Taylor Swift's 3 new Eras Tour openers have connections to Rihanna, Ed Sheeran, and Imagine Dragons. Here's everything to know about the rising stars. (2024)

Advertisem*nt

Mette

Age: 32

Key songs: "Bet," "Van Gogh," "Mama's Eyes"

The lowdown: Mette Towley, who releases music mononymously as Mette, is a singer, dancer, and actor from Minnesota.

She initially received acclaim after starring in the 2017 music video for "Lemon" by N.E.R.D and Rihanna; the clip opens with Rihanna shaving Mette's head. You may also recognize her from a brief cameo as the discontinued Video Girl doll in the 2023 blockbuster "Barbie."

Mette and Swift most likely met on the set of 2019's "Cats," in which Mette played Cassandra. (Swift portrayed Bombalurina in the unsettling adaptation of the Broadway play.)

More recently, Mette released her debut EP "Mettenarrative" and toured with the UK's disco darling Jessie Ware.

"I really wanted to be an artist growing up, but dance was where I felt most confident in my abilities," she told Vogue last year. "Even when I started making this EP back in 2019, I didn't tell most of the people I knew, my friends and collaborators. It just still felt so far away. Now, I feel like I can truly claim that for myself."

"I have nothing to prove," she added. "Only to share."

In addition to joining The Eras Tour this summer, Mette will also perform at Lollapalooza in Chicago.

Advertisem*nt

Griff

Age: 23

Key songs: "Vertigo," "Miss Me Too," "Black Hole"

The lowdown: Griff — born Sarah Faith Griffiths in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, to a Jamaican father and Chinese mother — has described herself as a lifelong Swiftie.

"She's probably one of the No. 1 people that I look up to in terms of being a songwriter and being a top female in the music industry and being so consistent and coming back, time after time after time, with incredible songs," Griff told Nylon. "I even said that to her."

The two musicians met at the 2021 Brit Awards, where Griff received the annual rising star award and performed her popular single "Black Hole." (Swift had previously called herself a "huge fan" and even gave Griff a shout-out while accepting the global icon award.)

Griff kept her music aspirations a secret at school and only began pursuing it in earnest after finishing her A-Level exams. Instead of enrolling in a university, she took a "gap year" that quickly snowballed into a professional career. After releasing a string of well-received singles, she opened on tour for Ed Sheeran, a noted pal of Swift's. She has also collaborated with fellow indie-pop darlings like Sigrid and Maisie Peters.

Advertisem*nt

Benson Boone

Age: 21

Key songs: "Beautiful Things," "Slow It Down," "Cry"

The lowdown: Benson Boone seemed to arrive out of nowhere when his single "Beautiful Things" topped both of Billboard's global charts in February. The surprise viral hit owes much of its success to TikTok, where Boone has 7 million followers.

However, the Washington native had been laying the groundwork for years, already having earned two entries on the Billboard Hot 100.

Boone started out as a contestant on "American Idol" — where he was praised as a potential winner by none other than Katy Perry — but withdrew from the competition to avoid being pigeonholed in his career. In 2021, he caught the attention of Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds and signed to the rockstar's own label, Night Street Records, in partnership with Warner Records.

Shortly after, Boone made his chart debut with "Ghost Town" (No. 100). He made a second chart appearance in 2022 with his power ballad "In the Stars" (No. 59), which also became his first platinum-certified single in the US.