It’s no secret that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour remains one of the biggest concerts everyone wants to attend. This summer, she’s continuing her record-breaking tour in Europe. A few weeks ago, Taylor played three massive shows at Wembley Stadium in London, which featured a ton of great surprises and many celebs attending the concerts.
Hayley Williams, who is opening for Taylor right now alongside Paramore, came out and sang “Castles Crumbling,” and Gracie Abrams also surprised fans by performing her new song “Us.” While both of those moments were amazing, nothing could’ve prepared fans for what happened at the third Wembley show when Travis Kelce actually appeared on stage.
Dressed in a tuxedo and top hat and wearing red-bottomed shoes, Travis appeared during The Tortured Poets Department section of the show, namely during Taylor’s “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart” outfit change. On the newest episode of his podcast New Heights, alongside Jason Kelce, Travis opened up about how his little Eras Tour onstage appearance came to be.
“Well, I initially mentioned it to Tay. I was like, ‘How funny would it be if I just, like, rolled out on one of the bikes during the 1989, like that era,” Travis began when Jason asked whose idea the whole thing was. Travis said Taylor started laughing at the suggestion and then asked him, “Would you seriously be up for, like, doing something like that?” And, of course, Travis was game, joking, “I’ve seen the show enough. Might as well put me to work here.”
“Sure enough, she found the perfect part of the show for me to come in. There was no bike in case I, like, ran into somebody else or, like, hit one of the dancers or anything. It was, like, the safest option,” Travis said. With Jason adding, “It was so fun to watch.”
Travis continued, saying, “When everyone [in the crowd] found out that it was me — because it took a second for everyone to figure it out — that moment was pretty jarring. I was just like, Oh shit. And you don’t realize how big that damn stage is. It is easily as big as a football stadium…it’s way bigger than I could have ever imagined.”
Then, Jason asked if Travis ever thought he’d be a backup dancer, and he said he wasn’t worried about messing anything up because he was “up there with three professionals,” referencing being on stage with Taylor and her two dancers, Kameron Saunders and Jan Ravnik. After the performance, Kam even penned a heartfelt Instagram post detailing the “full circle” moment for him, considering his brother, Khalen Saunders, played with Travis on the Kansas City Chiefs from 2019 to 2022.
Speaking more in-depth about appearing during that specific part of the Eras Tour, Travis loved that it’s such a “playful” part of the show, and he was able to go up there and be a little goofy and “get everybody excited for the rest of the show.” And while Travis felt pretty confident up on stage at Wembley, Travis did admit he was nervous about one part of his performance.
“The one thing I told myself is, Do not drop the baby. Do not drop Taylor on your way over to this damn couch,” he told Jason. Travis continued, saying, “I was gonna do some extra stuff, and who knows, maybe if I ever do it again, I might do it, but the golden rule was do not drop Taylor. Get her to the couch safe.”
Jason and Travis concluded talking about Trav’s little Eras Tour appearance, with Travis saying, “Shoutout to Tay for letting me jump on the stage with her. Who knows? Might not be the last time.”
Tory Barron, ESPN Editor, Jun 23, 2024, 06:38 PM ET. Tory Barron is a Bristol-based writer and editor for ESPN.com. After retiring from playing lacrosse at UConn, the DC native decided to try her hand at writing about people playing sports. There are few things that could captivate NFL fans and pop culture savants like the love story of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and global superstar Taylor Swift.
In this life, Swift will do things greater than dating the boy on the football team (that’s a “Fifteen” reference to the untrained eye), but that doesn’t stop us from being intrigued. After weeks of speculation, the singer-songwriter was at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 3 of the 2023-24 season to watch Kelce and the Chiefs defeat the Chicago Bears. In Week 4, she ran it back with an appearance at MetLife Stadium to watch the Chiefs’ showdown with the New York Jets. The Swift sightings added ample fuel to the duo’s already formidable hype train.
While haters said it was all a sham — sitting in a suite beside Donna Kelce was a far cry from the privacy measures Swift took while dating actor Joe Alwyn — they need(ed) to calm down. The fact that Kelce and Swift were both born in 1989 and that the former wears red on the football field clearly lent credence to the relationship. If the aforementioned arbitrary reasons didn’t sell you, Swift’s frequent appearances at Chiefs games this season and Kelce’s trip to Argentina should have done the trick.
