep that in mind if you’re dancing next to someone who is here by themself. Keep that in mind if you are out in the world and for one second you forget that everyone is struggling with something. I think that we need to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt more, and we need to give other people the benefit of the doubt more. And I just wanted to say that if you are going through something right now, or have in the past, and you listened to my music in that moment – I look at that as the highest honour in the world, and I will never be able to thank you enough. I think a lot of the time we are so hard on ourselves because we look at our lives and we compare our lives to other people’s lives. We look at every mistake we’ve made in our life and hold it against ourselves. We look at it like a mark against out record. Well, guess what – there is no record. That’s not how it works. Making mistakes is part of your life, and you’re going to do it over and over and over and over again. Be kind to yourself, please. You have been there for every single lesson I have learned, publicly or privately, for the last 10 years of my life. There’s one thing that I can tell you. The mistake that you will make does not make you damaged. They make you wiser if you take something from them, and I just wanted you to know that if you feel like life is raining down on you over and over and over and over again – I want you to know that does not make you tarnished. Walking through a bunch of rainstorms and continuing to go on with your life – that makes you the opposite of damaged or tarnished. That makes you stronger, wiser, smarter, and, ultimately, I think it makes you clean.”

1st August 2015 – BC Place Stadium, Vancouver

“I guess looking out at this many people, it’s, um… it’s interesting for me because I start to think about every single person here and what your life is like and how far you’ve travelled to get to this show and, you know, and what it was that made you want to be here tonight. And um, cause, you know… I know we have a lot of people here who are from in and around Vancouver, but I also know that we have a lot who travelled a long way to be here tonight. And I really appreciate both. Um, any person who wanted to, uh… to spend their Saturday night with me, I know how many things you could be in the summer time. So many things you could be doing. But here you are – with me. One thing that I have learned in looking out at this many people – you know cause you’re… I don’t know if you know this, you’re all lit up. I can see every one of you. Yup, I can. I can see you dancing. I can see everything you’re doing from here – it’s a really good view. But, because you’re all lit up, I start thinking about your life, and, um… and one thing I’ve learned by looking out at this many people, is that I’m looking out at 45,000 people who have an individual set of hopes, dreams, fears, wishes – every single person here has something that they’re afraid of, or has something that they’re trying to block out in the back of their mind – whether it’s somebody who five years ago who told you that you weren’t cool, or you were annoying, somebody who didn’t invite you to something, somebody you loved who turned around one day and changed their mind and said, “I don’t want to be with you anymore” and you can’t get it out of your head. Or maybe it’s just the voice in your own head saying like, “you don’t look awesome today”. And it’s absolutely extraordinary that we’re all walking around with these fears and with these insecurities, and what I find to be the most extraordinary is that every single person here decided today, “I’m not going to let my mistakes or my insecurities keep me from going to a concert and dancing all night and having the best time ever.” I am proud of you for that, because the thing about mistakes – that people will tell you all the time – is that the facts is that a lot of clichés are true. You cannot live your life without making mistakes. The only thing you can control is how you handle them afterwards. The only thing you can do is make sure that your mistakes are ones that you will never make again – that your lessons are lessons that you have learned and you will not repeat. No one can ever blame you for making new mistakes, because that means you’re taking risks. The only time when mistakes will take you down a notch is if they become your behaviour pattern, and we don’t learn from them, and we let them become our identity. But I don’t think… I don’t think that you’re going to do that. I don’t think that you’re going to let your mistakes be ghosts that haunt you, because you’re here tonight, aren’t you? And so we’re gonna go out, and we’re gonna go make the rest of the mistakes we’re gonna make for the rest of our lives, we’re gonna hope that we don’t make too many of the same ones. And um, we’re not gonna be defined by them. And we’re gonna remember tonight that we’re gonna be more kind to ourselves, aren’t we, Vancouver? Living your life, making mistakes, does not make you damaged, or tarnished, or anything like that. I think that they make you wiser, and they make your smarter, and stronger, and, in the end, you become the opposite of tarnished. And I think making mistakes, and learning from them, makes you clean. So if you know the words to this one, by all means, sing along.”

4th August 2015 – Rexall Place, Edmonton: night 1 | Incomplete

“I think that a lot of the time, we have a tendency to punish ourselves for our mistakes, more than anyone else ever could – as if there’s some permanent record of everything you’ve ever done or said wrong in your life. And I just want to let you know that, since I’ve got 13,000 of you in a room, that’s not how it works, and you need to be kind to yourself if you’re going to be able to keep going. And if there’s one thing that you remember from tonight, please remember this – that making mistakes, or not saying what you wanted to say in the moment, or saying too much, or, you know, taking a misstep with your life – that’s not going to be held against you forever. That does not make you damaged goods, that does not make you tarnished. But it means that you’re taking chances, it means you’re learning lessons – you’re getting stronger, and wiser, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. The only thing we can control is – not making mistakes, because you’re going to make them – but you can control the way you react afterward. Did you learn from it? Will you make the same mistake again? Are you going to keep moving forward? I personally just don’t think that messing up changes anything about who you actually are. It’s something you did. It’s not who you are. And I think that – if you can keep walking, and keep moving forward, and not dwell on it, and continue to take all your struggles, and fears, and doubts about yourself – and push them to the back of your mind, and go to a concert, and have the best time of your life… If you can do that, then your mistakes will never tarnish you. Your mistakes will do the opposite. They will, at the end of the day, make you feel completely clean. Will you sing with me on this one, Edmonton?”

5th August 2015 – Rexall Place, Edmonton: night 2

“Every single person in this arena is lit up. I can see every one of you, absolutely can, and, um… I think one of the most insane parts about this tour is being able to see every person – if you’re way up in the upper deck thinking we can’t see you, that’s incorrect cause I can. Um, so when I can see every single person, the crowd goes from being like kind of a dark shadowy room of people to 13,000 people who are individuals who I can see each one of. And that’s what I love about this tour. So, so when that happens, when I can see every single one of you, I start thinking about it a lot while I’m singing these songs – thinking about what your lives are like and, you know, just the effort you put into coming to the show and, you know, and which times in your life you listen to which songs and, um, what you’re going through right now. And it leads me to the conclusion that every single person here has their own individual set of struggles, and things that are bothering them, or tragedies that happened, or a loss that happened to you, or insecurities that you have to deal with in your head on a daily basis because none of us are immune to that. There’s not one single person who gets by without those things happening – Making mistakes, messing up, having regrets, saying something that hurts someone that you wish you’d never said, not saying something that you wish you had said – all of these things are gonna happen to every single one of us in our lives. But what I think about in this moment is that every single person has their own set of struggles, but instead of dwelling on them, you decided to get dressed up, and to come to a concert tonight, and have the best time ever, didn’t you? Cause, you know, I think that a lot of the time – when we feel insecure, or when we feel like we’re not enough – it’s because we’re trying too hard to make our life perfect, and all of our actions perfect, and everything we do, every choice we make perfect, like there’s anyone out there who’s got a perfect life. There isn’t. And I think we need to be a little kinder to ourselves, and I think that, if you can – when you’re waiting in line for something, when you’re dancing next to a stranger who’s at a concert alone, when you’re here – please be mindful of the fact that every single person is going through something right now. We need to be kind to each other, too. But, speaking of being kind to ourselves, I just hope that you won’t hold your mistakes against yourself. I hope that you’ll learn from them, but I hope that you won’t let them be something that marks you, or something that you see as a mark against your record or something. That’s not how life works. Lessons are there so that we go through them and we become smarter, and wiser, and stronger – so that we don’t make the same mistakes twice. I think that we get insecure about our mistakes because we think that they make us damaged, or tarnished. But I don’t think that at all. I think that, once you make a mistake, and you continue to move forward with your life, every single day you get stronger because of it. And I don’t think that it makes you tarnished; I actually think the opposite. I think that living your life, taking risks, making mistakes, and learning from them makes you clean.”

8th August 2015 – CenturyLink Field, Seattle

“I know we’ve got a lot of people who are from around Seattle, is that correct? I also know that we have a lot of people who have travelled really far distances to be at the show tonight. Thank you for doing that, Um, you know, and thinking about that, makes me think about how we may be from different places, we have different hobbies, we’re different ages; all of us have different priorities and places we want to go in life, things we’re scared of, all of it. It’s all different, it’s all individual. And, um, the one thing that we all have in common… actually there are 2 things. Thing number 1 that we have in common is that when we experience great joy, or great pain, every single person in this stadium turns to music, and that’s why we’re all here tonight. Not only that, but every single person in here is carrying around with them their individual set of struggles, fears, worries, doubts, regrets, things that they wish they could forget about, things that are causing them extreme amounts of pain, the feeling of loss, heartbreak that happened to you. And regardless of how well those wounds may have healed, every single person in here is dealing with something. And in order to come to the concert tonight, they decided not to dwell on the things that were bothering them, or the things that were hurting them, or the things that were scaring them. That’s something that we have in common. Because the thing is, there’s no such thing as making it through life without a few scrapes, and cuts, and bruises, and scars. And there’s no such thing as making it through life without making your own set of mistakes. And, I think the only thing that matters is how you choose to handle your mistakes, or how you choose to move on from your cuts, and scrapes, and bruises. And are you going to let those mistakes define you? Are you going to let those scars be the first thing that you think about when you think of yourself? I think that what I want to tell you tonight – if there’s one thing you remember – it’s to look around you, at all the other people here, and think about the fact that everybody is struggling with something and they’re not going to be wearing that on their sleeve. They’ve hidden it, but it’s there. And I also want you to remember that about yourself. So be kind to the other people, be kind to the person who’s off dancing by themselves at the concert, be kind to the person you’re next to in line. Be kind to yourself. Because the mistakes that we make in life… they don’t have to be something that makes us feel tarnished or damaged. These can be things that we look back on as something we needed to experience in order to learn what we now know. And so, instead of looking at your past regrets as something that makes you damaged, I want you to look at your mistakes as something you have made it past, and something that has made you, in the end, the opposite of tarnished. Your mistakes have made you clean.”

14th August 2015 – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara: night 1

“Looking at you right now, I think that you should know that looking at you reminds me of the most important lesson that I’ve learned in the last 10 years that I’ve been putting out albums, touring, travelling the world. Would you like to know what the most important lesson is? The most important lesson I have learned is to be able to diagnose when you are happy, and to cherish it, and to really live it, and to fully be there in that moment when you are happy. And looking at you, I just need you to know I’m so happy in this moment, because here’s the thing about happiness – it’s not a given, it’s not permanent, and it’s fleeting. So, sometimes when we learn that lesson very early on in life – that happiness is fleeting, and that you have it for a minute, and it could be gone the next minute – sometimes the second thing that happens to us after that lesson is that we become afraid every time we’re happy of losing it. And I used to do that. I would look at a crowd who is as beautiful, and loud, and gorgeous, and singing every word to my songs, and I’d be so scared because of how happy I was. I was so scared of when it would go away. And I think that we all do that… when we fall in love, we think, “oh, cool, how long until this ends and having to patch up my bruised, bleeding heart again?”; “how soon until these friends that I love decide that I’m not cool after all and stop hanging out with me?”; “how long until I’m at this party before people find me out that I’m more insecure than anyone else here?”; “how long will I be dancing before someone points at me and thinks that I look stupid?”. These are the things that ruin our happiness, and I don’t want anyone, including your own mind and your own fears, to ruin your happiness. So if you’re happy tonight, allow yourself that, and treat yourself that. Sometimes we’re not happy for days on end, weeks on end, months on end. Sometimes you don’t just have a bad week – sometimes you have a bad year. And, sometimes, you go through something so hard that you feel that any of your mistakes are like marks against your record or something, like those are going to stain you forever. But that’s not the way that it works. And the cool thing about happiness being fleeting is that it can go away really quickly, but it can come back really quickly and surprise you when you least expect it. And, when I wrote this song, I was really fighting to find happiness, and, instead of finding permanent happiness, I found a lesson that I sing about in this song. And I went to London, and I met a woman named Imogen Heap, and I told her what I’d been through, and I played her this idea I had. And I ended up writing a song with her – and if you know the words to it, please sing along with me. This one’s the last song on the album, and it’s called Clean.”

15th August 2015 – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara: night 2

“Well, I’m looking at a crowd that is absolutely gorgeous, and wonderful, and seemingly uninhibited. And the way that you’re dancing, the way that I see groups of people who are here together – like friends, or family, or mothers and daughters, or like fathers and sons – and then, every once in a while, I see somebody who came to the concert alone, which is also awesome. And the thing that these people all have in common is that you are dancing and singing in such a way that it makes me feel like these songs might have been a part of your life in hard times or in good times. And there’s really no greater honour for a songwriter than to feel like you’re performing for a crowd of people who have included your music in their highest highs and their lowest lows. So thank you for making me feel that tonight. And, you know, looking at you – here’s the cool thing about having a crowd that’s all lit up – like, I can see every single one of you. Every one of you. And I can see it when you’re moving your hands, or when you’re dancing, or when you’re jumping around. I can see the signs you’ve made. And that’s why I wanted to light you up – because I wanted to look out into a crowd of 50,000 individuals, with 50,000 stories, and 50,000 sets of hopes, and dreams, and fears, and wishes, and goals. I didn’t want it to be like performing to kind of an endless sea of darkness. And tonight, I look at you and I get really distracted because I start thinking about what your lives are like. And I know that everybody here has their own set of struggles, and something that they’re going through right now, or something that happened to them a long time ago that you have to shake every day – every single day you have to try and forget it. Everybody here has things they regret saying, things they wish they would’ve said in the moment, things that you think about yourself that you hope no one else ever sees, insecurities that you hope everyone else is blind to. Um, and I guess that what I wanna say to you is that if you look around you, and you take into account that every single person here has all the things that you have – all the fears, all those things that scare you to death – but every single one of you decided not to dwell on them, not to let them define you, and, for a night, you decided to come to a concert, forget about them, and have the best time ever on a Saturday night. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that we have to have some kind of perfect life, or that, if we make mistakes, that counts against some kind of record. But I think that it’s much more important to go on with your imperfect life and put one foot in front of the other, rather than trying to have a perfect life. It’s not possible. But going on with your imperfect life, and embracing it, and loving it? That’s possible, and that’s what you’re doing. I don’t think that imperfections make us tarnished, or damaged. I actually think the opposite, and I wrote a song about it – about how walking through a bunch of rainstorms doesn’t make you damaged or tarnished at all. The lessons that you take away from it actually make you the opposite. I think that going through a lot and coming out the other side can make you, in fact, clean.”

