Ross and Rachel for the TikTok age: how Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s romance captured the world
EEven among the modern pop armies, Taylor Swift fans stand out for their devotion to their idol. But this past year they’ve outdone themselves, flocking to stadiums for the Eras tour, to cinemas for the concert film, and often both, several times. Now the Swifties are aligning themselves with the NFL and rooting for her new boyfriend Travis Kelce, the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Since their romance last summer, Swift has become a fixture at Chiefs games this season, often spotted in the box with Kelce’s family, and drawing fans to the field in droves. With speculation about their relationship running high, there has been talk of a proposal during Sunday’s Super Bowl when the Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers. It’s fast expected to fly from Tokyo to attend.
While her previous relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn was notable for its privacy, Swift and Kelce’s relationship has played out in public. When Kelce attended Swift’s show in Kansas City in July, he tried and failed to give her his number backstage, as a joke on his podcast that he “threw the ball in her court.” Swift really got wind of it. In October, weeks after Swift first appearance during a Chiefs game, Kelce bought a $6 million mansion in a gated community in Missouri, Reportedly to give them more privacy. A month later, he went to see Swift perform in Buenos Aires – and she the text adjusted to Karma to call her “man of the Chiefs”. She was later filmed running from the stage into his arms.
We’ve seen more of Swift in the last six months with Kelce than we did in her six years with Alwyn — and she and Kelce have become one of the most famous couples in the US, if not the world.
The focus on them extends far beyond their respective fandoms and highlights our ongoing obsession with romance and famous couples to pin it on. But in this age of 24/7 social media surveillance, many have lost their luster or run for cover. Tellingly, companies have had to rely on past loves for their much-hyped Super Bowl commercials with Uber reunion Ross and Rachel from Friends.
Like Posh and Becks, one of the last great celebrity love stories, Swift and Kelce evoke an instantly recognizable story – of the overachieving homecoming queen (or, as Swift prefers to call herself, the cat-loving face in the stands) and the football game . hero with a heart of gold.
Kelce’s old tweets paint a wholesome picture of simple pleasures, including feeding squirrels and The electric feeling of MGMT. Swift is also known by fans as a dork through and through. She has to be the only winner of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year to respond honestly and unapologetically, with a reference to Harry Potter.
As a couple, Swift and Kelce are also easy to like: both 34 (a respectable age), at the top of their respective games, and – of course – conventionally attractive and white. With the global sports and entertainment industry behind them, they seem unstoppable. That may not be a surprise some Trump supporters claiming the romance is political propaganda designed to give Biden (whom Swift endorsed in 2020) a victory — something the New York Times has called “the dumbest possible conspiracy theory.”
According to the gossip columnist Hunter Harris, it’s almost an unnervingly perfect union. “It feels like a glitch in the matrix, a one in a trillion chance, that the woman who just won album of the year at the Grammys is dating the man who is about to win the Super Bowl.”
At least their fans are buying it – and quite literally. In terms of brand awareness, based on social media posts and press coverage, Swift’s attendance at competitions is estimated to have raised the Chiefs’ profile with a reach worth $331m (£260m), as well as 20% driving increase in sponsorship.
Meanwhile, the number of young women following this NFL season has skyrocketed an estimated 2 million viewers to one Chiefs game. Fast, the San Francisco Chronicle claims, has achieved the seemingly impossible and “made the NFL even greater.”
It’s prime evidence of the “Taylor Swift effect,” as the pop star is talked about in terms usually reserved for companies, if not countries. Last November, she was credited (along with Beyoncé) with a better-than-expected 5% boost to US GDP. The Eras tour is already the biggest in history, generating $1 billion in revenue with almost a year to go.
Kelce is also ambitious, having signed with a management agency when he was still alive still in college for a chance to “become as famous as The Rock.” You can understand why, says Harris: “He is charismatic and has the gift of gab.” His new relationship has helped accelerate stardom, with offers for TV appearances and movie scripts. At one point Kelce was said to make a profit 124,000 new followers on X every time Swift attended one of his games.
With 95 million followers to Kelce’s 1.2 million, Swift Inc may not be able to get any bigger, but she has also seen the benefits of the merger. It erased her brief affair with Matty Healy, the controversial 1975 singer, leaving many fans feeling betrayed. And it has cemented her status as the most famous woman in the world, after a long period of privacy. The apparent leak to the press from sources ‘close to Swift’ claiming Alwyn was threatened by her success suggests that she too may have grown tired of keeping a low profile.
As her banner year ends, Swift’s romance has repositioned her in the public consciousness from the all-conquering (even obnoxiously capitalist) queen of pop, to a young woman in love.
In 2022, Swift came under fire for contributing to global emissions during her frequent outings on her private jet. Until Tuesday, when she and Elon Musk threatened legal action against the student who made their flights public centered about whether that plane would get her from Tokyo to the U.S. in time to see her boyfriend win the Super Bowl.
Despite all the publicity, Harris doubts the relationship is just for show. It may have started out that way, but “Taylor Swift is already galactically famous without Travis Kelce,” she says. “If anything, this seems like the quickest way for her to reach oversaturation.”
Whatever the division between business and pleasure, “Tayvis” is an all-American romance in more ways than one: highly marketable, a little too sweet and served in generous portions. It tells of a time sorely lacking in romance, let alone fairy tales, where we are filling our plates and asking for more. As Swift sang, it’s a love story – just say yes.