Pop superstar Taylor Swift took her seat at the Super Bowl on Sunday to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, providing a jolt of megawatt excitement to the Vegas blockbuster and ending a week-long will-she-won’t-she saga that has dominated the lead-up to the football event of the year.
Swift’s arrival some two hours before kick-off sent an almost palpable frisson around the Allegiant Stadium and social media rapidly filled with pictures and video footage of the singer dressed in a black top, black jeans and with a red jacket slung over her shoulder walking through the bowels of the stadium with friends Blake Lively and Ice Spice.
A punishing travel schedule in which she has flown from Japan to the U.S. and will then jet to Australia for tour commitments meant her presence was far from a foregone conclusion, and when giant television screens showed Swift for the first time, a ripple of cheers went around the still-mostly empty stadium.
But while Chiefs fans, neutrals, TV viewers and legions of “Swifties” the world over were delighted by her presence, the overwhelmingly 49ers crowd in the stadium were less enthusiastic.
Late in the first half the cameras flashed Swift up on to the big screens, prompting 49ers jeers to ring round the stadium. Swift responded by quickly grabbing her drink, and chugging it before slamming the glass down, as those around her smiled.
Swift has attended 12 Chiefs games since she began dating Kelce last year, boosting already sky-high NFL ratings. There had been fears she could miss the biggest game of all, though, due to scheduling conflicts with her “Eras Tour” which had her performing in Tokyo on Feb. 10, the night before the Super Bowl.