17th August 2015 – Gila River Arena, Glendale: night 1

Taylor’s Speech Introducing Ronan

“So, I was thinking that this song could just be you, and me, and a guitar. What do you think? So, um, I think that, in my opinion, one of the bravest things that a human being could ever do is to go through something absolutely unbearable, and then share their experience with the world. I think that the braver you are, the more brutally honest you are. There’s a woman here tonight called Maya Thompson, and she has lived in this area, and brought her kids up in this area, and I wouldn’t know half as much as I know about childhood cancer and childhood cancer research if she hadn’t shared her story about her son, Ronan. The thing about childhood cancer is that it’s really, really hard to talk about. And it’s really not something that you bring up, because it makes everyone really, really upset. But the fact that she brought it up – she had this blog called Rockstar Ronan and I would read it every night. And in it was this account of what it’s like to watch cancer take over your life. And since then, I had cancer hit really close to me in my family. So, because Maya is right there, I would like for you to give her a round of applause, please. A few years ago, when I was reading her blog, I decided that her account was so heart wrenching, and so honest, that I took a lot of the things that she said and I put them into a song. And I put her as co-writer, because she is the rightful co-writer of the song Ronan. All of the proceeds from that song went to The Ronan Thompson Foundation and other childhood cancer research. There are a lot of really, really, incredible kids in this city who are getting the best medical treatment, and I just wanted to take a moment and try to play this song. I can’t promise that I will sing it well, or not get really emotional, but I’m gonna try because the only other time I’ve played this was on a show called Stand Up To Cancer. And I think that, because Maya is here tonight, I think she deserves it, because she is the co-writer.”

Clean Speech

“I think that, tonight, looking at you and knowing that we do have such incredible, honest, beautiful people in this audience, and people who have gone through so much in their lives – that is one family that’s standing down there who has gone through so much. And also, I think it’s important to realise that you’re standing in a room with 15,000 other people, and every single person has their own set of struggles, and fears, and hopes, and dreams, and wishes, and regrets. And so, I think that when you’re dancing at this concert, and you see someone dancing by themself, or when you’re standing in line for something, just always try to keep in mind that there is a set of individual circumstances that make up every single person’s life. And when I’m looking at you and I realise that, it makes me think about the fact that, no matter what you’re going through, no matter what you woke up this morning and thought – don’t think about that, don’t think about your insecurities, don’t think about how, you know, you’re worried about this thing that terrifies you, or this thing that you wish hadn’t said, or some mistake you made years ago that you still regret. Whatever it is that you’re going through, one thing that occurs to me looking at you is that that is something that you didn’t let defeat you today. Today, you decided to go to a concert, and dance all night, and have the best time ever in spite of whatever’s going on with you, didn’t you? You know, life throws these things at us. Life makes us wonder if we should be less naive, less childlike, less enthusiastic, less excitable. These things are looked down on when we grow up. And I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that – the way that you’re dancing tonight – yes, it’s childlike, and enthusiastic, and excitable… and it’s beautiful. That’s how I want you to live your life. I think that, you know, the worst thing in the world that can happen to you is you take all the mistakes that you’ve made in your life, and you count them against yourself as if there’s some kind of record book of things you’ve done wrong, and that’s going to hold you back. And I think that the worst thing that could happen to you is that you become a cynic. Cynical people are my worst fear in life. And I think that if you make enough mistakes, and you hold it against yourself, and you punish yourself with them over and over again, or you remind yourself of your insecurities over and over again, it’s possible to become a cynic. But if there’s one thing you take from tonight, please take this from tonight – you are not mistakes, you are not damaged goods if you have regrets. That’s not how it works. I think that it’s the opposite. If you can make mistakes in life, and learn from them, and continue to put one foot in front of the other, I don’t think that makes you damaged, or tarnished, or anything like that. I think it’s quite the opposite, actually. I think that makes you clean. So if you know the words to this one, please sing along with me.”

18th August 2015 – Gila River Arena, Glendale: night 2

“So, looking at this crowd, I have to imagine that there are a lot of people from the Glendale, Phoenix, Scottsdale area. And then, I also know that we probably have a lot of people who travelled a great distance to be here tonight, right? Well, thank you to both types. I mean, it’s awesome that you’re here, and that you wanted to spend your Tuesday evening with me, and that you’re so incredibly magnificent tonight and full of energy. And, um, I guess… I guess I’m looking at all these people who all have different sets of hobbies, and interests, and you’re all so different from one another and, I guess, what that makes me think of is that you all have different sets of struggles, and things you’re scared of, and insecurities that you hope nobody else ever notices about you. Um, and I guess that I just want you to know that, no matter what you are, there’s always going to be someone telling you that you should be the opposite of that. No matter what you are. So, if you’re sitting there and you’re thinking that you’ve been criticised for what you stand for, the way that you act, the way that you dress, the way that you look, the way that you feel – there is always going to… even if you were the opposite of what you are, there would be people telling you that that was wrong, too. So, when you’re having people – whether it’s people who don’t know you, who don’t deserve to judge you anyway… people online can be bullies because they are allowed to be anonymous; people who dislike you because they are jealous of you, or threatened by the fact that you’re unique – any of those people, even people who love you criticise you sometimes. But just know that, if you’re happy with the way that your life is, that is the only thing that matters. Do not change it. Cause, like, I’m looking at you, and you’re dancing with such reckless abandon, and it’s so beautiful. And I don’t want anyone to ever tell you that that that’s not how you should dance. And you’re singing out loud, and I don’t want anyone to ever tell you – not even the voices in your own head – don’t let the voices in your own head tell you that you should be something other than what you are. I always look out into the crowd, and I get the feels, and I just want you to be happy, and I guess I want you to be happy the way that you’ve made me happy, and the way that you’ve helped me get through people saying things about me that were the opposite of the truth. You were always the ones who would pick me up, and help me realise that I should live my life exactly the way that I want to. I should dance the way that I want to. I should sing the way I want to, and dress way I want to. So, all the things that you say to me online when you’re encouraging me, or those wonderful, thoughtful things that you’ve written on these signs to me – every once in a while, say those things to yourself, too, because you deserve it. I wrote a song awhile ago when I was struggling to find happiness, and struggling to deal with outside opinions, and going through a phase. And, um, I went to London, I did a lot of thinking, and I went and wrote a song with this amazing artist named Imogen Heap, and I called it Clean. So if you know the words to this one, please sing along.”

21st August 2015 – Staples Center, Los Angeles: night 1

“I can see you all the way at the top – if you think I can’t, you’re wrong. I think it’s amazing, because when I’m looking at you, and when I can see every individual person in this crowd, it changes things for me. Because then I start thinking about every person in this 15,000 person crowd individually and, sometimes, my mind wanders in the middle of the show, wondering if you live around L.A. or if you travelled really far to the show. I start thinking about if you’ve maybe been to like 5 of my concerts before or 2 of my concerts before. Or if this is your very first time ever seeing me before. So many new friends right now. This is so good! Um, and I guess when I start thinking about all that, I start thinking about how every single one of you has an individual set of hopes, fears, wishes, and dreams, um, things that are painful for you to think about, things you might be going through right now that are absolutely heartbreaking. Um, you know every single one of us is struggling to figure out what happiness means in 2015. I think that’s a fact. I think we’re all trying to figure it out. And, um, I think one of the hardest lessons that I ever learned was when I realized that happiness is not a constant – it’s fleeting. We only get these fleeting, beautiful glimpses of it, and every other moment is us hoping for that next moment of happiness. And so what I’ve learned about my life is that when I’m happy, it’s so important for me to know it and to live in that moment for as long as I can, appreciate it, and then reflect back on it all the time, just like I’m going to do with this moment with you. I’m so happy and need you to know that. I think so many people become jaded when they learn the lesson that happiness is fleeting, because that can be an exhausting concept – thinking that there’s so much of life that hurts, and there’s so much of life that feels daunting, or exhausting, or boring, or heartbreaking, or unthinkably sad, and you can’t figure out a reason for it. But what I would like to point out is that, no matter what it was that’s getting you down, no matter what broke your heart, no matter what insecurities you have, or voices in your head telling you you’re not special enough, or cool enough, or whatever – you decided, instead of wallowing in those fears, instead of letting those insecurities get you down and define your evening, you decided to come out to a concert tonight and have the best time ever and you decided to choose happiness, didn’t you? Um, I think that sometimes we feel like if we make mistakes, those things will be the thing that defines our lives in other people’s eyes. And, um, I know that I’ve felt like that before in my life, but I don’t feel that way anymore. And I don’t think… I don’t think that you have to feel like your life is defined by what other people think about it. I think you can define what you think your life stands for. And, um, I guess what I’m trying to say is there is nothing that you do in your life that will tarnish you, or damage you, permanently if you don’t let it. And I think that if you can continue to put one foot in front of the other, continue to choose happiness even if it’s fleeting, that’s not something that will ever allow you to be permanently damaged. And I wrote a song about this and it’s the last song on 1989, and it’s called Clean.”

22nd August 2015 – Staples Center, Los Angeles: night 2 | Incomplete

“If there are any moments of great joy or great pain in your life, in which you have turned to any of my songs, I consider that to be the highest compliment, so thank you for including me. I think that life moves at a different pace for someone who is heartbroken, or someone who is lonely, or when you’re taking all of your insecurities that your head is cooking up and screaming into your ears. I think time moves slower. I think people need music a little bit more. Um, and I think that, in those moments, it’s important to remind yourself of a few things. And if there’s just a few things you remember from tonight, please remember these things. You are not the opinion of someone who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods or tarnished if you’ve made a few mistakes in your life. And you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Let me tell you a few things that you are. You are someone who is wiser, stronger, smarter, better because you made mistakes and learned from them. That’s what you are. And, more importantly, you are someone who is dealing with whatever you’re dealing with right now, but instead of letting those things define you, instead of wallowing in those things, you decided to get dressed up, go to Staples Center, and have the best time ever with me tonight. This is a song I wrote in London with a wonderful, incredible artist named Imogen Heap about… about that moment when you realise that walking through a bunch of rainstorms and continuing to keep on going doesn’t make you damaged. It actually makes you clean. Sing along with me on this one.”

24th August 2015 – Staples Center, Los Angeles: night 3

“Everybody here’s got fears, and doubts, and regrets, and things you wish you never would’ve said, things you wish you would’ve said the moment if you’d thought of them. And the worst part – we’ve got these voices in our head telling us the most awful things. And, you know, I think it’s hard enough… there are enough ways in 2015 that someone else can tell you that you’re not good enough, then you add your own voice, in your own head, telling you that – and you can have a lot of bad days that way, and we all do. And I think that what I have realised looking at this group of people is that every single one of you chose to not focus on the insecurities, and the doubts, and the fears, and the things that scare you about living your life every single day. You decided not to think about them. You decided to come here instead, and have the best time ever at a concert on Monday night. Cause I think that we get so caught up in the idea that we’re supposed to live some perfect, spotless life, and we’re not. We’re supposed to make mistakes, we’re supposed to learn from them – then you make other mistakes and you learn from those. It’s not like there’s ever that point where “and then they lived happily ever after and nobody ever messed up again, ever”. Um, so I guess if there’s one thing that you take from tonight, please, please be kinder to yourself. There are enough people who are gonna be mean to you. And I think that, you know, sometimes we can get confused and think that if you make mistakes, or things don’t go the way you want them to, that they’re somehow damaged by that, or scarred by that, or tarnished by that. And I just don’t think that’s the way life works – I think that, if you make mistakes and you continue to move forward and learn from them, you’re not damaged at all by that. You’re brand new because of that. And I wrote a song about this when I was going through some things, trying to find happiness, trying to figure out what it meant. And, um, I went to London and I wrote with this wonderful artist named Imogen Heap, and we wrote the very last song on 1989, and we called it Clean. So if you know the words to this one, please sing along.”

25th August 2015 – Staples Center, Los Angeles: night 4

“One of the cool things about this tour for me is that every single one of you is illuminated. I can see every single one. Every person. You know, it’s the most amazing thing to look out into a crowd, and to see 15,000 individuals, rather than, like, endless darkness. And, you know, there’s people out there you know they’re awesome, but it’s even cooler to see you guys. Which makes me think about you in a slightly different way… it makes me think about each individual person who’s here and, um, why you’re here, and, um, where you came from – if you live in LA, or if you travelled a great distance to be here – or, if it’s possible, maybe a lot of you have gone through really high highs and really low lows, and turned to my music in those moments. Because, honestly, there’s no better compliment you could ever give a song-writer than to say, “I listened to your song and it helped me get through something” or “I celebrated to your song”, you know? And, um, I’m looking at 15,000 people who all have this one thing in common, and the thing that we have in common is the reason why we’re all here. The reason we’re here is that, when we feel great amounts of joy or great amounts of pain, we turn to music. That’s why we’re in this arena, every one of us. You know, I’ve always been very active on the internet. I’ve always talked to you online a lot. I’m always on there, commenting on your selfies, and reading about what it was like for you to go to school for the first day the other day, um, you know, you hoping you’re going to get that job promotion. I think that, over the years, I’ve been knowing and loving you for 10 years – I’ve been touring, putting out albums, sharing my life with you for ten years and I’ll tell you there has been a lot that has changed in those ten years. We have so many more opportunities to look at someone else’s life and scroll through the greatest hits – the highlight reel of what they’ve got going on, and think about our own lives, and think, “man, I didn’t go to that cool party” or “I don’t know how to take a selfie at, like, that awesome angle. I can’t figure out lighting on a cell phone”; “I feel like they’ve got so many friends, I feel lonely”; “they know where they’re going in their life, I’m not sure”. I think that, in talking to you in 2015, I guess what I just want to say to you is that who you are has nothing to do with what people who don’t know you say about you, or to you on the Internet, or behind your back. I also want to say to you, we have enough people that are going to come at us, attack us, try to take us down, insult us, criticize us, tell us we aren’t what we should be. Please don’t do it to yourself in your own mind, okay? Be kind to yourself, a little bit, for me. Okay? And another thing I want to tell you is that I know that each one of you probably has your own things going on – fears, doubts, regrets, insecurities – and I want to tell you that I’m proud of you, because instead of wallowing in them, and focusing on them, you decided to push them to the back of your mind for the night, and come out, and have the best time ever at a concert with me on a Tuesday night. And I want you to know that the more lessons you learn, the more mistakes you make, the more you learn from them and move on – the wiser you become. It doesn’t make you damaged. It doesn’t make you tarnished. It doesn’t mean there’s some mark against your invisible record. And I think that if you continue to walk through rainstorms, and you continue to put one foot in front of the other, it doesn’t make you damaged. It’s the opposite. I think that it actually makes you clean. If you know the words, please sing along.”