On the off chance you’re still not convinced, here’s a look at the timeline of the whirlwind romance:
‘So Long, London’ — June 23
Kelce is plenty familiar with the Eras Tour from the crowd perspective, but he made his on-stage debut on the tour’s third night at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. The star pass-catcher joined Swift’s crew of backup dancers, donning a matching old-fashioned black-and-white fit, complete with a top hat. He carried her after she theatrically fell to the ground following her performance of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” before helping to ”revive” Swift before she moved on to her next song, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”
‘Love Story’ — Feb. 12
OK, so Kelce might not have knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring after the victory as No. 13 conspiracy theorists, er — Swifties predicted, but this night (read: early morning) was still sparkling. In a tale of two celebrations, Kelce and Swift were spotted at a Super Bowl afterparty dancing to her 2008 hit song “Love Story.” Meanwhile, Jason Kelce — who can always be counted upon to bring the energy — partied nearby. Dancing with your boyfriend to a song you wrote about finding love when you were 19 years old? Hits different.
‘Today Was A Fairytale’ — Feb. 11
Swift’s team won a Super Bowl in her rookie NFL season. In the singer-songwriter’s 13th appearance at a Chiefs game, she got to watch her boyfriend hoist the Lombardi Trophy for a third time.
‘…Ready for it?’ — Feb. 11
Let the games begin. After much hypothesizing over whether Swift could make it to Las Vegas on Sunday — following the singer-songwriter’s Eras Tour concert stop in Tokyo on Saturday — she arrived at Allegiant Stadium. Swift was spotted entering the stadium with her mom (s/o Mama Swift), Ice Spice and Blake Lively.
‘Long Live’ — Jan. 28
Long live Killa Tay. Yep, that is a super cool couple moniker comprising a combination of Kelce’s nickname, “Killa Trav,” and the name he affectionately calls the pop superstar, “Tay.” Ingenious, we know. In what could be construed as a testament to the seriousness of their relationship, Swift went down to the field after the Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens to celebrate Kelce’s Super Bowl berth.
‘Enchanted’ — Jan. 21
While Bills Mafia and viewers at home might have been delighting in “the Jason Kelce experience” at the divisional round game between the Chiefs and Buffalo Bills — which included the six-time All-Pro and future Hall of Famer jumping shirtless out of a suite window — one esteemed member of the Kelce clan, Jason’s wife, Kylie, might not have been as enthused. “She was already telling me to be on my best behavior because we were meeting Taylor [Swift],” Kelce said on the “New Heights” podcast. As for Swift’s opinion of her first meeting with her boyfriend’s older brother? She was enchanted to meet him.
‘Forever Winter’ — Jan. 13
Subzero temperatures couldn’t keep Swift from going where Kelce goes. The singer-songwriter braved the fourth-coldest game in NFL history as the Chiefs took on the Miami Dolphins in the wild-card round. Despite the frosty conditions, Swift kept things cozy (and fashionable) in a jacket made out of Kelce’s jersey designed by Kristin Juszczyk, wife of San Francisco 49ers FB Kyle Juszczyk.
”tis the damn season’ — Dec. 25
Sure, in her heart is a Christmas tree farm, but that wasn’t going to stop Swift from spending the holiday supporting Kelce at Arrowhead Stadium. The singer-songwriter, accompanied by Santa, made her fifth consecutive appearance at a Chiefs game as Kansas City hosted the Las Vegas Raiders. The home team didn’t get the win, but a certain pop star once opined that Christmas must be something more than wins and losses.
‘Back to December’ — Dec. 17
Swift goes back to Boston all the time — as evidenced by her banner hanging in the halls of Gillette Stadium. Passing by a poster of your girlfriend on your way to work? Completely normal. While the singer-songwriter was in attendance to support Kelce as the Chiefs visited the Patriots on Sunday, she also had an admirer on the other sideline: New England coach Bill Belichick. Belichick — who was on hand when Swift performed for three hours in the rain during the Foxborough leg of her “Eras Tour” — has previously voiced his fandom for the singer-songwriter, commenting on how impressed he was with her toughness.
