Royal birthday treat: William, George and Charlotte meet Taylor Swift at gig

Taylor Swift met the Prince of Wales on Friday night as he celebrated his 42nd birthday by taking two of his children to her concert at Wembley Stadium.

Kensington Palace posted a picture on social media of William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who were with Swift, 34, as she took a selfie of them backstage ahead of the concert.

The post to X read: “Thank you @TaylorSwift for a great evening!”

The Princess of Wales stayed at home with Prince Louis.

Grammy winner Swift posted a selfie with the royal family members and her boyfriend, NFL player Travis Kelce, to X and wrote: “Happy Bday M8! London shows are off to a splendid start.”

A video from the evening, widely circulated online, appears to show William “dad dancing” to catchy pop song Shake It Off.

Sir Keir Starmer attended the first of the London Eras gig with his wife Victoria, and posted a photo of them on social media captioned “‘Swift’ campaign pitstop”.

Asked about the concert by reporters on the campaign trail in south London, the Labour leader replied: “She was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.”

He added: “I know I will be asked what is my favourite song and I am not going to pretend I have got every album and know every song, although Change is the one for obvious reasons.”

Swift performed in front of other celebrity fans including Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness and model Cara Delevingne.

They joined Kelce, his brother Jason and their parents, as well as Swift’s parents Andrea and Scott, as she performed for almost 90,000 people.

Spice Girl Emma Bunton posted a video at the concert while Coughlan shared a photo of a hand with several friendship bracelets – which have become a staple at Swift’s shows.

Australian actress Phoebe Tonkin posed for a photo outside the stadium and comedian Rob Beckett and his wife Louise could be seen with their daughters at the gig.

Swift’s billion-dollar juggernaut tour takes fans through her back catalogue, including hits from albums 1989, Red and Midnights.

The revamped set list, which she first unveiled at the Paris shows, also includes songs from her latest offering The Tortured Poets Department.

To celebrate her arrival in the capital, murals, a special Tube map, a Taylor trail and a series of events have all been created.

The US pop star has already played shows in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff and will take to the stage at Wembley again on Saturday and Sunday before the tour moves on to Dublin.

She will return to London again for five nights in August.

It was announced on Thursday that Swift’s fans were expected to boost the London economy by £300 million as the capital hosts more Eras Tour shows than any other city in the world, with nearly 640,000 people expected to attend across the eight dates.