26th August 2015 – Staples Center, Los Angeles: night 5

“I had a feeling about you, I really did – a real gut feeling that this was the one, this was the crowd. You know, looking at you, um, one of my favourite things about this tour is that I decided that I wanted to light everybody up. I wanted to illuminate everybody. So, um, you know, one thing I love about that is, um, I’m not looking out into a vast, endless sea of darkness that screams and dances that you can’t always see. I can see all the things that you’re doing. You think I can’t see you up there – that’s incorrect. Yep, yep. And so, because of this, because I can see every single one of you, it makes me start thinking about you individually, and then my mind starts to wander about, like, your back story. Like, um, like if you’re back at school yet. Or if you have work off tomorrow. Or if you’re here with your friends. Or how long it took you to make the costumes you’ve got. Or how you’re, like, wrapped in Christmas lights, all that. Or if you’ve got, like, glitter and puffy paint all over your house because you made signs. Yeah, looking at you. And then… then I start thinking about other things, like, um, like the fact that maybe you travelled a really long distance to be at this particular show. Um, and then I think about the fact that maybe it’s a possibility that you might have listened to my music in really high high times in your life, or really low low moments in your life. Because that’s what we do, isn’t it? That’s why we’re all here – because when we feel extreme pain or extreme joy, we turn to music. And that’s why we’re in this arena together. That’s the one thing we’ve got in common. I don’t know, but looking at you, it’s impossible to pick one age group, or one possible group to talk to, because the coolest thing of looking at you is that everybody is at a different place in their life. Everybody’s got different hobbies, individual sets of hopes, dreams, wishes, fears, doubts, regrets – all of it. And I guess I just look at you and I never want you to go through anything bad, ever. And I know it’s so naive, but, I guess, I look at you and I know… I know how tricky happiness can be to find in 2015, um, because we have so many ways of looking at what someone else has going on, and maybe feeling like our life comes up short. Or feeling like maybe the other people have it all together, and we don’t know where we’re going with our life. Or feeling like we’ve got all these insecurities, and feeling like we’re just walking around the world, hoping that no one else can see them. Like, “God, how long am I gonna be at this party before people realise I’m not cool?” Um, “how long am I gonna be dancing before people start laughing at me?” All that stuff. And I guess what I wanted to tell you is that, God, you are not someone else’s opinion of you. You’re not someone’s comment on your Instagram. You’re so much more than that. This is coming from someone who loves the internet, because it gives me a chance to talk to you, and it gives me a chance to know you, even if you live far away. But the one thing I want is for you to not get hateful comments, or terrible, terrible criticisms. I don’t want anyone to ever tell you that you’re not what you should be. But that’s how life is. And we go through it, and we try and do the best we can, but all I’m saying is – there are enough people that are cruel, and mean, and critical of you. If you could possibly just be kind to yourself as much as you possibly can, that would make me so happy. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you make a mistake. Don’t focus too much on your regrets. Learn from them. I think sometimes in our heads, we get this idea that there’s like this, um… like an invisible record, and we get strikes against it when we mess up. And that’s just not how it works. We learn lessons from the time we mess up. No one has a spotless life. And if you consider yourself damaged or tarnished because you’ve made mistakes in your life, that’s just not how it is. I think it’s the opposite.

I think that if you make mistakes, and you learn from them, that makes you wiser, and stronger, and it makes you brave for taking those risks in the first place, don’t you think? I wrote a song when I was really struggling to figure out how to be nicer to myself in my own head. And I cared a lot about what other people thought about me. And, to be honest with you L.A., these days all I care about these days is what you think about me. Not people who don’t know me. And, when I came to that realisation, I was in London writing with a woman named Imogen Heap, and I brought her this idea that I had written, and it ended up being the very last song on 1989, and I called it Clean. So if you know the words to this one, please sing along, Los Angeles.”

29th August 2015 – Petco Park, San Diego

“You, you, all the way to the top – you think I can’t see you, you would be wrong, because I can. And, um… and it makes me, um… it makes me so happy to look out and see every single one of you. I can tell when you’re dancing, I can tell when you’ve got your hands up, I can tell, you know… I can see so much of what’s going on with you. And so it gets my mind wandering a little bit, to be honest with you, because I start thinking about your individual lives, and your individual life stories, and what’s going on with every single one of you. Sometimes… sometimes I get lost in the idea that, um… that you’re all on different paths, and you all have different hobbies, and hopes, and dreams, and wishes, and fears, and doubts. But, somehow, you all ended up in one stadium, hanging out with me on a Saturday night. Like, that all those paths merged right here, right now, is kind of astounding to me. But one thing that it then makes me do is, like – I don’t know, it’s weird. It’s when you care about something, it’s almost like the first thing that happens is that you start to worry about them. So I start to think about, maybe, the sad or lonely moments you might have had when you turned to one of my songs, or if somebody hurt you, or broke your heart – maybe that’s why you listened to my music. But then I get happy again, cause I’m like, “well, what if they listened to my music when they were having a really good day, or like driving around, or at a party, or something?” But, you know, I do… I do worry about you because I do care about you. And one thing about the internet that I love is that I can keep up with you, and I’m able to, like, look at your outfit you were wearing before the concert, or read notes from you, and messages from you. And that’s the good side of the internet, right? But then there’s that other side, where someone can semi-anonymously tell you that you’re not what you should be. Um, and it can ruin your day, can’t it? It can absolutely change the course of your day, or change the way you feel about a certain part of yourself that you never had a problem with before. Um, and I just… I guess I just wish you knew when someone… when someone tears you down, or cuts you down, for no reason, or criticises you – I wish you knew that, no matter what your life looked like, no matter what you look like, no matter where you hung out, how you lived your life, how you talked – someone would do that to you if you were the opposite of the way that you are, because that’s the way that the world it. And I think sometimes we blame ourselves when the world tells us that we should be something other than what we are. And that’s not your fault, at all. You know what we can’t go around doing, San Diego, is we can’t go around living our lives to please the cynical people, because there’s far less of them. I do believe that. And I would so much rather you go through your life trying to please the people who want to see you win. And, at the heart of it, trying to please yourself. Live your life the way you want to, not… not the way somebody anonymously commented online that you should live your life, okay? Do that for me? And I guess, um, you know, I’ve… I’ve gone through phases of my life where I believed, um… I believed that it mattered what people who didn’t know me, didn’t even know my music, and didn’t care about me, wrote about me on some headline, or the internet, or on a blog. I used to really care about that stuff. But, nowadays, I sort of only care about what the people who know me, and care about me, think about me. So that means I only really care about what you think of me now. When I was… I was in London a year and a half or so ago, and I met this woman named Imogen Heap, and I brought this idea cause I’d been struggling with a lot. And, um, we wrote a song together and I put it last on my album – it’s the last song. But, if you know this one, please sing along. This one’s called Clean.”

4th September 2015 – EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City

“Wow, guys, wow. Um, you’re amazing, this is so next-level. You’re even better than you’ve been in the past, and you were always amazing. Guys! Stepping up your game! You should, like, write books on how to be an awesome crowd. I’m serious. Um, I wanted to… I was just playing You Belong With Me and that reminded me that that was the very first song that I ever won a VMA for back in 2009. And that was completely your doing. You voted for that. And then this year, in 2015, you went and voted again, and we got Female Video and Video of the Year, thanks to you this week at the VMAs. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for just, um, just, like, having my back, and always just being so loyal, and so wonderful, and so positive, and so loving. Um, I’m looking out at you right now, and I have to make note of the fact that I can see every single one of you because you’re all lit up, guys. So, um, if you have found yourself thinking, “I’m in the back row, can the people on the stage see me?” The answer is yes, and it makes it so much more amazing to play a show for 15,000 individually lit up people, because, at no point, does a crowd ever seem like kind of a vast, mysterious sea of darkness. It’s always like I look out at you, and I just start thinking about what your life is like – like individually, the whole show. And, um, then my mind starts to wander into what are your, like, hopes, and dreams, and wishes, and fears, and regrets, and mistakes, things you wish you would’ve said in the moment, things you wish you never would’ve said because you hurt somebody – like things that are going on with you, because we’re dealing with 15,000 individuals, and, um, it… and it gets crazy when you think about the fact that, even though you very well could be going through something difficult, or trying, or, um, going through something that’s a real struggle for you, right now at this moment. You know, maybe you lost someone that you never thought you’d lose, maybe you lost yourself, maybe you fell in love with a person or a habit that was bad for you and couldn’t quit, maybe you walk into the lunchroom at school and you don’t know where to sit cause you feel like you don’t really belong anywhere. Um, I don’t know… it makes me think about that, and, um, it makes me think that, if there were ever moments in your life where you were feeling those things or going through something, and you turned to one of my songs – that would be the most amazing compliment in the world. Then I think about the fact that, even though you might be going through something awful, right this very moment, today, you decided not to let that define you, you decided not to let it hold you back, and you decided to put on an awesome outfit, possibly string yourself up in Christmas lights, and come have the best time ever with me at a concert, so thank you. But I know that every single day, especially now, this year, when, you know, just at our fingertips we can be fed hundreds of mixed messages about who we’re supposed to be, what we’re not supposed to be, how we should live our lives, what we should look like. And all I want to tell you tonight in this moment, when I’ve got your attention, before all that other stuff takes over – I just want to tell you a few things. Um, I just want to remind you of what you are, and what you are not. Okay? Because there’s so many messages being fed to you every day, going, “be this, be that, don’t be that, be the opposite of what you are.” Here’s what you’re not – you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you, okay? Another thing you’re not – you are not damaged goods if you’ve made mistakes in your life. One more thing – you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten to your final destination yet. Let me tell you what you are, though. You are your own definition of beautiful, and worthwhile, and absolutely nobody else’s. You are stronger, and wiser, and smarter for having taken the risk that it takes to make mistakes, not damaged. That’s what you are.

I struggled a lot with learning these things, and every single day I’m learning new lessons, making new mistakes, cause it’s inevitable. And, um, I think that when I learnt a really important lesson, um, it was when I was in London, about a year and a half ago. I had a writing session scheduled with this wonderful songwriter named Imogen Heap, and I wrote down this idea, and brought it to her, and played it for her. And it was about the idea that after you make mistakes, or you go through something awful, or you lose someone, um, you feel like there’s mud all over you or something. Like, you just went through this terrible ordeal, walked through a bunch of rainstorms, and feel absolutely covered in it. Like… like your mistakes are, like, written all over your clothes, and your skin, or something. And then I think that if you continue to move through your life, and replace old habits with new ones, I think you can erase that feeling that everyone sees your mistakes when they’re looking at you. And that’s the moment you know that you’re finally clean.”

5th September 2015 – Pepsi Center, Denver: night 1

“Well, um, so I’m looking out at this crowd right now and, um – oh yeah, yeah, I’m looking at you – um, one thing that’s different about this tour than any tour we’ve done before is that, on this tour, you will notice that each and every one of you is illuminated and lit-up. And besides the fact that it just makes everything a little more pretty and magical, um, it’s amazing for me, because it makes me sit here and think about every single individual story, um, and how like – I’m sure we have so many people here tonight who live in and around Denver. I’m right about that, right? But I know we also have people who have travelled to be at this show. Yeah, and I start thinking about that, and I start thinking about how each one of us, um, has this individual storyline, right? And how incredibly strange and magnificent it is that 13,000 of your paths would cross and end up converged in this arena on this Saturday night with me. I start thinking about it a lot. And, at the top, I can definitely see all of you, in case you were wondering. And, so when I start thinking about you, it makes me feel like, um… then I start really… the first thing I do when I care about people is I, like, worry about them, and I start wondering, you know, what it was that made you want to come to the concert. Like, did you… did you feel alone and maybe you listened to one of my songs, or did you get hurt by someone or betrayed by someone when you listened to one of my songs, or you went through a heartbreak, you lost someone you thought you’d never lose, you lost yourself. Um, and I start thinking about what an honour that would be if those were the moments when you decided to turn to my music. And, um… and I think a lot about the fact that every single person walking around out in the world has these individual struggles that you’re all going through. Every one of us – things we’re trying to forget, things we wish we never would’ve said or done, mistakes we’ve made, um… you know, things that have gone wrong that we just wish we could forget, um, or things we’re struggling with at the time. And I guess for me, when I look at you and I realise how many mixed messages you’re getting in 2015 about who you should be, or what’s cool, or what you should wear, or what you need to buy in order make yourself cool, or popular, or wanted… I guess I just want to look you in the eye and tell you a few things. Is that okay? Alright, first of all I want to tell you some things that you’re not, and some things that you are, because I feel like you have too many people already telling you what you should be, and what you shouldn’t be. These are facts. Here’s what you are not. You are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods because you have made mistakes in your life. And, finally, you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten to your final destination yet. Okay? Let me tell you some things that you are. You are smarter, stronger, and wiser because you took the risks that it takes to make mistakes. That’s what you are. And, most importantly, you are someone who may or may not be going through a lot at this very moment, but instead of letting that hold you down, and hold you back, and define you, you decided to put on a sparkly outfit, and come to a concert, and have the best time ever with all of us on a Saturday night. That’s what you are. I get in my head so much and, um, you know, people say really mean things to us, people criticise us every day. It’s part of life. But, um, one thing that I’ve had to really focus on is to stop doing it to myself, because, um, as mean as other people can be – I think that when we tell ourselves that we’re not good enough, or we made a bad decision, and we punish ourselves for it, and we play it back over and over again in our mind what we should’ve said, or what we should’ve done – I think that can be so much more cruel than when someone makes an offhand comment. They don’t even think twice about it.

Um, and about a year and a half ago, I was really thinking hard about learning to try and stop it – to stop just going over and over again in my head what’s wrong with me. And I went to London, and I wrote this song with this woman named Imogen Heap, and I put it as the last song on this album. This is called Clean.”

6th September 2015 – Pepsi Center, Denver: night 2

“That was so nice of you to do that. That was so spontaneous to do that. I mean, the thing is, we do a lot of shows obviously – this is a really long tour – but, um, that’s really rare that you just took it upon yourselves to scream for, like, 5 minutes straight. That was so nice. The word that comes to mind is generous, and I think that… I’ve been thinking about you a lot. I think that generous is probably my favourite quality in human beings. Like, I think that’s the best thing you can be. So I’m pretty happy to be in Denver this evening. So, um, you know, you’ve all got these bracelets on your wrists and what that does, and the reason I wanted to do that on this tour, is because I wanted you all to be lit up and I wanted you all to be illuminated. And from the stage when we look at you, every one of us – all the dancers, all the band, me – we can all see every single one of you, even at the top if you think we can’t – not true. So that’s one of my favourite things about this tour – it’s being able to see you, every single one of you. I can tell when you’re dancing, I can tell when you’re moving your hands, I can see your signs, I can see your shirts, I can see you. It makes me think about, like, all of you on an individual basis. Um, when I’m not with you, like when I’m far away from you, the way that I keep in contact with you is that I go on Instagram and I look at your pictures and you tag me in them or whatever. So I like to look at pictures of what you’re going to wear to the shows, and how you’re getting ready, or if you’re just listening to one of my songs or something, and you write something about how your day was. Um, and it helps me keep in contact with you and stay in tune with your life, even if I don’t spend as much time in Denver, Colorado as I would like to. So the coolest part about that is being able to keep up with you, and keep in touch with you, and if you say like, “oh, I was listening to Wildest Dreams today” or something like that – it’s like the nicest thing. And then, you know, then I’ll run across so many posts where you’re having a really bad day, and you’re just like… you feel like nobody is including you or you’re being left out, or you’re just, like, really questioning whether you feel like you’re enough, or, you know, you’re cool enough, or pretty enough, or wear the right clothes, or hang out with the cool people or whatever. And I see it so much that I feel like I wanna talk to you about that for a little bit, is that okay? Okay, so I’ve done a lot of thinking about this, because I do the same thing – like I get really, really annoyed with myself all the time. And so, I was thinking about it, and you know how if you create things, or you buy clothes, or whatever – your favourite outfit is the newest one you just bought, or your favourite painting you just painted is the newest one that you just painted… my favourite song is the newest one I just wrote. Does that apply to you, too? So think about this – your face and your reflection in the mirror is the oldest image you have ever seen in your life. You’ve been seeing it every day for your entire life. So of course some days you’re going to get sick of yourself, and you’re going to get down on yourself, and you’re gonna think, “I’m not special. There’s nothing about me that’s unique” or “I’m not pretty enough” or whatever society is telling you that you need to be. Um, and so I think that when you’re having these, like, low self-esteem days, and you just don’t like who you see in the reflection, just know that it’s normal. Every single person in the world goes through that, and I don’t want you to, like, get mad at yourself for feeling that way, cause every one of us does. So if there’s one thing you take away from this concert, please just, when you look at yourself in the mirror, or when you think about yourself, try to think about the fact that no one else in the world sees your scars, or your mistakes, or your regrets – those are the things that you see when you look in the mirror. No one else does, I promise you that, okay?

