Alicia Keys’ Son Genesis Got the Most Amazing Gift From Taylor Swift
It’s a great time to be Genesis Dean! The 8-year-old son of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats attended the Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert in Los Angeles on Aug. 5, and had a V.I.P. experience that would make even the most casual Swiftie green with envy.
The epic evening was documented on mom Alicia Keys’ Instagram, with a carousel of photos that the singer captioned, “Big love to @taylorswift for your big beautiful spirit that makes everyone feel loved! Genesis adores u.”
From the looks of things, the feeling of adoration is mutual! The carousel begins with a live shot of Swift planting a sweet kiss on the cheek of an absolutely-beaming Genesis (and can anyone blame him?). He was decked out in a t-shirt that said “A lot going on at the moment,” which is a nod to one of Swift’s Eras Tour costumes.
Interspersed throughout the photos are adorable throwbacks of the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards, where a much-smaller Genesis looks utterly captivated by Swift, staring and waving. Swift waved back, no doubt cementing her superstar status in then-4-year-old Genesis’s heart. “My son, Genesis, I think is maybe trying to take Taylor out later tonight,” Keys joked at the time. “He’s working on it. I’m not sure how it’s gonna go, but it looks pretty good right now.”
The carousel goes on to show Genesis gifting Swift with a bracelet from his own arm, bobbing to the beat from a spectacular vantage point on his mom’s back, and just generally living his best life at the Eras Tour, as one does. But where most of us just get to rock out to our favorite T-Swift songs from the audience, Genesis’s enviable experience continued even after he got in the car to go home.
“So you’ve got something from Taylor,” Keys tells her son as the duo rides along in a golf cart backstage. “Are you ready to see it?”
Once in the car, Keys produced said surprise: a handwritten note from Taylor herself! Genesis eagerly rips into the envelope and then hands the note to his mom to read.
“Gen,” the note began. “Hi my friend!! I was so excited when I heard you were coming tonight!! I hope you have so much fun at the show. I’ll be waving at you. Love, Taylor.”
Understandably, he looks ecstatic about being the recipient of such a cool acknowledgement — written on a notecard that says “Taylor Swift, songwriter, feline enthusiast” — and vows to frame it.
There was no sign of Genesis’s older brother Egypt, 12, who Keys also shares with Swizz Beats, so we can only guess that this concert was a special mother-son bonding time for Keys and her youngest son. That’s fabulous in itself — but when your bonding time involves hanging out backstage with Taylor Swift and getting a handwritten note, it’s absolutely next-level.
These celebrity parents have been candid about how they teach their kids about racism.