Taylor Swift is in the middle of a busy touring schedule, but she'll make a quick trip to Las Vegas in between shows to cheer on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, as he and the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII.
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Though she'll be on the sidelines, Swift will be a main attraction for many of the 200.5 million U.S. viewers who are expected to tune in for the Big Game. Her relationship with Kelce has been a storybook love affair this season. The shots of her, in between plays, cheering for Kelce from a box seat alongside Travis' mom, Donna, have brought a whole new demographic to the NFL. According to Quartz, her presence has increased the Chiefs' and the league's brand value by an estimated $331.5 million. And her embrace of Kelce on the field after the Chiefs' AFC Championship Game win made all of our clichéd "queen-football star romance" dreams come true.
So as you craft your playlist for the Super Bowl party this year, it only makes sense to include a good number of Taylor Swift songs — and there are plenty to choose from. As X (formerly Twitter) user and Swift fan account @BetttysCardigan points out in a viral thread, the parallels between Swift's songs and her romance with Kelce are so numerous that it's as if she "manifested" the relationship.
Scroll through for all of the Taylor Swift songs you need to include in your Super Bowl playlist this year.
' ...Ready For It?'
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Taylor caught some flak for this song — some people weren't feeling her spoken vocals. Or the heavy, buzzing synth beats, which almost feel like metal. But I think Swift took a chance, and it paid off. Plus, this is the perfect track to kick off the Super Bowl — literally. As Lauren Walike of ABC 10 points out, if you play the song at exactly 5:38:36 p.m. CST, Swift will say, "Baby, let the games begin!" right as the Super Bowl starts.
'Shake It Off'
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This is the most popular song released by Swift, charting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying there for nearly four weeks (it remained in the top 10 for another six months). So you know everyone at the party is going to love it. Also, it's got the perfect lyrics to shut down that one hater who will inevitably whine about too much Swift screen time between plays: "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate/Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake."
'Red'
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Sometimes, it feels as if Swift's relationship with Travis Kelce was written in the stars — and in her lyrics. In "Red," Swift proclaims, "But loving him was red," and when you consider that the Chiefs' uniforms are mostly red, the song takes on a precognitive quality. As such, this one is a must-play while you join Swift in cheering for Kelce during the Big Game.
'Cornelia Street'
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Here's another song with lyrics that are almost scarily close to mirroring Swift's relationship with Kelce. In "Cornelia Street," she sings: "As if the streetlights pointed in an arrowhead leading us home." The Chiefs play their home games in Arrowhead Stadium, and their logo is an arrowhead with the letters "KC" inside of it.
'Stay Stay Stay' (Taylor's Version)
Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Jingle Ball 2012
This song evokes feelings of young love, where everything is hyper-dramatic and you still get your ideas about how romance works from movies. Why is it perfect for your Super Bowl playlist? Well, I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves here: "That's when you came in wearing a football helmet and said, 'Okay, let's talk.'"
'You're On Your Own, Kid'
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It's become a tradition for Swifties to make Taylor friendship bracelets and send them to her. Kelce did the same; but when he couldn't get her the bracelet he'd made, he lamented about it on his podcast "New Heights," which he hosts alongside his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. The podcast reached Taylor, which sparked their relationship. Celebrate the power of the bracelets with these lyrics from the track: "So make the friendship bracelets/Take the moment and taste it."
'Blank Space'
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This song was a satire against the unkind gossip swirling around Taylor when the song was released in 2016. The lyrics, "'Cause you know I love the players/And you love the game," make me crack up. And they fit oh so perfectly with her Kelce relationship. Bonus? It also includes one of Kelce's favorite lyrics by Swift.
'willow'
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When you win the Super Bowl, the team hoists the Lombardi Trophy. And each player on the winning team also gets a ring. Kelce has established himself as a legend of the game and has already won two Super Bowls. The lyrics to "willow" mention a man who embodies these accolades specifically: "As if you were a mythical thing, like you were a trophy or a champion ring."
'End Game'
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Swift experimented with a lot of pop-rap in her album Reputation. "End Game" features a killer verse from rapper Future (also a significantly less killer verse from Ed Sheeran). Play this one toward the end of the game and it will fit perfectly with your Super Bowl party. The track opens with a string of sports references. The lyrics also mention "gold," another Chiefs color: "It's like your eyes are liquor, it's like your body is gold."
'You Belong With Me'
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This is my favorite Taylor Swift song. It's got that sound I associate with "Classic T. Swift," where she's still got a little bit of country mixed in with the pop. We've all felt overlooked in life at one point or another, and this song is the antidote.
The music video features Swift crushing on the boy next door: a football star who's taken by another (a popular cheerleader played by Swift in a brunette wig). Meanwhile, Swift watches on from the bleachers. Of course, in the end, she confesses her secret love to him at prom, and it's happily ever after. Now, with Kelce, Swift has nabbed her football star IRL. And she watches him from the bleachers (technically, it's a luxury box seat, but close enough). Play "You Belong With Me" as they embrace on the field after the Chiefs win (fingers crossed!), and the Swiftverse will have come full circle.