‘Speak Now’ — Dec. 6
That’s Time Magazine Person of the Year Taylor Swift to you. In the article reflecting on Swift’s preeminent year, the cover star decided to shed some light on her oft-dissected love life. More specifically, to clear up any confusion surrounding the timeline of her relationship with Kelce. “This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift told Time. While we’re not positive, we’re taking “metal as hell” to mean cool. In which case, cool indeed.
As for those of you firmly planted in the “this is a fake PR relationship manufactured by the NFL” camp? Swift has some humble pie, er — insight for you too. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
Anyone else relieved? “When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care. The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone,” the singer-songwriter continued. “And we’re just proud of each other.” It’s safe to say neither of them is keeping the other like a secret, rather like an oath.
‘Don’t Blame Me’ — Nov. 15
While the internet was focused on Taylor changing the lyrics to “Karma” with Travis in attendance at her Buenos Aires concert, the Chiefs star’s older brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, was contemplating more important matters. Namely, a missed high-five opportunity and a lanyard. In Travis’ excitement over the cheeky lyrical change, he accidentally left Scott Swift, Taylor’s dad, hanging on a celebratory high-five. The audacity. Jason was quick to point out that Scott, a lifelong Eagles fan, was rocking a Kansas City lanyard at the time. The show of support for the team who defeated Scott’s hometown Eagles in Super Bowl LVII had Jason placing blame squarely on Travis. “You’re going to let this man’s devilishly good looks and relationship with your daughter sway you from a lifetime of fandom, Scott?”
‘Karma’ — Nov. 11
Life can come at you fast. One day Travis was just a two-time Super Bowl champion with a friendship bracelet and a dream, the next he’s vibing in the VIP tent at the first stop on the international leg of the Eras Tour next to Scott Swift. If that twist of fate weren’t enough proof of Travis’ good karma, the 33-year-old singer took the liberty of changing the lyrics in her song aptly titled “Karma” as a cheeky nod to the football player on Saturday. In place of “Karma is the guy on the screen,” she went with “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs” much to the amusement of Travis. But wait, there’s more. At the end of the concert, Taylor was spotted making a beeline for Kelce. The above videos combined with the fact Taylor performed “End Game” as one of her surprise songs with Travis in attendance was more than enough to send the Swiftie-verse into a frenzy.
‘How You Get The Girl’ — Nov. 10
Taylor and Travis, or “Tayvis” as the cool kids refer to the famous couple, are in their international era. On Friday, the Chiefs star was seen arriving to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on a private plane to support the singer ahead of her second show at Estadio River Plate. A few hours later, Taylor postponed her Friday night concert to Sunday due to bad weather. What happened next was rare, I was there and I remember it all too well. The duo ventured to Elena restaurant at the Four Seasons Buenos Aires Hotel to enjoy a private dinner alongside Taylor’s dad. At approximately 11:45 p.m. local time, the pair exited the restaurant through the kitchen much to the delight of their fellow patrons.
‘Call It What You Want’ — Oct. 22
Another week, another Arrowhead Stadium appearance for Swift. The artist switched up her cheering companion to watch the Chiefs take on the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 7, opting to sit next to Brittany Mahomes, wife of Patrick Mahomes. Taylor and Brittany have been spotted together before, but this is the first time their celebratory handshake was caught in action. Let us tell you, it is something. While you’re busy digesting what you just watched, allow us to regale you with another important detail about the pop superstar’s latest appearance: Taylor was sporting a bracelet with Travis’ football number on it. Swifties will likely surmise that this is the equivalent of Taylor wanting to wear his initial on a chain ’round her neck. Not because he owns her, but ’cause he really knows her. One could also say she made the friendship bracelet, took the moment and tasted it … a touch too far? Either way, considering how this whole thing started — with Travis making a bracelet for Taylor with his phone number on it — the tight end’s powers of manifestation are unparalleled.
‘If This Was A Movie’ — Oct. 12
Hanging with Beyoncé on Wednesday, cheering for Kelce on Thursday. Whether or not you’re in favor of the hype train that accompanies a Swift appearance at a Chiefs game, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the commitment required for the superstar to follow-up her Los Angeles “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” movie premiere with an Arrowhead outing on back-to-back nights. A mere 24 hours after ushering in the film adaptation of her global tour (did we mention
Source: ESPN, New Heights Podcast
