On the first Australian stop of the Eras Tour at the MCG on Friday – the biggest show Taylor Swift has ever played – it was nine-year-old Keilor Park girl Milana Bruno who got to live out that fantasy.
Milana Bruno,9,wearing the black top hat given to her by Taylor Swift at her MCG concert on Friday night,Luis Ascui
Every concert,one lucky fan is brought up to the edge of the stage,where Swift bestows on them the black fedora hat she’s just worn while performing her hit song22.
When her family was approached by two people from Swift’s team,Milana believed she was “getting told off” for dancing on her seat and singing too loudly. But she was soon escorted to the stage.
“I was crying – it was my very first concert and it was a lucky one,” Milana toldThe Sunday Age.
“She was really nice and hugged me. She said,‘Thank you for coming’,and I said,‘Thank you for giving me this opportunity,kneeling on the stage and meeting you.’
“And she said,‘Oh,you deserve it’ and gave me the hat.”
Swift’s gifting of the22 hat is one of the many viral moments that emerges from every Eras Tour concert. Vision of Milana embracing Swift and giving her a friendship bracelet has already been liked on Tiktok more than 100,000 times.
For the Bruno family,they already felt like they’d won the lottery when they scored last-minute tickets on Tuesday – after all attempts to buy seats for the sell-out shows last year failed.
Mum Renata Bruno had even been scammed by someone selling fake tickets on Facebook.
“We were sitting right at the back,which meant my daughters had to stand on the chairs all night to sing and dance,but it was an amazing concert,” Bruno said.
Milana receiving the hat from Swift at the MCG on Friday night.Graham Denholm/TAS24/Getty Images
“Then two people came up on me and tapped me on the shoulder,and asked if Milana was my daughter... I was quite concerned because they were quite serious,but then they walked us all the way through the aisles and the VIP sections.
“As soon as she hugged Taylor,I was crying,we were all crying and shaking. It just seems so surreal,because it was so hard to get tickets... We were all so thankful.”
Bruno said the b-reserve tickets they scored were expensive at $300 – and they almost couldn’t afford them
Her husband Ange protested that they couldn’t possibly be worth it,but they wanted their daughters to have this once-in-a-lifetime experience – and she said that call was spot on.
And what happens with the black fedora now? Milana says it will take pride of place next to her bed,among photos of her favourite Collingwood footy stars,Nick Daicos and Bobby Hill.
She said that even in her wildest dreams,she could not have imagined it happening.
“There was so many people there,and we knew there would only be one person that could get it. And somehow that was me.”