For now, a Super Bowl halftime performance isn’t on pop star Taylor Swift’s wish list.
Swift dismissed rumors that she turned down the Super Bowl halftime show due to ownership rights of performance footage in an interview on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” on Monday. Some thought Swift could have been a front-runner for Super Bowl LX, but Swift seemed to clarify that no formal offer was ever made. Three-time Grammy Award winner Bad Bunny was announced as the headliner in September.
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation is responsible for choosing the halftime show performer. Swift said she has a good relationship with Jay-Z and his team, which has led to informal discussions about the show.
“They sometimes will call and say how does she feel about the (mumbles) Super Bowl, and that’s not an official offer or a conference room conversation,” Swift said. “We’re always able to tell him the truth, which is that I am in love with a guy who does that sport on that actual field. That is violent chess, that is gladiators without swords, that is dangerous. The whole season, I am locked in on what that man is doing on the field.”
Swift has been a regular attendee at Kansas City Chiefs games since she began dating tight end Travis Kelce in 2023. She said Kelce “would love” for her to do the Super Bowl, but she is choosing not to.
“Can you imagine if he’s out there every single week putting his life on the line doing this very dangerous, very high-pressure, very high-intensity sport, and I’m like, ‘I wonder what my choreo should be?’” Swift joked. “I’m just too locked in.”
Swift detailed her newfound football fandom on an Aug. 13 episode of the “New Heights” podcast, hosted by Travis and Jason Kelce. As it turns out, the podcast appearance was more than an opportunity to break viewership records (1.3 million concurrent views on YouTube) and announce Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Swift revealed to Fallon that Travis proposed immediately after filming the episode. He used it as a “distraction” while the proposal backdrop was set up outside.
“Every time he does the podcast, it’s not like he blacks out all the windows. There were fully blacked-out drapes on every single window of the whole house,” Swift said. “He’s walking around, sort of nervous about the podcast. He’s like, ‘My heart is racing. … I know how much this means to you. I really want this to be what you hoped it would be.’
“I’ve never seen this dude nervous, ever. He’s a professionally not nervous person.”
Swift said it all made sense afterward when Kelce popped the question. The couple announced their engagement on Instagram on Aug. 26 with the caption, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”