Why 13? Taylor Swift’s Lucky Number and Its New England Roots

Before we open the file: “Where’s Taylor!?” is a playful, fan-made mystery from Boston Made. Taylor Swift is not involved with it and has not endorsed it. We are simply fans with a corkboard, a lot of red string and a soft spot for Foxborough.

Case File No. 13 was supposed to break its final seal today, Friday, October 16, at 1:13 p.m. It didn’t. We pushed Exhibit C back four weeks, to Friday, November 13, 2026 at 1:13 p.m. Eastern. Yes, that is a Friday the 13th, and yes, we did it on purpose.

Most people treat that date like a black cat crossing the sidewalk. For one of the most famous songwriters alive, 13 has been a good-luck charm since childhood. And a surprising amount of that luck has a New England address.

The number she was born with

It starts with the calendar. Swift was born on December 13, 1989, and she has said she turned 13 on a Friday the 13th. Check a 2002 calendar and you will see she is right.

In an NBC Dateline interview, she ran through the evidence like a lawyer making closing arguments. “Thirteen has been my lucky number for a while,” she said, according to a December 2023 roundup by Alabama’s 42. Her debut album went gold in 13 weeks. Her first single, “Tim McGraw,” opens with a 13-second intro, which she later told The Tonight Show wasn’t planned. She has also said that whenever she sat in row 13, or in row M (the 13th letter), at an awards show, she won. On that same Dateline visit she showed the number written inside her van door and on her drummer’s drumhead.

Turning bad luck inside out

What we love about this story is the attitude behind it. Thirteen is supposed to be the unlucky one: skipped floors in hotels, missing rows on airplanes. Swift claimed it anyway. Boston 25 News reported that she used to write 13 on her hand before shows, and fans picked up the habit. Alabama’s 42 ran a photo of fans painting 13 on their hands before an Eras Tour show in Buenos Aires.

It’s a small act of defiance. Take the number everyone else avoids and make it yours.

Foxborough: where the stadiums began

Now for the New England part. On June 5, 2010, the Fearless Tour played Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. It was the first stadium Swift ever played, and she became the first woman to headline and sell out the building. Roughly 57,000 fans showed up, making it the tour’s highest-grossing night. Billboard’s review noted the hometown feel of that show, helped along by the New England Patriots shirt she wore on stage.

A year later she was back for two Speak Now nights in June 2011, and the sky opened up. That was her first “rain show,” which fans still talk about. Years later she told a Gillette crowd that New England fans don’t mind the rain and seem to have more fun in it.

The visits kept coming. During a July 2013 Red Tour stop, Carly Simon joined her on the Gillette stage for “You’re So Vain,” according to Rolling Stone. In 2018 she played three straight Reputation nights there, the first woman to do that at the stadium. A planned Lover Fest East at Gillette for July 2020 was cancelled when the pandemic shut down touring that year, the Boston Globe reported.

Thirteen years, thirteen shows

Then came the Eras Tour, May 19 to 21, 2023. Count the Foxborough dates: one Fearless show, two Speak Now, two Red, two 1989, three Reputation and three Eras. That adds up to 13. On stage she said it herself, as the Boston Globe reported. Gillette was her first stadium, it had been 13 years, and this was her 13th time on that stage. Boston 25 also pointed out that the final night’s date, 5/21/23, has digits that add up to 13. (5 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 3. We checked.)

And because New England never misses a cue, it rained again.

Why Exhibit C waits for November 13

Once we laid the timeline out on the corkboard, the date picked itself. A mystery called Case File No. 13 shouldn’t end on an ordinary Friday. It should end on a day most people side-eye and one Swift has been reclaiming since she was a kid. So the last envelope stays sealed until 1:13 p.m. on Friday, November 13.

Test your luck

The Boston Made Take

Lucky numbers aren’t magic. They’re a way of paying attention. Pick a number, and suddenly you notice it everywhere: on a ticket stub, a row letter, a date on a stadium marquee. Swift took a number with a bad reputation and built a career-long good-luck story around it. Foxborough happens to be one of the places where that story keeps paying off. It’s where she played her first stadium, where she learned to love a rain show, and where she counted her way to 13.

That’s the spirit we want for “Where’s Taylor!?” Nobody here has inside information, and nobody is pretending otherwise. We’re fans connecting real, public dots for fun, with the same stubborn optimism that turns Friday the 13th into something to look forward to. Bring a poncho, just in case.

Talk about it

1. Do you have a lucky number? Did you choose it, or did it choose you?
2. Gillette has hosted Swift 13 times. What do you think makes a venue feel like a “home” stage for an artist who isn’t from the area?
3. Rain shows, a Patriots shirt, a Carly Simon duet: which Foxborough moment would you most want to have seen in person, and why?

Sources

1. Taylor Swift, December 13th and her lucky number, Alabama's 42 (CBS42), Emery Akin, 2023-12-13
2. Taylor Swift and Gillette Stadium: A Love Story, Boston 25 News, Jessica Ward, 2023-05-18
3. Taylor Swift fans treated to another rain show in her second 'Eras Tour' performance at Gillette, The Boston Globe, 2023-05-22
4. Fearless Tour, Wikipedia
5. Gillette Stadium (concert history), Wikipedia
6. Today Was a Fairytale (citing Billboard's June 8, 2010 review of the Foxborough show), Wikipedia
7. Carly Simon Joins Taylor Swift for 'You're So Vain', Rolling Stone, 2013-07
8. Taylor Swift cancels live appearances, including July concert at Gillette Stadium, for rest of the year, The Boston Globe, 2020-04-17
9. File:Taylor Swift – Fearless Tour – Foxboro 11.jpg (CC BY-SA 2.0), Wikimedia Commons, Meltedheadaches, 2010-06-05
10. File:Taylor Swift – Fearless Tour – Foxboro 08.jpg (CC BY-SA 2.0), Wikimedia Commons, Meltedheadaches, 2010-06-05

“Where’s Taylor!?” is an unofficial fan campaign by Boston Made, Inc. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Taylor Swift, her team or Gillette Stadium. Photos are used editorially under their Creative Commons licenses.