Taylor Swift has been accused of performing “Satanic rituals” during her Eras Tour by Boyzone star Shane Lynch. The global pop sensation is currently touring her sold-out world tour, having just performed seven shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and is due to bring her show to the UK and Ireland as part of her European tour this summer.

Shane Lynch of Boyzone fame has shared concerns over Swift’s stage show
However, there’s one individual who isn’t so enthralled by the idea, Lynch, 47, who claimed she and other pop artists perform “demonic rituals” without audiences “even realising”. The star, who is a Pentecostal born-again Christian, said: “I think when you’re looking at a lot of the artists out there, a lot of their stage shows are Satanic rituals live in front of 20,000 people without them realising and recognising.” Referencing Swift’s stage costume during the Evermore segment of her show, which sees her don a cape and her backing dancers hold lanterns, he added: “You’ll see a lot of hoods up and masks on and fire ceremonies.”

 
Swift pictured on stage during her Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona
“Even down to Taylor Swift – one of the biggest artists in the world – you watch one of her shows and she has two or three different demonic rituals to do with the pentagrams on the ground, to do with all sorts of stuff on her stage,” he told Ireland’s Sunday World newspaper. “But to a lot of people it’s just art and that’s how people are seeing it, unfortunately.” Lynch also admitted that he has stopped listening to hip-hop and Grime because of the “hidden Satanic” messages and “evil” concealed within “the beats” of the music. The Standard has contacted Taylor Swift’s representative for comment.

Lynch isn’t the first to make such claims, with some fans bizarrely suggested earlier this month she flashed ‘the sign of the horns’ – a Satanic symbol – while performing her hit Cruel Summer. The star’s hand gesture went viral on social media and led some to speculate and make the baseless claims. Elsewhere Swift’s private jet was seen leaving Sydney Airport just hours after her father Scott Swift was accused of assaulting a local photographer who made “threats to throw a female staff member into the water” in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

According to local media reports, the complainant was a photographer waiting for Swift and her father following a late-night cruise at Sydney Harbour wharf. While New South Wales police didn’t directly name Scott Swift, 71, they said they were investigating an incident that involved a man of the same age. Her publicist Tree Paine told Rolling Stone magazine that two people had “pushed their way” towards her entourage when the alleged incident happened. “Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water,” Ms Paine said.

According to ABC, photographer Ben McDonald told AP that he was punched in the side of his face. “There were about four or five security there and at one point, one of the American security started shoving his umbrella into me and my camera and then Taylor got in her car,” McDonald reportedly said. “Someone else came running at me and punched me in the left side of my face. Initially, I thought it was an Australian security that was trying to be the hero of the moment in the front of the Americans.”

He added: “In 23 years, I haven’t been assaulted and punched in the chops.” The Wildest Dreams hitmaker performed her final Eras Tour concert Down Under on Monday night and will return to the stage in Singapore on March 2.