Just remind yourself of that. I just need you to know that making mistakes is part of growing up, and no one gets through this whole thing with a spotless record of good choices every single day. Not one of us. So when you start feeling like your mistakes, or your missteps, or the things you wish you’d never said, the things you wish you never did – when you start thinking that those things tarnish you or damage you, I want you to know that that’s not the way that it works. Making mistakes makes you wiser, stronger, and better in the end if you can continue to live on with your life and not make the same ones. Rather than allowing mistakes to make you feel damaged or tarnished, I want you instead to reverse this cycle, and I want you to allow yourself to think that your mistakes, at the end of the day, will make you clean. This is the last song on 1989, will you please sing along if you know it?”

9th September 2015 – Minute Maid Park, Houston

“I think that we turn to music in our moments of great joy, or great pain. We turn to music when we’re celebrating, when we’re having the greatest time, or when we’re carefree, or when we’re driving around with our windows down, and we’re falling in love, right? But that’s not the only time we need music. A lot of the time, we need music when we’re heartbroken, when we’re let down, when we’re betrayed, when we’re lonely, when we feel misunderstood. Um, and I think that I always felt that time moves a little slower for someone who is heartbroken, and maybe someone who is heartbroken needs music a little bit more. And, you know, when I think about the fact that it’s very possible that there are those of you here tonight who have listened to my music when you were heartbroken, or when you were lonely – just know that if that’s the case, that I considered it the biggest honour you could ever give a songwriter. And, I don’t know, the fact that you are here tonight – the fact that 45,000 individuals decided to all come together in one stadium for my show – um, it gets my mind wandering about the things that might bother you, things you might be scared of, the things that you ignored in order to come out to a concert tonight, the things you didn’t let hold you down and hold you back. And, um, I guess that if there’s one thing remember from this night, I just want you to know a few things that are on my mind looking at you. Um, I want you to know, first of all, that you are not someone else’s opinion of you who doesn’t know you. And I want you to know that you are not damaged goods just because you’ve made a few mistakes in your life, alright? I also really, really need you to know that you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Here’s what you are, though. You are someone who is smarter, stronger, and wiser because you took the risks that it takes to make mistakes. That’s what you are. And, finally, you are a person who may or may not be going through a terrible time, or a difficult struggle, or intense amounts of pressure and stress in your life at this very moment – but, instead of wallowing in it or letting it hold you back, you decided to come out to a concert, and have the best time ever on a Wednesday night with all of us. That’s what you are. I think the concept of happiness, and contentment, and self-esteem, and being alright with who you actually are is very difficult to find and maintain in 2015. But we’re all working on it – I’m working on it, you’re working on it. And when I started really working on it – um, I was in London about a year and a half ago – I wrote this song, and I brought it to this amazing woman named Imogen Heap. And, um, we ended up writing this song together, and it’s the very last song off 1989. So, if you know the words to Clean, please sing along.”

11th September 2015 – XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul: night

“I was in my meet-and-greet tonight, and I met this amazing guy, who was just thanking me for writing one of the songs on the album, and it’s the song I’m gonna play – after I’m done talking for a hundred years. But he said that it helped him get through a breakup, and it got me thinking about the concept of what it’s like to have someone in your life, to let someone into your life, and share all your secrets with them. And all these wonderful things happen, like wishful thinking and daydreaming, and kind of imagining maybe your future with that person in it, and trusting them and letting them see things that you used to think were your flaws, but letting them accept those things about you. And then if you have to lose that person and all of a sudden that person’s not in your life anymore. You know, heartbreak is such a general term for all these other things that happen to us – the unbearable letdown, the embarrassment that you let this person in and it was all for nothing, the humiliation of having introduced this person to everyone in your life and now everyone knows that it didn’t work out, feeling like you failed. All these things happen to you when you get your heart broken, and then the horrible thing is they make you then regret all the wonderful things that you did in order to let that person into your life. Wishful thinking is beautiful. Daydreaming is beautiful. Being a hopeless romantic is beautiful. So then you get your heart broken, and you walk around through this world like time is moving in slow motion, like you’ve got some open wound that only you can see. You feel like you’ve got writing all over you that says, “I am in pain. I have just gotten my heart broken.” You feel like you’re haunted by the memories of what this could have been and “what would this day be like if this person hadn’t left my life?” And then one day, you start to replace the old habits with new ones. And you stop checking your phone in the morning for a “good morning” text. And you start replacing what used to be someone you were in love with, with time with your friends. And maybe you pick up some new hobbies, and maybe you start living your life the way you would want to live it if no one else had any influence over it. And then one day, for me, you find yourself walking down the street and you get this idea in your head for a song about how all the struggle and feeling like you’re tarnished by love, feeling like heartbreak defined you for so long. That cloud is finally lifted, and then there’s this day that comes – and I promise you it comes no matter how heartbroken you are. There’s a day that comes when all of a sudden all that writing that you thought was on you is gone, and you look in the mirror, and you’re clean.”

12th September 2015 – XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul: night 2

“We [Abigail and Taylor] always talked about how we loved Minnesota so much that we wanted to move there. So it’s actually like… it’s actually like [screaming], and you read the liner notes and it says something like, “Thank you to Abigail, someday we’ll be living in Minnesota, don’t worry.” because… we really, really like the Mall of America and we… my love for you has grown to such a more complex, um, level since then but it started out with loving the Mall of America. So, I don’t live in Minnesota, unfortunately. It’s very sad. But I don’t. But I keep up with you on the internet. Like that’s… cause I can go on Facebook, and I can go on instagram, and I can go on Tumblr, and I can see, like, what you’re planning to wear to the concert, and I can see what you thought of it afterward, and I can see the pictures you’ve taken together – and, even when I’m not about to play here, I can check in on you and see what’s going on in your lives and, um, that’s the best part about the internet, in my opinion. It’s being able to know you better. There’s a side of the internet that really scares me and that’s when I’ll see that you’ve posted a picture just like smiling or just having a good day when you put a picture up and all the sudden somebody you don’t know comes and comments something so rude on it, something so hurtful, and they just cut you right to the core with maybe two… two or three words, like, “why you trying to look so cool?” or “you’re ugly,” or “I hated that outfit”. Someone who absolutely has no business inserting their opinion into your life, all the sudden has the right to critique your life. And I don’t like it because… because I just, I look at you and I see that you’re so unbelievably creative, and special, and wonderful, and generous – the fact that you just like clapped and screamed for 3 minutes straight for someone else – like, you’re so generous, and so lovely, and so optimistic. And these are the things that happen when you… when you post a picture of your day’s going well. That’s an optimistic, and sharing, and giving thing to do, and I don’t ever want someone to be able to say a stupid comment to you online, or behind your back at school, or whatever, and have that ruin your optimism, and your generosity, and your… your ability to be vulnerable and share your life with other people. Don’t let them do that to you, okay? So if you leave the concert with anything – you take away any memories from it – please take away this, what I’m about to say to you. I just… I just want to tell you the reality of what you are and what you are not. Because there are so many people and so many kind of influences trying to tell you what you should and shouldn’t be, and, um, what it’s cool to be, what it’s not cool to be. And first of all, I just want to tell you that these rules about what makes you cool, or what makes your body look right, or what the clothes are to wear, or certain status symbols you think you need – none of it matters at the end of the day. I had no friends in school. It doesn’t matter if people think you are cool in school, or even after school. I just need you to know that. Here’s what you’re not. You’re not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you, okay? Second of all, you are not damaged goods if you’ve made mistakes in your life, okay? And three, you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. So cut yourself a little bit of slack every once in a while, because here’s what you are. You are wiser, stronger, smarter for taking the risks that it took to make the mistakes in your life. And, most importantly, you are a person who, undoubtedly, is going through struggles in your life this very moment – struggles, regrets, things you’re scared of. And rather than letting those things define you or hold you back, you decided to put on an awesome outfit and go to a concert and have the best time with us on a Saturday night.

You decided to make signs, and wrap yourself in Christmas lights, and you decided to dance like absolutely nobody was around, and you decided to sing at the top of your lungs, and I can’t thank you enough for that. Coming to terms with making mistakes, rejection, criticism, losing someone, losing yourself… these are things every single one of us has gone through – all 15,000 of you and us on the stage – and I just… I’ve been through it before, and when I was in London I wrote a song about the moment that you kind of realize you’ve got a new perspective on things. And, um, I wrote it with a woman named Imogen Heap… Imogen Heap who is so incredible. And I put it as the last song on album, so if you want to sing along with it, that’d be awesome. This one’s called Clean.”

13th September 2015 – XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul: night 3

“You guys are so unbelievable… to show up to a concert, not only with the lyrics memorised ready to scream for however long that was, I didn’t time it, I was having too good of a time, and also, you know, I see a lot of people up there… you’ve got, like, Christmas tree lights wrapped around your face – yeah, you – and you’ve got, like, signs that you’ve made, and you’ve got my face on your shirt… it’s so nice because you put so much thought into being here. And I see that. I see that, not only did you rock up here and have a show tonight, but you approached the whole thing with such generosity, and that’s my favourite quality in a human being – being generous. Also, it feels like there’s a lot of optimism and positivity going around. I’m seeing people dancing together and people who maybe don’t usually sing in public screaming the words – it’s all very amazing. And, like, I think about it a lot, how it’s… it’s sad to me that the qualities of optimism, generosity, and vulnerability – they’re becoming more rare these days. And I think that they become a little more rare as you grow up, because it takes those qualities in order to let somebody into your life, like a friend who you tell all your secrets to, or someone that you’re in love with, who you… who you let into your world and introduce to your friends and family, you claim them as yours, you let them claim you as theirs. And, um, when you choose somebody – whether it’s a friend or someone you’re in love with – you’re exhibiting such beautiful qualities. And I want you to remember that it’s not stupid to fall in love, or to let somebody in, even if they end up hurting you or betraying you. It’s never stupid. And I think that a large part of what I wrote 1989 about was a process to figure out who I was again, because we start to lose ourselves when we question whether it’s stupid to let people into your life, whether it’s foolish to trust people, whether we’re uncool if we get excited about things. Because we live in a world where, um – I don’t believe that the cynics outnumber the optimists, but I do believe that they’re louder and they’re meaner. I think that, if there’s one thing I would just love for you to remember as you go through your life, it’s that even if somebody hurts you, even if you get let down, even if you trust someone and you tell them your secrets, and they go and run and tell everybody – that’s not on you. That’s on them, okay? Cause I know sometimes when we get our hearts broken, or we lose people from our life, and then, eventually, we lose the qualities that make us who we are… like that generosity, and that giving spirit, and that “come on, welcome to my life. I trust you” – that quality – if you lose that, you can find it again, as long as you continue to live your life, and keep putting one foot in front of the other, and having faith in the fact that trusting people, loving people, letting people in, is not a bad, stupid, foolish thing to do. And I ended up going through 2 years of figuring this out, and then I found myself in London walking down the street, and I realised that I was back to the old me again after 2 years of thinking about it. And so a couple days later, I scheduled a writing session, brought in this song that I’d written, and I ended up writing it with this amazing woman named Imogen Heap. And we put it as the last song on the album, because I think that finding yourself is the most important thing that I ever wrote about on 1989. And so if you know the words to Clean, please sing along.”

16th September 2015– Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis

“This is our fourth… fourth time playing in this arena on different tours. I hope you gonna be as good as you always have been, but you were better this time, you’re even better! Um, a couple days ago, I was in one of my meet and greets, and, um, this guy came up to me and thanked me for writing the song I’m about to play, because he said that it helped him get through a breakup that he recently went through. And, um, you know, this song is not only about a breakup, it’s about what happens to you afterward, because if you… if you think about it – which I over-think about everything, so I over-thought about this – when you fall in love with someone, you let someone into your life, you let your guard down, you, um… you decide to think optimistically, and then you picture your future maybe with them in it. And, all of a sudden, you’ve made all these choices, all with the best of intentions, and what happens when someone disappears from your life – you have a breakup, or you fall out of touch – all of a sudden, when that person you let into your life is gone – the first thing you start to do is regret the things you did when you let that person in… those things that were beautiful – trusting someone, being naive and… and being a daydreamer, and thinking about someone all day long, and thinking that they might be with you forever – those things – you start to regret them, as if they were mistakes. And I think that’s the worst part about getting your heart broken – is regretting doing beautiful things, like letting someone into your life and trusting them. Do you agree? And then you start to feel embarrassed that you introduced this person to your friends, and your family, and you talked about them like they were just gonna be in your life from that point on. And you feel humiliated and embarrassed that you did that. And then time passes… little by little you start to replace habits with new habits – rather than checking your phone for a text message from them in the morning, you… you just don’t, and you just check the time. Rather than spending all your time with that person or thinking about that person, maybe you start spending all your time with your friends or thinking about how to be a better friend. And maybe… maybe you start living your life the way you would live it if no one else’s opinion mattered but yours. And I think for heartbroken people, I think time moves at a slower pace, and I think for heartbroken people, they walk around as if everyone else can see it, like it’s written all over them, like… like they’re painted with it, or, like, their heartbreak is some kind of scar that everyone else can see. Over time, you start to see the scars less when you look in the mirror. You stop thinking that you’re painted with this heartbreak that happened to you. And then, all of a sudden, one day you wake up, and you look in the mirror, and you’re just clean.”

17th September 2015 – Nationwide Arena, Columbus: night 1

“Oh wow. Alright, so in my brain I have, like, a few very rare cities that had inducted “Crowd Hall of Fame” in my mind – I believe… I believe Columbus, Ohio has just inducted itself into the hall of fame in my mind. You knew all the words to Red – there’s so many words in that song, I’m so impressed. I’m so happy that we’re hanging out. You know, I, um… I’m about to sing a song for you that sometimes online, or in person, or in my meet and greets, people will come up and… and tell me that this song helps them deal with a breakup, or try to forget somebody, or try to move on. Um, and I think that that is the most unbelievable honour if… if you – as a songwriter, if you write a song that helps somebody get past losing someone that they trusted, and loved, and let into their life – if your music helps somebody with that, when they’re heartbroken, when they need music more than any other time in their life, um, it’s the nicest compliment you could ever give me. So if that ever happened to you, thank you for letting my music into your life at that time. Cause, you know, one of the things that’s so devastating about having your heart broken is, um… is not the initial pain – it’s the aftershocks of it, and trying to move on, and trying to replace all the habits that you had with this person you had in your life with new ones. And something like that can only happen over time. Um, but I think the most devastating thing that happens when you have your heart broken, or when you lose somebody that you loved, or you lose a friend, even, is that you start to regret letting people in, and you start regretting trusting people, and you think, “God, I’m so stupid. I’m so foolish. Why would I let that person in my life? Why did I trust them?” But I wanna let you know something right now – letting people in, and trusting people, and being vulnerable enough to do those things is never stupid, it’s brave. So I don’t want you to ever regret that. And so, once this happens, you feel humiliated, and you feel embarrassed that you maybe chose the wrong person to trust and they betrayed you, or they deserted you, or it just didn’t work out for one reason or another. And so, you go about your life and over time, very slowly, you start to replace the habits – like getting a text message in the morning from them, waking up and expecting that, or a goodnight phone call, or little surprises – you start to replace spending time with that person, with spending time with your friends. And then maybe, decision by decision, day by day, maybe you start living your life more on your terms, and not on anyone else’s. And then one day, maybe months later, maybe years later… but there is that day, when you look in the mirror and you don’t feel like heartbreak is written all over your face anymore. And all of a sudden, that day happens, and you feel clean. Please sing this with me if you know it.”

