“I’m Taylor. Let me tell you a little about myself,” Taylor Swift said when she came out on stage Friday Sept. 18 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

This is what I’ve been waiting for since my friend, Katelyn, asked me if I wanted to see Swift in concert back in May. We’d counted down the days, weeks and months to the concert, and now that it was finally here, we were beyond excited.

Australian singer Vance Joy opened the show for Swift, playing a set of songs, including his song “Mess is Mine,” a cover of Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” and finished his 30 minute set with “Rip Tide.”

Swift performed most of her songs from her most recent CD “1989” and did a few throwback tracks from her “Fearless” days. All the songs she performed were met with loud applause and screams from fans.

In between her costume changes, she would play videos featuring her famous friends, including Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham and best friend Abigail (yes, the Abigail mentioned in Swift’s song “Fifteen”).

Katelyn and I were even treated to a special guest, Sydney Sierota (lead singer of Echosmith), who came over from the Schottenstein Center, where the band opened for Twenty One Pilots that same night. Sierota and Swift serenaded the audience with Echosmith’s “Cool Kids.”

The concert was full of energy, as Swift said she wanted to match the upbeat sound from “1989,” and that was reflected in the songs she performed, which were either sung at their normal tempo – especially hits like “Bad Blood” and her finale performance of “Shake It Off” – while some songs, like “Love Story,” were sped up in order to fit in with the music from “1989,” which the audience seemed to like.

My favorite part of the concert was listening to “I Knew You Were Trouble,” which I thought had a much grittier sound than what was played on the radio and what was on the “Red” CD. In fact, many of the songs she performed were grittier or more rock-based than originally recorded and those were my favorite parts of the concert.

What got me the most emotional during the concert – and Swift herself – was when Swift took a break from singing to address the audience, saying it made her so happy to see people screaming the lyrics to her songs and dancing as if they didn’t have a care in world. As Swift told audience members to never change, no matter what other people said and “don’t let those cynical people make you feel bad about yourself,” it could have come off to the audience as if she was being too preachy (which people around us did comment on). But, coming from Swift, who has been picked on by the media for her relationships and who started crying when she was talking to us, it was just what some in the audience needed to hear.

If you’re on the fence about going to see her, she does know how to put on a show and entertain her audience.