So Taylor Swift Isn’t Doing the Super Bowl After All
After lots of speculation around everyone from Adele to Miley Cyrus, the NFL announced on Sunday that the Super Bowl halftime show will be helmed by Bad Bunny. Great news for a lot of us, but an upsetting turn of events for the Swifties, who were convinced that Taylor Swift would be taking the stage at Levi’s Stadium next year.
To be fair, the signs were all there. Most obviously, Swift is about to drop The Life of a Showgirl, and she loves a big moment more than anything. How can you possibly top the biggest tour of all time, one that spanned your entire career? Well, you can’t, really, but a Super Bowl performance is the closest you can get — especially if your fiancé is playing in the game. It’s unclear if the Chiefs are going to make it to the Super Bowl this year, but the mere idea of Travis Kelce playing a game at which Swift is doing the halftime show (during what might be his last season) is the kind of thing that the NFL PR team has on its vision board. Plus, nothing says “big” like a couple’s Super Bowl that rolls right into the wedding of the year.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell set the rumor mill into overdrive earlier this month during an appearance on the Today show, where he teased that something might be in the works with Swift. “We would always love to have Taylor play. She is a special, special talent, and obviously she would be welcome at any time,” Goodell said. When pressed, he added, “I can’t tell you anything about it,” but added, “It’s a maybe.”
And then, of course, there was the popular Swiftie theory that Swift’s sourdough hobby was actually a clue that she’d be performing at the Super Bowl. During her August appearance on Kelce’s New Heights podcast, Swift spoke about her newfound passion for sourdough. Fans were quick to point out that this year’s Super Bowl is taking place at the San Francisco 49ers’ stadium, and the team’s mascot is a bread-loving prospector named Sourdough Sam. She also made reference to the number 47 twice, and the 47th stop on the Eras Tour was at none other than … Levi’s Stadium.
Okay, that one might seem wacky and far-flung, but the fans might have been onto something. Rob Shuter, a tabloid veteran who now runs his own shop on Substack, recently claimed that Swift was in talks to do the halftime show but things fell apart just before the end zone because she, per one source, “wanted a deal that reflected her value.” (Specifically, the source suggested to Shuter there was an issue with the NFL’s expectation that artists do the halftime show for free.) Take all of that with a grain of salt, of course, but one thing we do know is that Swift doesn’t mess around about what she’s worth. And why should she?
So no Swift-er Bowl next year. That’s a huge L for the NFL and a win for Swift. She continues to hold all the power, and if the Chiefs can pull it together this season she’ll have a really good seat for a Bad Bunny halftime show. Sounds like a great situation for her.
Related