18th September 2015 – Nationwide Arena, Columbus: night 2

“You’re just screaming for, like, 3 minutes straight, that’s… you just… you just did that. Um, you know, one of the things about this tour that I love so much is that I can see every single person in this room – see, I can see you all, you’re all lit up. And that was something I wanted to do, even at the top – if you think I can’t see you, that’s… that would be a misconception. Yeah! And I wanted to be able to see you, because I think for us onstage, it’s so much more overwhelming in the best way, being able to see 15,000 individual people, rather than just seeing, like, shadows. And, um, and I know… I start thinking about your lives. I start thinking about whether you live around Columbus, or whether you took a road trip to be here. And I start thinking about whether maybe this is your first time seeing me in concert, or maybe if this is, like, your several, like concert. Yes! Good combination of old friends and new friends, I love it. It’s a perfect party. And I start thinking about, um, what your lives are like – I just can’t help it, like when I go online and I talk to you, or I just look at your pictures and see what… like how you were getting ready for the concert, or something, um, it really makes me wonder what your life is like, and I can’t help but think about the fact that in 2015, um, it is… you’ve got so many things that you could decide you want to be like. And that’s one of the best things about 2015. You can go online, you can be inspired, you have all this information readily available to you. You could be this, or that, or this, or that – you can have so many dreams that you want to fulfil, and that’s my favourite thing about the internet, about 2015. I love that part of it. And I love being able to keep up with you. But then there’s a little bit of… there’s a little bit of the internet in 2015 that scares me, because just as readily available as the good information is, like the inspiring information, there’s also a lot of room for people to criticise you for doing anything at all, or for just existing. Um, or there are a lot of messages being fed to you about what, like, you should be, or how you should look, or how you should act, or should talk, and you should live your life, what’s not cool. And um, when I look at 15,000 of you all together, and you’re so generous, and so loving, and you’ve been so welcoming to me in your town, I just… I see those qualities in you – where you’re dancing without caring what anybody says, you’re screaming the words to songs, you’re making friends with the people next to you. Those are such beautiful qualities. You’re being so loving, and open, and vulnerable, and sweet. And I don’t ever want cynical people to make you feel like those qualities in yourself are bad, okay? Just never let it happen. Because what happens when you are welcoming, open, trusting, loving – here’s what’s going to happen to you. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes, and that’s inevitable. It’s not bad. And when you do make mistakes in your life, I don’t want you to look in the mirror and only see those mistakes. I don’t want you to look in the mirror and see it like it’s written all over you, all the things you did or said wrong in your life, because that’s not how it works. Would you like for me to tell you how I think it works? I think it works like this. You are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods if you have made mistakes in your life. And you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. The way I think it works is that you are brave, and wiser, and stronger, and smarter because you took the risks that it takes to trust people, to be open, to be loving, and to make mistakes. And maybe people will hurt you, maybe people will take advantage of you, maybe you’ll get betrayed more than the cynical people. But I think your life will be so much more beautiful if you stay open and you stay loving.

So the way that you treated me tonight, Columbus, Ohio – welcoming me with open arms – please treat your friends like that, treat strangers like that, and most of all, treats yourself like that, please. This is a song I wrote about kind of waking up, and realising that you’re not your mistakes, and that time can heal a lot of things and, um, one day you don’t look in the mirror and see the mistakes you’ve made written all over you anymore. One day, if you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you look in the mirror and all of a sudden, you’re clean.”

21st September 2015 – Sprint Center, Kansas City: night 1

“Someone remarked to me today about this particular song that we’re going to play next, and kinda said, um… she said that it helped her get through a really hard time following a breakup. And, um, this song… I wrote it about the same exact thing that she had gone through. And, um, here’s the thing about heartbreak. Like, I’ve written so many songs about it, and I’ve over-thought the whole concept of being heartbroken. And I think… I think I’ve decided what the worst part of it is. Would you like to hear it? It’s a super uplifting conversation. I think… I think the worst part of heartbreak is how you, when you let someone into your life – like a friend, or someone you’re falling in love with – you do all these wonderful things, like trust them, like you let down your walls, and you show them things about yourself that maybe you’re insecure about, and you were brave enough to do that, brave enough to be vulnerable. And then… then you lose that person, and you start to regret, and feel stupid, and humiliated for doing all those wonderful things that you did that it took to let someone into your life. You know? Like, that’s… that’s I think the first thing people feel when they… when they’re truly heartbroken, is they feel like, “God, I was so foolish. I was so stupid. I trusted too easily. I let my guard down too quickly. I should’ve played games. I should’ve been hard to reach, and instead I let this person in. I’m so stupid.” And I guess I just want to tell you that letting someone in, trusting someone, being vulnerable – those things aren’t stupid. They’re brave. And I don’t think you should ever stop doing those things as long as you live. And here’s the thing. You’ve been so generous with me tonight, so I can tell we have a lot of romantics, a lot of dreamers, a lot of optimists in the room, which happen to be my favourite people, to be honest. Dreamers, romantics, and optimists will be hurt and let down more than cynics, but I think that dreamers, and optimists, and romantics will go on to live much more beautiful lives, because they live their lives the way that they do. And when you get your heart broken, the worst part about the aftermath is that you feel like you’re walking around, you feel like everyone can see that you’re heartbroken. You feel like time slows down, you feel like it’s painted all over your face and your body “I am heartbroken. I am in pain.” But then you go out, and you live your life, and you start replacing old habits with new ones. And, little by little, you stop looking for a “good morning” text in the morning, or you stop waiting for that “goodnight” phone call. And, rather than spending all that time with the person you had in your life, maybe you start spending all that time with your friends. And, um, maybe instead of living your life based on what you think they would want, maybe you start living your life on your terms, and your terms only. Maybe that happens. And then – whether it takes a month, or a year, or 3 years – you wake up, and you look in the mirror, and you don’t see that writing all over your face anymore that says “I’m heartbroken.” One day, you look in the mirror, and you’re clean.”

22nd September 2015 – Sprint Center, Kansas City: night 2

“I love you, Kansas City. You just screamed for a really, really long time. I loved it so much. You screamed forever, it was amazing. You’re so generous. Like, I think that, um… I think that that’s probably my favourite quality in people, it’s when they’re generous, you know? When they, like, I don’t know, when they think of other people and how to make them happy and they just wanna give, they wanna give applause and make me feel welcome in your town. It’s the most amazing quality, and, um, I’m really stoked to be in a room with 13,000 people who seem to be very generous at heart. And, you know, looking at you – and just so you know, my favourite thing about this tour, or at least one of them, is that I can see every single person in the audience, cause you’re all lit up. Yeah, that’s why we did that. So I can see if you’re at the top, and if you think I can’t see you, I definitely can. And here’s the thing about being amongst 13,000 people who have just been incredibly generous, and enthusiastic, and excitable right in front of me. Here’s the thing. I feel like I should tell you that, from my experience, generous, and excitable, and enthusiastic people have the possibility of getting hurt more than people who are cynical, and closed-off, and jaded. But I also want to tell you that I think that enthusiastic, welcoming, generous people will end up living much more beautiful lives than people who are jaded, and closed-off, and cynical. And I think that, you know, we can’t go our lives… we can’t live our lives without having regrets, right? We’re gonna regret something we said, or if we hurt somebody unnecessarily, or, you know, things we’ve done in our… in our past – there’s no way to get through with, like, some spotless memory of your actions, right? But there’s some things I don’t ever want you to regret, okay? I don’t ever want you to regret letting someone into your life, even if they betray you. And I don’t want you to ever regret trusting someone, even if you end up crying and getting your heart broken at the end of the day. And I don’t ever want you to regret welcoming people with open arms and open heart the way that you’ve welcomed me tonight, cause I appreciate it so much. Cause, you know, I have a feeling we have a lot of, like, daydreamers and hopeless romantics in the room tonight, and those are my favourite people in the world to hang out with… people who make decisions based on their heart, um, you know, and even if your heart gets broken, I have faith in people who are romantics because romantics – yes, we get our hearts broken, and you take time, and you think it through, and you think “what could I have done differently?” – but the fact that you’re also an enthusiastic person will allow you to pick up the pieces of your life and put them back together in a new way. And if you lost yourself in a relationship, you will find yourself again. And then, all of a sudden, you start replacing new habits with old habits. If someone left your life, maybe you start replacing your time with spending it with your friends, instead of that person, huh? Maybe… maybe you start living your life only on your terms. And then I think… I think if you’re a hopeless romantic, and you’re enthusiastic, and you’re a generous person, one day after you get your heart broken, you look in the mirror, and you don’t see heartbreak anymore in the reflection. All of a sudden, one day, you look in the mirror and you’ve put yourself back together. And on that day, you realise it – that you’re clean.”

25th September 2015 – Bridgestone Arena, Nashville: night 1

“A lot of people have come up to me and said that they listen to it [Clean] when they were trying to get over someone or forget somebody. I do a lot of meet and greets before the show and after, and this is a song that gets brought up a lot. And, first of all, I think that if you’ve involved me or my music in any way with your heartbreak or your loneliness, I think that’s the highest honour you could ever give a songwriter, so thank you to anyone who’s ever done that. You know, I’ve done a lot of thinking about heartbreak and what it is to lose someone, and I think the worst part about having your heart broken and… and losing someone – whether you lost a friend, or you lost someone you were in love with – is, if you think about what it is to fall in love, it involves a lot of bravery and vulnerability. To let someone in your life, you decide that you’re gonna trust them, you decide that you’re gonna let them see every aspect of your personality and your life, things you might be insecure about – you’re gonna let them see those things. You’re gonna introduce them to people you know. You’re gonna let somebody in. And I think the worst part about having your heart broken, or being betrayed, or losing someone is that it makes you regret those brave things that you did in the beginning of the relationship. You sit there and you think, “I’m so stupid. Why did I let them in? I should’ve played games. I should’ve, like, messed with their head. You’re supposed to do that, you’re not supposed to just let people in and trust them immediately. Everybody tells you that. Why am I so stupid?” And I think that’s the worst part of heartbreak, because let me just tell you that letting people in, trusting people, and being generous with your heart – those are beautiful things to do. Those are not stupid things to do. And I have a feeling that – just based on how you’ve treated me tonight – I have a feeling that we have a lot of optimists, a lot of daydreamers, a lot of hopeless romantics in the house tonight. Do we, Nashville? I have a feeling about that. Those are my favourite people to hang out with. You know, cynics – they might get hurt less, they may be fooled less, they may be betrayed less than us – but I think that if you’re open, and you are generous, and you are vulnerable, and you’re not cynical about love, and life, and happiness, and excitement – I want… I want that life for you, because I think you’ll have a much more beautiful life. So you get your heart broken, and then you have to go on living every single day, putting one foot in front of the other, and you have to go and replace all these habits – like… like getting a text message from that person in the morning, or getting a phone call from them at night, or getting little surprises – and you have replace those habits with new ones. But maybe you replace all the time you spent with that person with spending time with your friends or your family. And maybe… maybe you decide that, instead of factoring someone else’s opinion into every decision you make and everything you decide to do with your life, maybe you only listen to your gut instinct. Maybe you start making choices based on what you want only. And, you know, I think whether it’s a few months or a year, one day you wake up and you don’t have to think about replacing those habits anymore, and you don’t feel like “heartbroken” is written across your forehead anymore. You don’t feel like it defines you anymore. Whether it is one month, or a year, or 2 years later, one day you wake up, and you look in the mirror, and you’re clean. Please sing along if you know this one.”

26th September 2015 – Bridgestone Arena, Nashville: night 2

“You know, I’m looking out at you tonight and I wanted to make the point, in case you didn’t know, the thing that’s very different about this tour, among… among other things, um, is that every single person in the crowd is lit up on this tour. You’re all illuminated. Yeah, exactly! So what that means is that I can see every single last one of you – if you think you’re at the top, if you think I can’t see you, incorrect. You know, I love, um… I love playing shows out and being on tour because I look down at the audience, and I see a lot of people that I’ve met online, or I’ve liked your selfie or something. Yeah, and so I’ll look down and I’ll see somebody that I only know from the internet, but that’s my favourite part about 2015 – it’s that I can talk to you whenever I want. I can go on Instagram, and I can see you… like, pictures of you getting ready for the show, or see, like, what you thought of it afterward, and, um, that’s the best part about, like, the internet and technology, in my opinion. But, um, when I go on and I look at pictures of you getting ready for the show or something, I also see where maybe you’ve taken a picture and someone says something really, really mean to you underneath in the comments, and it was uncalled for, and there was no reason for it, and you were doing absolutely nothing wrong – you were just sharing a part of your day. And there’s this ability for people to – without taking accountability for it – criticise you, or tell you that you are not what you should be. Um, and I think that that’s the most heartbreaking part about 2015 for me, is watching all of us try to navigate this new landscape of everyone having an ability to judge you all the time. And when I’m… when I’m in front of a crowd like this, and I see… I look out and I see people, like, wearing crazy costumes, and dancing like nobody’s watching you, and screaming the words to songs at the top of your lungs. When I see you doing that, it makes me feel like we’ve got a lot of people in here who are, like, enthusiastic about their lives, and optimistic about things, and overly excitable. And you know what? I think… I think that those are the most amazing things that you could be – you’re so generous, you’ve been so generous to me tonight, and so welcoming, and so open. And the sad thing is that I know that, a lot of the time, society is sending you these messages that you need to be… you need to be cool, and you need to be unaffected, and you need to be cynical, and you need to be… you need to seem bored by your life, even if your life is very exciting to you. And I just want to let you know that the way that you are acting tonight is beautiful, and if anyone tells you that’s uncool, they’re wrong. And I think that the generous way that you’re treating me tonight, and how open you’re being, um, I just hope you treat yourself that way, and I hope that you are as generous and kind to yourself when people come in and try to criticise you, and tell you that you aren’t what you should be – it’s going to happen to every single one of us in this room. And I think that we go through life and we… we wrack up all these things we regret, right? You can’t go through life without having a long list of things that you wish that you would’ve done differently. But please do me a favour and never regret acting the way that you’re acting tonight, or being enthusiastic, or excitable, okay? I, um, I was in London making this album, and I reached out to this amazing singer/songwriter named Imogen Heap with this idea I had, because I was… I was dealing with kind of getting over the loss of a relationship, and everyone else’s kind of speculation on it, and everyone else weighing in on everything I was doing. And one day, I was walking down the street and I… I honestly in one moment stopped caring what people who didn’t know me thought about me. And I remember just thinking to myself, “I think I’m finally clean.” Please sing along if you know this one.”

28th September 2015– Scottrade Center, St. Louis: night 1

“St. Louis, I love you so much, that was such a nice thing for you to do. You screamed for so long, that was iconic. Thank you so much for being such an amazing crowd, this is like… this is what I stand here and I’m like, “oh thank God we’re playing here tomorrow night, too. I don’t want to leave.” Also, I’d like to make a note that this is you on a Monday night. Like, this is so impressive. Um, so the song I’m going to play for you next is a song that people have come up to me and… and talked to me about what points in their life they’ve related to it most. And a lot of people have said that this song has helped them with kind of either… either being addiction or losing somebody that you were really attached to or in love with – whether it’s a friend, or someone that you thought you would be spending the rest of your life with. Um, and you know, I’ve written songs about heartbreak in the past – I think a lot about heartbreak as a concept. You know, I feel like when you’re heartbroken, time moves at a slower pace than it does for other people. And I think the worst part about having your heart broken is that – if you think about what it takes to either make a new friend or fall in love – it takes trusting someone, and letting your guard down, and letting somebody in to see things you might be insecure about, being vulnerable… all that. And the worst part about having your heart broken, or feeling betrayed, or losing someone, having somebody change their mind and walk away from you, is that it makes you regret those things you did in the beginning when you fell in love – letting somebody in, trusting somebody, being vulnerable. And those things, you sit there and you go, “gosh I shouldn’t have done that. I should’ve played mind games. I should’ve, like… I shouldn’t have been so trusting. I’m so stupid, why did I do that?” And that’s the biggest shame of all, is that trusting someone, and letting someone in, and being vulnerable – those are beautiful things to do, those are brave things to do. It’s never stupid to do that. And so you go through your life, and you’re heartbroken, and feeling like… feeling like it’s written all over your face that you just got hurt, or that you’re going through pain, or that this heartbreak happened to you. Right? Feeling like it’s just written all over you, like maybe everyone else can see it. And then, gradually, time passes and you start to live your life again, and you start to replace old habits with new ones. And maybe rather than spending all your time with that person, you start spending all your time with your friends. Or maybe… maybe you start making decisions based on only what you wanna do, not what anyone else has to say about it. And then one day, whether it’s a year later, or 3 months later, but one day there’s this moment that happens, when you wake up, and you look in the mirror, and you don’t see “heartbreak” written all over your face anymore. And in that moment, you’re clean.”

29th September 2015 – Scottrade Center, St. Louis: night 2

“A lot of the time, we turn to music when we’re lonely, or confused, or insecure, or heartbroken. Um, and it makes me wonder if there are any of you here tonight who have [talking cuts her off]. Just so you know, for a songwriter there is no greater honour than someone saying to you, “I listened when I really needed help” or “I was really lonely” or “I was really sad” or “I was afraid”. And the moments where you feel alone, if you turn to one of my songs – thank you so much, that is the ultimate compliment. You know, I think a lot about happiness as a concept, because I think when we’re little kids, we just… we’re happy all the time, and we think we’re going to continue to be that way as we grow up. And I think, as we get older, we learn that happiness is this rare, fleeting thing, and it’s something that isn’t a constant, it’s not permanent. And then confidence is the same way. Feeling confident about yourself, feeling okay about who you are, and the choices you’ve made, and where you are in your life, and how you look – all of that – it can get so twisted in our minds, right? Like, some days we feel like, “I’m cool with myself. This is fine, I’m good with this.” And then other days, when we look in the mirror, all we see are our mistakes, all we see is just… all we hear are voices saying, “I’m not cool. No one likes you. You’re horribly annoying, and you should not go to work today. You should not go to school today. No one wants to be around you.” And it’s the tricks that our mind plays on us. So I guess if there’s one thing that you remember from tonight, can I just tell you that all that… all that tunnel vision that tells you you’re not good enough is an absolute illusion. It’s not real. And the most negative thoughts about yourself are not who you actually are. And I… I would like to tell you who you actually are, okay? Let me start by telling you who you’re not. You are not the opinion of someone who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Let me tell you what you are. You are somebody who’s wiser, stronger, and smarter because you’ve made mistakes in your life. Most importantly, you are someone who, at this very moment, might be going through something really terrible, or difficult, or maybe you woke up today and you didn’t feel good enough. But instead of dwelling on that, and letting that moment of fear define you, you decided to put on an awesome outfit, maybe dress yourself in Christmas lights, and make a poster, and go to a concert and have the best time ever with us. We think that our mistakes are, like, written all over us, or… or like mud that covers and… and somehow tarnishes who we are, how others see us. But that’s all in our heads. I just think that, if in your head, you can get to a place where you don’t count mistakes as weaknesses – you count them as strengths – in that moment, when you look in the mirror, you’re finally clean.”

3rd October 2015 – Rogers Centre: Toronto: night 2

“Toronto, you are incredible, thank you so much. You just… you just screamed for such a long time; that was the best. I love that. You know, with this tour, there’s something different that we’ve had… there’s something different we’re doing that we’ve never done before. And that is that, on this tour, we’ve lit up the crowd. Every single person is illuminated. I can see every one of you, yep. And that’s one of my favourite things about this, because, um, it makes it a crowd of 50,000 individuals, rather than just, like, shadows, and darkness, and I can’t make out who’s doing what. You know, what I’ve noticed about this crowd is that I’m watching people who are probably standing near strangers who they haven’t met before, dancing as if absolutely no one is around, like you’re in your bedroom alone. And I’m seeing you not just mouth the words to songs; I’m seeing you actually scream the words to every single song. And some of you may be people who don’t usually sing in front of other people, but you’re doing it tonight. And the generosity that you’ve shown me tonight… it just has made me fall in love with you, Toronto. So thank you so much. And then I start thinking about how – if you’re the kind of person who would let loose and dance like you don’t care what people around you think – how special that makes you, and how incredibly unique that makes you, because in 2015, we have endless reasons to feel insecure the way that we act, or the way that we look in public. And we kinda have a lot of messages sent to us that we’re supposed to be cool, and we’re supposed to be chill, and we’re supposed to be unaffected, we’re supposed to be unexcited – and that’s “cool”. And I’ve had that message sent to me, I… I know you probably have felt that out in the world. But I just want to thank you for not trying to be those things, because another word for all of those things is cynical. And I think that it’s one thing to have a goal to try and be cool, but I think it’s a little bit unattainable, because what’s cool, what’s trendy, is always gonna be changing. I would so much rather you focus on the goal of trying to be happy – happy people showing that they’re excited, happy people who are enthusiastic, happy people who dance like you’ve been dancing all night. And it makes me so happy seeing you living your life this way, so if anyone tries to make you change, please don’t. Please don’t change the way that you are, Toronto. You guys are killing it tonight. I used to, um… I used to really what was said about me. I think it’s natural; we all do. We, um… we care about people’s opinions of us. But, um, I don’t know… in the last couple of years, people who don’t know me, or care about me enough to get to know me – their opinions don’t factor in. I only care what you think about me now. And the day that I found that out, the day that I realised that, I was in London, and, um, before the day was over, I’d written a song called Clean. Please sing with me, Toronto.”

8th October 2015 – Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines

“Thank you so much for doing that. You screamed so loud for so long, I loved it. So one thing that is different about this tour from any tour I’ve done before is that, um, you’re all lit up, if you will notice. You’re all illuminated, which means I can see every single last one of you. If you’re at the top and you think that I can’t see you, you would be very incorrect about that. That’s one of the best parts of the show for me – is looking out and seeing thousands of individuals, not like this shadowy, dark crowd, where I can’t who’s where. I can definitely see you, and that makes it amazing for me. Um, you know, it’s really fun being on tour because I get to meet so many of you before the show and after the show. Um, and, you know, I’ve been sharing my life with you for 10 years, and I’m so thankful that you feel like you can do the same with me. And I think for me, um, when you talk to me, and you tell me which is your favourite song, or maybe one of my songs that I wrote that helped you through something, um, there’s one song that’s been mentioned a lot when I meet you, or when we run into each other. And it’s a song that a lot of you have said has helped you get through trying to forget someone, or a breakup, being heartbroken. Um, and the thing about heartbreak – I’ve thought about it a lot, I think I’ve decided the worst part of heartbreak. I think that if you… if you really go back and think about what it takes to let someone into your life – whether you’re falling in love, or whether you’re just making a friend who you really trust – it takes letting down your guard, it takes being vulnerable, it takes letting someone in, it takes a serious amount of blind faith and trust that this person is the right person to let into your life. When you get your heart broken, the first thing that you do is you regret letting them into your life because they hurt you, and you regret being vulnerable, and letting your guard down, and trusting someone, and you think, “I’m so stupid. Why did I do that? You’re supposed to play mind games. You’re not supposed to let people in. I should’ve known. Why did I let that person in? I’m so stupid.” I just want to let you know, you can regret a lot of things in life, but never regret letting people in, having blind faith, and trusting people, and being vulnerable. Those things are beautiful. Don’t ever regret that, okay? Because the thing about getting your heart broken is that, eventually, you start replacing your old habits with new ones, right? You start… maybe you spend your time with your friends, rather than that one person you used to focus your whole world around. And maybe… maybe you start making choices based on what you want to do, and only what you want to do. And after a while, you start to feel less like you’ve got “heart break” written across your forehead. You start to feel less like people can see it all over you – that you’re hurt, and that you’re in pain. And it stops being a part of your identity. And one day, you wake up, and you look in the mirror, and you don’t see heartbreak in your reflection anymore. And in that moment, you’re clean.”

9th October 2015 – CenturyLink Center, Omaha: night 1

“Every single person here is lit up and that means I can see every single last one of you. And it’s amazing being able to see every single one of you, because it changes the idea of a crowd from being this, like, endless sea of darkness to being 14000 individuals. Cause, you know, then I start thinking about how many people that really is, and how many individual paths are all crossing in one building, and how lucky I am that that’s because of our concert. But when I’m at my meet and greets before the show and after the show, and I get to talk to you guys, or maybe I talk to you online, or when I see you out and about, um, the coolest thing… the coolest thing they do is how real you are with me about if you have a song that helped you get through a hard time and you tell me about it – that’s the coolest compliment you could ever give a songwriter… something I wrote was there for you during a time you felt alone. So I absolutely love that. One of the songs I wrote that made that happen the most is the song I’m gonna play next. I’ve had lot of people that told me that it helped them through trying to forget someone, like a breakup, or someone… someone betrayed them, and, um, you know, I think that – having thought about heartbreak a lot in my life – I think I’ve established what I think is the worst part about heartbreak. I think the worst part is if you think about what it takes to fall in love, or choose to become someone’s friend, or to let anyone in, it takes trust, it takes blind faith, and it takes being vulnerable. And when you get your heart broken, or when someone deserts you, or someone betrays you, or lies to you, the first thing you’re gonna do is feel stupid for trusting, and being vulnerable, and letting that person into your life. And you sit there… you sit there and you regret it, and you go, “why did I do that? I shouldn’t have let that person in. I’m so stupid.” But let me tell you something, you can regret a lot of things in life – regretting trusting people, and letting people in, and being vulnerable is an invalid regret. You should never feel stupid for doing that; that’s a beautiful thing to do. And so then you go on with your life, trying to forget this person, and little by little, one by one, you start replacing these habits that you had, where you used to depend on their opinion to make up your mind, and you used to spend all your time with them, and you used to spend all your energy thinking about how to make them happy. As time goes by, you start to feel like heartbreak defines you less and less every day, and you feel a little less like… like it’s painted on you, like people can see it when you’re walking around that you’re in pain. And whether it’s one year later, or a month later, 7 weeks later, whatever – one day you wake up, and you look in the mirror, and you don’t see heartbreak anymore when you look and you see your reflection. And in that moment, you know you’re clean.”

10th October 2015 – CenturyLink Center, Omaha: night 2 | Incomplete

You’re somebody who could be going through something very difficult in your life this very minute – a horrible struggle, a tough breakup, a bad self-esteem day – but instead of letting those things define you, you decided to put on an awesome outfit, and go to a concert on a Saturday night, and have the best time ever.”

12th October 2015 – Fargodome, Fargo | Incomplete

“Somebody can just so quickly reduce your self-esteem to absolutely nothing, and take no accountability for it. They don’t have to sit there and watch the expression on your face when you read that. And, um, I guess when I look at you, and I see how incredibly generous you’ve been to me – like, the fact that you are so welcoming to us being here in your town, it makes me never want anything bad to ever happen to you, which I know is unrealistic. I’m well aware of that. But I think that you’re being fed so many messages every single day, right? Like what’s cool, what’s not cool, how you should look, how your body should look, how you should act, how it’s cool to talk. Like, I think that if I can just let you walk away with one thing tonight, I would love to tell you, in actuality, really what you are and what you are not. You are not somebody else’s opinion of you who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods just because you’ve made a few mistakes in your life. And you are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you wanna go yet. Alright, here’s what you are. You are someone who is braver, stronger, wiser for taking the risks that it takes to make mistakes in your life. And you’re somebody… you’re somebody who could be going through whatever it is you’re going through right now. You could be going through a devastating struggle, or you lost someone you loved, or extreme stress, or just low self-esteem days. But instead of letting those things define you, you decided to get dressed up in an awesome outfit, and come have the best time ever with us on a Monday night. And I’m so proud of you for that, you have no idea. And I guess for me, it’s always been a struggle to try and block out the things that people feel the need to tell me about my own life, and, um, the way people feel the need to elaborate on it, especially doing the job that I’ve chosen. Um, and I was really struggling with it a couple years ago, and I was in London, and I ended up writing the song that closed out the album 1989 – it’s the very last song. And, um, if you know it, will you please sing along? This one’s called Clean.”

17th October 2015 – AT&T Stadium, Arlington

“Texas, you are the crowd of my dreams. You could write books on how to be the perfect crowd. You should just go home and do that, that’s what you need to do. You’re the example. Um, thank you so much for doing that – you just screamed for a really long time, that’s a really nice thing to do for somebody. It is. You know, looking out at you, the coolest thing about this tour – one of the coolest things about this tour – is that every single person in the audience is lit up and illuminated. I can see every single one of you, yes. Everybody. And that’s the most breath-taking thing for me, because it… it takes a crowd and… and changes it from being, like, this endless sea of darkness, and you can’t make out any figures, or whatever. This – I can see when you’re dancing, I can see what you’re doing, I can see the signs you made, I can see the t-shirts you’re wearing. When I’m looking at you and I see you in the crowd, some of the most amazing things that I see are when you are dancing like absolutely no one can see you – when you’re around strangers or people you probably haven’t met before – but the way that you’re dancing, and not just singing along… you’re screaming the words to the songs. Let me tell you something. That’s a very generous way to act at a concert, and it’s a very vulnerable, beautiful, open, warm-hearted way to be at a concert – you’re not self-conscious. I think the coolest thing for me about being… being on tour in 2015 is that I can go on Instagram, I can go on Twitter, or Tumblr, I can check up on you, and see what’s going on with you, and like your pictures, and just see what you’re doing getting ready for the show, or what you liked about the show. Um, and that’s my favourite thing about it. My least favourite thing about where we are in 2015 is that, sometimes, when I’m looking at your page, I’ll scroll down and I’ll see the comments, and I’ll see that somebody said something senselessly mean to you, and I know that, probably, that comment ruined your day. And the saddest thing about 2015 is somebody can say something that can ruin your day, and they don’t have to watch your face after they said it. And I think that it has led to a lot of people being very self-conscious, and people second-guessing it when they wanna dance in public, when they wanna sing along at a concert. And all I can hope for you and all I want you to know is that I’m so proud of you for being the opposite of self-conscious, and not letting those people who say that we have to be cool get to you. I want to tell you some things that I’ve learned recently. Number 1, you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you. Two, being cool does not mean acting bored, and unmoved, and unexcited about your life. That’s not what being cool is. Three, the better thing – what’s even better than being cool – is being happy. Four, the moment you can take what people say to you and block it out, and walk your own footsteps, pave your own path, decide your own definition of cool and happy is the moment that all the mud that people try to throw at you is gone. And in that moment, you’re clean. Please sing along with this one if you know it. “

20th October 2015 – Rupp Arena, Lexington

“Um, you may notice that you are wearing a bracelet that lights up; at least I hope you notice it. And so, what that means for me is that I can see every single person in this 18,000 seat arena. And it changes it for me; it changes it for all of us on stage. It makes every show individual and different, because we can see when you’re dancing, we can when you put your hands in the air, we can see the signs you’ve made, and the work you’ve put into being here. And it’s the coolest thing. And if you’re at the top and you think we can’t see you, you’re highly mistaken, because we can see you, you look fantastic. [points into the crowd] Over there, right over there, that’s… that looks fun. And so, being here, it’s amazing getting to look out into a crowd of 18,000 individuals, instead of, like, a shadowy, dark group of people that are just loud. I like… I like being able to see you, too. Um, and part of that… then I start thinking about, um, where you’re from, and what you’re life is like, and what brought you to the show tonight, and, you know, where you’re gonna go after this, and how long is your trip home, and stuff like that. And one of the reasons why I love existing in 2015 is because I can go online, and I can check up on you on Instagram, and on Tumblr, and on Twitter. Yeah, if you tag me, I can see it, and I love to see, like, your costumes, or outfits, or what you were wearing to the show, and things like that. And that’s my favourite thing – is being able to keep up with you, you know, for the sad times that I’m not in Lexington. But one thing that I don’t like about existing in 2015 is that sometimes when I go to check up on you, and look at a picture of you that I think is really cute, sometimes maybe I’ll scroll down and I’ll see comments, and I’ll see one comment that’s just carelessly, thoughtlessly cruel. And someone just came onto your page, and said something terrible to you, and I know that you probably read that comment, and that it probably ruined your day, no matter how many people said nice things to you that day – no matter what, if someone says something that absolutely, um, tears you down, the sad thing about 2015 is that when someone insults you, they don’t have to watch your face when you see it, and they don’t have to see the damage that they did to your day. And that’s the thing that makes me the saddest – is that people have an open forum to anonymously tell you that you’re not good enough. And, you know, we’re being fed… every single one of us, we’re being fed these messages on a daily basis of what’s cool, what’s beautiful, what’s sexy, what’s, you know, the things you’re supposed to be. And, a lot of the times, the messages that we’re being fed are: you’re supposed to be cool, unaffected, unexcitable, unphased – you’re supposed to be chill, and that’s what’s “cool”. But the way that you’ve treated me tonight is not chill, it’s not unaffected, it’s not unexcitable, and it’s beautiful. So, Lexington, I just hope that you continue to live your life this way, and to continue welcoming guests into your town this way, rather than trying to be too cool for everyone. Because, you know, there’s something that’s even better than being cool, and it’s being happy. And that’s what you seem like to me tonight, Lexington. And the moment that you stop thinking so hard about what everyone else is thinking about you all the time is the moment that none of those words in those ridiculous comments that anyone leaves under a picture of yours – it doesn’t matter anymore. And it’s completely washed away, as long as you decide it doesn’t matter to you. And in that moment… in that moment, you’re clean. Will you sing with me, Lexington?”

21st October 2015 – Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro

“Ah, I love it in Greensboro! This is a place where you just scream a lot for a long time. That was such a nice thing to do. Thank you. Um, one thing that we’ve done on this tour that we haven’t done before – and I really like it – is, um, every single person in this arena is lit up and illuminated, if you will. Yeah, so what that means is that all of us can see all of you – every single one of you. And it’s amazing to be able to see you. It turns a crowd into a group of 15,000 individuals, rather than just, like, darkness. I love coming to visit you, and I love… one of the reasons I love existing in 2015 is that I get to keep up with you even when I’m not in Greensboro. And, um, yeah so I can… I can go on Instagram, I can go on Twitter, I can go on Tumblr and check in with you, I can see what you’re wearing to the show. Um, it’s really the coolest thing in the world and I love that. The… my least favourite reason why technology in 2015 gets a little complicated is… is when I’m looking at your page or looking at a cute picture of you that you posted, and I look at the comments underneath and there’s one that’s just incredibly, thoughtlessly, carelessly cruel. Someone came on and just said something terrible to you, and, um, I think… I think that’s the saddest part of 2015 – somebody can anonymously absolutely tear you down and ruin you day, and then they don’t have to watch the expression on your face when you read that comment. Well, that has happened to every single person in this room – where all of a sudden you’re having a great day, you post a picture [like] “oh, it’s fine! Whatever.” Then you read a comment and you’re like, “woah”, you know? And then all of a sudden, that’s the only thing you hear echoing in your mind. Now that’s a new insecurity that you’ve got. And, um, I just… I just want you to know that the way… the way that you’re treating me tonight – you’ve treated me so generously, you’ve treated… you’ve treated me with… with open arms. You’ve been excitable, you’ve been so open, and warm, and loving. And these days… these days, the messages that we’re sent are that you’re supposed to be cool, and chill, and unaffected, and unexcited by stuff, and so bored by life. And I just wanted to thank you, Greensboro, because you’re not living your life that way. You are absolutely wonderful the way that you are. And the moment that we can stop listening to these messages that we’re receiving every day telling us how we should look, what’s beautiful, what’s sexy, what is cool – you know what I think is better than anyone else’s definition of what “cool” is? I think being happy is better than being cool. And the moment that you can just wash all of that stuff off of you – all those unwanted, uninvited opinions about yourself, and your life, and the way that you are – the moment you can look in the mirror and see only your own definition of your life, I think that’s the moment that you’re finally clean. Please sing with me, Greensboro.”

24th October 2015– Georgia Dome, Atlanta

“You guys cheered for a very long time, and that’s a nice thing to do for somebody. I love getting to come here, and see you, and be with you, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like it to. You know, I don’t get to come to Atlanta as often as I should get to come to Atlanta. But when I’m not here – one of the coolest things about existing when we exist in 2015 is that I can check up on you. Like, I can go on Instagram, or Tumblr, or Twitter and check out what you’re doing, and keep in touch, even though we don’t live in the same place. Um, and I love that because I love checking out, like, your outfit before the show, and pictures you took during the show, and, I don’t know, pictures you took when we met before the show or after the show, or something. And by getting to check in on you, it doesn’t feel like we’re as far apart as we are geographically because we get to, like, keep in touch. And that’s my favourite part of existing in 2015. I’ll tell you my least favourite part of this technology era that we live in is when I go on your picture and I’m checking out just something you posted and I go to the comments underneath, and I’ll see that maybe somebody has left you a really cruel, thoughtless comment criticizing you, or telling you in some way that you're not good enough. And I think that’s my least favourite part of the whole thing – is that somebody can ruin your day, and they don't have to watch the expression on your face after they ruin your day by making a comment like that. And I wish that… I wish that it never happened to any of the 56,000 people in this room because you have been so kind to us. You know what I’ve been seeing as I’m looking out into the crowd? I am seeing people who are probably seated around strangers they’ve never met before, but I’m seeing people dance as if they are completely alone. Just absolute reckless abandon. I’m hearing you sing at the top of your lungs. And these days we’ve got a lot of people – we all do – we have a lot of people telling us what’s cool, what’s beautiful, what we should be, how we should act. And a lot of the time, the message that we get fed is that what’s “cool” is to be bored, and unaffected, and unexcitable, and chill, and kind of unmoved by life, even if your life has really given you a happy moment to be excited about. And I just wanted to tell you that I’m so happy that I’m not seeing that attitude here tonight, because you know what’s better than being cool? The thing I think is better than being cool, and chill, and bored, and unaffected – I think the thing that’s better than all of that is being happy, and that’s what I’m seeing a lot of tonight, so thank you for being who you are. Let me tell you something – you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you, and the truth doesn’t come in a random comment under your Instagram picture telling you that you don’t look good. That is not what the truth is, and that’s not real. And I struggled with this for a long time because how can we not be curious about what other people think about us? And, um, it was a few years ago that I decided that I wasn’t going to prioritise that anymore, and I think the moment when you can take your idea of yourself, and remove what other people have told you isn’t good about you, and look in the mirror and not see any of that – I think in that moment, you’re finally clean.”

27th October 2015 – American Airlines Arena, Miami | Incomplete

“[One of] my favourite parts about existing right now in 2015 is I can so easily see what’s going on in your life. Um, and then a funny thing happens. You know, I’ll be looking at what’s going on with you, and I’ll just see some post… some picture that you posted and it’s cute, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, and then I’ll see underneath – sometimes I look at the comments, and sometimes there’ll be one comment that says something so incredibly unnecessary, and critical, and cruel to you when you didn’t deserve it at all. And I think that is the hardest part for me of this whole technology thing – is seeing how someone can ruin your day with one comment anonymously, and they never have to watch your face when you read that comment. They never have to see what you look like when you see it. And, um, so I guess I just wanted to tell you I know that you have a million different, um, messages being sent to you every day as to what’s cool, how you should dress, what’s sexy, what’s beautiful, what’s not, and I just wanted to let you know you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you, alright? You know what I’ve seen a lot of tonight? I’ve been looking around and I’ve been seeing you in the crowd, watching you, right? What I’ve seen a lot of… I’ve seen a lot of reckless abandon. I’ve seen a lot of people who are standing around people – you probably don’t know the people next to you – but you are dancing like no one is near you. You’re dancing like you’re in your room alone. And you are singing at the top of your lungs – whether or not you’re comfortable singing in front of people, you’re doing it. And, um, you know, these days we’ve got a lot of people telling us that the “cool” way to live your life is to be unaffected, and unexcited by things, and to be cool, and to be chill, and to be bored cause that’s chic. But you know what I think is so much better than being cool and acting cool? It’s being happy and acting happy. And so I just wanted to thank you for being so welcoming to us, and thank you for dancing with me, thank you for singing along with me. I think the moment that we can stop caring so much about what strangers think about our life, or the way we look, or the way we carry ourselves – I think that moment, something happens to us and all the negative words, and the unnecessary thoughts, and the criticisms we don’t deserve can sort of be washed away. And I think in that moment, you’re finally clean, Miami. Please sing along with this song with me.”

31st October 2015 – Raymond James Stadium, Tampa

“Every single person in this audience is lit up, did you notice that? So everybody’s illuminated, which means that I can see – and everybody on stage – we can all see all 55,000 of you here tonight. And that’s… it’s so much more exciting for us to be able to look out and not just see, like, an endless sea of darkness. It’s like every single are lit up, and it’s like you’re playing for 55,000 individuals. And I know that we have, um… we have a lot people here that live around Tampa, Florida. Am I correct in thinking that? But also I’ve been online, and I’ve seen that a lot of people travelled a very, very long distance to make it here tonight. Thank you and thank you, to both… both groups. It’s so exciting, because what you’ve done is you come together to amass this super crowd of new people who haven’t been to Tampa before and people who are from Tampa. It’s all very lovely. I like it a lot. And, um, you know, it’s so much fun to be able to go online, and check in with you, and see who’s coming to the show, and who’s getting ready, and what you’re wearing for Halloween, and stuff like that, because, honestly, being able to keep in touch with you is my favourite part of this whole technology thing that has happened in 2015 where we’re just… we’re so close to each other to be able to reach out and see what you’re doing. My least favourite part of the whole technology thing is that if I’m checking in on you and seeing a picture you posted, which I do all the time on Instagram and, like, Tumblr, and Twitter, and stuff. I will sometimes check in and I’ll see that you posted a picture, and I’ll… I’ll see a comment underneath it that says something incredibly thoughtless, and mean, and rude that somebody just left on your picture. And I know that that comment probably ruined your day. And I think the worst part about 2015 is that somebody can ruin your day anonymously without having to take ownership, and without having to look at your face when you see it. So it’s probably happened to every single one of us here – you know, reading something terrible that we wish we… we wish we hadn’t seen. It’s hard to get those voices out of your head once they’re in there, but, um, the last 10 years… I’d say the last couple of years, my favourite thing that I’ve learnt is that we are not the opinion of people who don’t know us or care about us. And, you know, when people say things to us and they stick in our minds, it’s almost like… it’s almost like they’ve got these insecurities painted all over us, cause now we carry those everywhere we go. But the minute you can learn to block out what people who don’t care about you say – to or about you, in front of you or behind your back – is the moment that you look in the mirror and, all of a sudden, you don’t see those things written all over you anymore, and you don’t feel like other people think that about you anymore. And in that moment, Tampa, you’re clean.”

7th November 2015 – Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore: night 1

“Well thanks, guys. I’m a little curious to know, um, how many people here tonight live in Singapore? Amazing… Amazing. How many people travelled from somewhere else to be at the show tonight? See, that’s amazing. That’s amazing. That’s why you’re such a good crowd – because there’s so many people from here; there’s so many people who travelled to be here. Um, and thank you for either one of those cases. That’s incredible. You know, we live pretty far apart, you and I. But the thing that… the thing that I love is coming here and seeing you, and realising that we’re all in one room singing the same songs, dancing together, and it doesn’t feel like there’s that much distance at all when I come to see you. And the fact that you listen to these songs, the fact that you would take the time to memorise the words to these songs means that we’re going through the same things, too – the same insecurities, the same doubts about ourselves. And I think that, you know, it’s important to remember – as we’re going through this world as it exists in 2015 with so many ways people can criticise you, so many ways people can tell you you’re not good enough – I think it’s important to remember that whether you live in the U.S., or whether you live in Singapore or somewhere else, it’s still the same. You are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you or care about you. That’s universal. And I think the sooner… the sooner we can realise that it’s only the people who actually care about us and actually love us who matter. It’s only their opinions who should count. Um, I think that’s the moment we’re closer to being happy in our lives. And, honestly, it’s like when we let the opinions in of people who don’t care about you, who are just trying to hurt you, I think that it feels like you’ve these insults, or these insecurities, and these doubts, written all over you all the time. But the moment you can start to separate those opinions out and realise that they don’t matter to you as much, I think that’s the moment you look in the mirror and you don’t see those insecurities written all over yourself anymore. And in that moment… in that moment, you’re clean. Please sing along with this one if you know it, Singapore.”

8th November 2015 – Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore: night 2

“[How many people] in the audience have seen me in concert before? That’s a lot. Welcome back, guys! Thanks for coming around again. And how many people have never seen me in concert before tonight? New friends! It’s new friends and old friends. Amazing. You know, it’s incredible coming to see you, because, um – yes, it’s a long couple of flights to get here, but once I get here, I realise that even though distance separates us, there’s not much else that does. You know, we all go through the same kind of self-doubt, and fear, and insecurities, and that’s usually why we all turn to music, every single one of us. And it hits me so hard when I… when I travel places far away from where I live and I see that all of those elements to our lives are pretty much the same. And, um, I think that to a large extent, a lot of us prioritise the opinions of people who don’t know us or don’t care about us above the people who do. And I think we really have to work on that, guys, because… because it’s not gonna lead to happiness in any case when we prioritise the opinions of people who don’t know us or care about us above opinions of people who do know us and do care about us. I think that choosing to prioritise and base your self-worth on something other than, um, senseless comments somebody leaves on a picture you posted online – that’s not where we should find our self-worth, guys. And I know it’s easier said than done, but a few years ago, I started living my life a little bit differently than I had in the past, and the biggest element of my life I decided to change was caring so much about, um, the opinions of people who had absolutely not a care in the world for if they ruined my day. And I think that when I stopped… when I stopped caring so much about what people I didn’t know thought about me, things got easier, things got better, I became happier, I wrote 1989. And, um, the opinions of people who just want to hurt you – it can be like… it can be like when they say something to you and you feel like it’s written all over your face, you feel like it labels you, like it defines you, this terrible thing that someone said about how you’re not good enough in one way or another. And when you figure out how to look on the mirror and not see those insults or those criticisms anymore, and you can start living your life not based on those things, I think, in that moment, you’re clean.”

10th November 2015 – Mercedes-Benz Arena, Shanghai: night 1 | Incomplete

“So one of the things different about this tour than any of the things we’ve ever done before is every single person has those bracelets on, and you’re all lit up so I can see everyone in here, and it’s amazing being able to see all of you. And it’s when I look out into the crowd and I see you dancing and singing and it makes me realise that even though we might live really far apart, we all go through pretty much the same things. You know, we have the same insecurities and the same levels of self-doubt and fear. And when people criticise us, we can’t help but feel that and, um, you start to kind of let it affect your own sense of who you are and your own self-esteem. And it doesn’t matter if you live in America or live in China – that happens to every single one of us. And I don’t know, I think a couple years ago, I learned a really important lesson. And that lesson was that I can’t prioritise the opinions of people who don’t know me or care about me above people who do know me and do care about me. And I think that the moment that you learnt that lesson, it’s like you wash away all those things that people are trying to say you weren’t good enough, you weren’t cool enough, you weren’t pretty enough, or whatever. If you can just learn not to let it in, you can wash all those things away. And in that moment, you’re clean.”

11th November 2015 – Mercedes-Benz Arena, Shanghai: night 2

“Xie Xie (Thank you)! You know, it’s amazing getting to be in Shanghai and to be somewhere so far away from where my home is but to feel so at home. Thanks for how welcoming you are to us, thank you! And when I come to see you, it reminds me that distance is the only thing that is hugely different about the way we feel things and about the way that we all have the same kind of insecurities, and fears, and doubts. And you know, we all have sort of this ability to let other people’s opinions in and to let that affect how we actually feel about ourselves. And I’ve been guilty of that – of really caring too much about what people think of me, people who don’t know me, people who don’t care about me. And I think that… it was a few years ago that I learned a really good lesson that you have to stop, you have to put it down, you have to stop opening up the book of endless possibilities of things that people could think about you that you’re not good enough, you’re not cool enough, you’re not pretty enough, whatever it is. You can go down in endless tunnel of self-doubt if you keep caring about people who don’t care about you. And it was a few years ago that I learned this lesson and it really changed the way that I thought about thing, changed the way I looked my life. And around that time, I was in London. And I met this incredible singer-songwriter named Imogen Heap. And we wrote a song together and I put it as the last song on 1989. And so if you know the words of this one, please sing with me. This one’s called Clean.”

12th November 2015– Mercedes-Benz Arena, Shanghai: night 3

“Wo ai ni (I love you), thank you so much! Aw, you guys are amazing! I’m serious. These have been three of the best crowds of the entire 1989 World Tour. And you know, we had to travel a really long way to get here and the thing that is so incredible about you is how you’ve made us feel so at home when we are so far away from our homes. And that is what makes you so unbelievable, Shanghai. Thank you for your hospitality! And it is when I come here, and when I visit with you, that I realise that we all feel the same kinds of insecurity to the same kind of fears and doubts, even if we live really far apart. And a couple of years ago, I learned a really important lesson that you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you or care about you. That’s not what you are, and that doesn’t matter. And I learned, um that I was gonna prioritise people who actually do know me and the people who actually do care about me. And my life changed completely. Um, I started living my life based on what I wanted to do, not based on what people would think about me. And then a strange thing happened – everything got better when that happened. And a few years ago, I was in the midst of learning this lesson and I was in London. And I wrote with this amazing singer-songwriter named Imogen Heap. And we wrote about that moment that you realise that you can actually just wash away all the things that they’ve said about you and the things that don’t define you. And in that moment, you’re clean.”

28th November 2015 – ANZ Stadium, Sydney

“So I’ve been watching you the entire night, and, um, some things that I’ve noticed – I’ve noticed that I’m not just seeing people nodding their head to the music politely. I’m seeing people, like, thrashing around and dancing so wildly, as if absolutely no one is watching you. Like no one’s around – you’re just, like, in your bedroom jamming. Um, I’m also not just seeing people mouth the lyrics – I’m hearing people screaming every single word so loudly. And let me tell you why that makes me so happy, because that kind of behaviour is free, and uninhibited, and warm – the way you treat us is open and welcoming. And, you know, these days there are millions of ways for people to tell you how to be, how to act in public, what’s cool, what’s not cool, what’s beautiful, what’s not. And it’s really easy to become completely preoccupied by the idea of trying to be cool. You have a lot of people who will try and make you feel like being cool is being unaffected, and unexcited, and cynical, and chill. But do you know what I think is being cool? It’s being happy. And you seem really happy tonight, Sydney! You know, when somebody criticises you, or says something behind your back – those words that they said about you, it’s like you feel like those words are written all over your face, all over you. And… and then, those words start to become echoes in your own mind. And then, there’s a real risk that those words could become a part of how you see yourself. The moment that you realise that you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you or care about you – that moment, when you realise that, it’s like you’re clean.”

5th December 2015 – Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

“You know, what we’ve never done before on a tour is, um – this tour’s different than all the ones I’ve done before, because I’ve gotten to play in this stadium once before, but I’ve never gotten to see it lit up like this. Every single person is illuminated. It really changes things for us on stage, because we can see every last one of you in this 50,000 seat stadium, which is amazing. And, um, I love being able to look out and see you. I love… I love getting to meet you at my meet and greets before and after the shows. I love… I love how much time and effort you’ve put into coming to the shows. I’m seeing a lot of signs, and shirts, and costumes that are, like, lyric-related. I mean… I had somebody come up to me today in my meet and greet and tell me that this song that I’m about to play, um, helped them through a breakup – a really tough breakup they went through. And, um, you know, I think about… I think about this a lot. Like, what’s the worst part about losing someone? And I think I… I think I know what it is. I think the worst part about going through a betrayal, a loss, a breakup, someone leaves your life, someone proves to be not what you thought they were – the worst part about that is that you immediately feel stupid for having trusted somebody and having let somebody into your life. And I think that’s so terrible, because trusting people and letting people into your life are beautiful things to do. They’re not stupid things to do. And, um, when you lose somebody, you know, you first regret all those wonderful things you did – like… like trust, and being open, and being vulnerable. And then, you know, it seems like time slows down and then it feels like that hurt you went through, that breakup, is written all over you. You feel like people can see it when you walk down the street – that pain. And then as days go by – whether it’s days, months, years, weeks, whatever – you start to wake up and you start to replace the habits, like getting a text from them, or, you know, feeling beautiful because they said you looked beautiful, or calling them, or spending time with them. You start replacing those habits, one by one. And time passes, and all of a sudden, one day you wake up, and you look in the mirror, and it’s like those words “breakup”, “loss”, “pain”, “someone left you” are not written all over you anymore. And in that moment, it’s almost like time has passed and now you’re clean, you know? Sing along with this one if you know it, okay?”

7th December 2015 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide: night 1

“I spend so much time being away from you then when I finally get to be here with you it’s like the best thing in the world to see every last one of you. But the good thing about being in 2015 is that I can keep up with you when I’m not with you. Um, I can go on Instagram, and Twitter, and Tumblr, and check up on you and see what’s going on with you. And, um… and that’s really fun for me. That’s the best part of it – the whole, like, technology thing. But there’s a part of it that really kind of worries me and… and that it opens up a lot of ways for you to be criticised, and for people to talk about you behind your back, and for people to tell you, anonymously, something terrible that they’re thinking about you. And I think, you know – and I’ve talked about this with my friends a lot – before the Internet, we were… we were forced to say something negative to someone to their face if we wanted to say something mean to them, and then we had to watch their expression change. We had to watch the effects of what it was when we said something mean to somebody on the school yard. And now you don’t have to see that – you can just say something terrible and you never have to see how it ruins somebody else’s day. And when I go online, and I see that you posted some cute picture with your friends and then you see one comment underneath that’s, like, just awful – like, someone will just come on and be like “you’re ugly” and it just freaks me out that someone can do that to you. And when I see it, I just want to look at you and tell you that you are not the opinion of someone who doesn’t know you or care about you. You know, it’s like… I’ve had things written about me online that weren’t true, or that were harsh, or that were mean. Um, you know, and it’s been something that’s been difficult to get over. You care about what other people think about you, even if you’re never gonna meet them. But awhile ago, a couple years ago, I decided that it was a choice for me to care less about it. And, um, I remember I was in London, and I was gearing up for a writing session with a woman named Imogen Heap, and I got this idea for a song. And I guess I was thinking that when people say terrible things to or about you it’s like they write those things all over your face, and then they write them on your self-esteem, and your own image of who you are to yourself. I was just thinking that when you can finally get over that, it’s like, in that moment, you’re finally clean.”

8th December 2015 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide: night 2

“How many people travelled to be at the show tonight? See, that’s why you guys are great – you’re like a super crowd. A lot of you are from here, we’ve got a lot of people who travelled. Um, you’re amazing and I guess when I look out and I see you being so generous to me, I just… I never want anything bad to happen to you. I never want you… I never want you to go online, and have someone say something terrible to you, and make you feel bad. I never want anything to happen to you to make you question whether you’re good enough, or whether you’re cool, or whatever. I… I think that I’ve struggled with that a lot – you know, kind of filtering out what opinions matter to me. And I know… I know a few things. I know that my family’s opinion matters to me. I know that your opinion matters to me. So you have to… you have to really focus on people who actually care about you – people that have put time into being with you, people who want to spend time being around you. These are the people whose opinions you should listen to and the rest of the opinions – the people who absolutely just either don’t get you or never tried to – filter those things out, because that’s just cluttering up your life. And when you can filter those things out, it’s almost like, in that moment, you’re clean.”

10th December 2015 – AAMI Park, Melbourne: night 1

“I’ve been, you know, staring out into the crowd, as I do. And I’ve been watching what you’ve been doing all night and… and I’ve noticed a few things. I’ve noticed that it’s not just like… it’s not just like head nodding along to the music – you guys are fully raging, and dancing, and throwing your hair around. You’re not just mouthing the words tune-ically to the songs – you’re screaming the words at the top of your lungs. And, um, you know, you may be standing around people that you don’t know, or that you’ve never met before, and the way that you’re acting, the way that you’re treating us is with such… just warmth and, like, you don’t care what anyone thinks. Like, you’re just being so loving to us. And, you know, I know there are… there are a million ways people can tell you how to be this day and age, and how to act in public, and what’s cool, and what’s not cool, what’s beautiful, what’s not beautiful, all that. And it’s really easy to get caught up and preoccupied with the idea of being cool. And, um, but you know what – people try to tell you that being cool is, like, being reserved, and unaffected, unexcited, sometimes cynical, and chill. But what I think is better than being cool, Melbourne, is being happy. And you seem really happy tonight. And I know we all care about what other people think about us – it’s absolutely inevitable that we care a little bit – but the moment that you start to realise that you are not the opinion of people who don’t know you or care about you – in that moment, it’s almost like anything anybody could say about you just gets washed away. And in that particular moment you come upon that realisation – you know, Melbourne, it’s like… it’s like you’re clean.”

11th December 2015 – AAMI Park, Melbourne: night 2

“Everybody that you see on this stage, we’ve all been talking about it so much lately how, um, this has been the most magical year of our lives, thanks to you. And… and now it’s gonna end, you know? It’s… it’s wild. It’s so many emotions. Um, and, you know, one of the things that’s been amazing is that I’m able to keep up with you when I’m not here, you know? Like, of course we’re all always gonna come see you in Melbourne. Of course I’ll be back on the next tour, obviously. But in between, in the meantime, I love checking up on you and seeing what you’re doing. And the way I can do that, because we live so far apart, is I can go on Instagram, I can go on Twitter, I can go on Tumblr, and I can see what you’re doing, make sure you’re okay, and everything. And I do that a lot. I’ll always check in with you. One of the coolest things about technology and all of that is I’m able to keep up with you like that. One of the things that scares me, however, about this whole thing where we all have these online identities, is that it opens up a lot of other channels for people to criticise you, and I see it every day. Um, I’ll go on your profile and look at your pictures, and every once in a while I’ll see a picture that you posted that was just cute, you know? You with your friends, you’re not trying to do anything wrong, you’re not trying to annoy anybody, and then you’ll see somebody just post a comment that’s completely unnecessary, and it’ll just be like “ugly”. That’ll be the whole comment. It’s, like, not very thought out, but it can ruin your day. And that’s… I look out into this crowd of people who have been so kind to us – you’ve been so welcoming to us being in your city, and you’ve been so warm to us, and so I never want anything bad to happen to you. I never want people to say terrible things to you, and have it ruin your day. But I guess these things are inevitabilities. And I guess I just wish that you knew that you are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you, or care about you, okay? Every day of my life for the past ten years has been peppered with the opinions of other people on what I look like, who I am, whatever. And, um, lately I’ve started to prioritise your opinion so much higher above their opinion if they don’t care. I was in London, and I was going through it, and I was having a bad day, and I realised that I didn’t care anymore. And, um, the way that the idea hit me, I knew exactly what I wanted to say. And I had a writing session scheduled with a wonderful singer-songwriter named Imogen Heap, and we wrote a song, and we called it Clean. Will you sing along with this one?”

12th December 2015 – AAMI Park, Melbourne: night 3