There’s no questioning how much Taylor Swift has influenced generations of fans — from younger Swifties who have grown up on her music to the Millennials who grew up alongside Swift, reading her old diary entries and evolving through all her different eras. Obviously fans had all types of visceral reactions when the Lover artist got engaged to Travis Kelce after two years of dating, but I didn’t predict that it would also put Swiftie boyfriends “on the clock” in their own relationships.
Taylor Swift’s connection to her fans is unique in how she teases upcoming music and other projects, sometimes years in advance. Swifties know every word to all 270+ of her songs. They’ve created their own concert etiquette, complete with friendship bracelet exchanges, so why wouldn’t they want to share this next huge chapter with the artist? One fan, 34-year-old Colleen O’Connor, told The Guardian her first reaction to hearing that the NFL tight end had popped the question was to ask her boyfriend:
When’s it going to happen for us?
The New York resident said she’s been a Swiftie since Day 1, and seeing Taylor Swift finding her endgame has inspired her to talk to her partner about their own next steps. She said:
It would be fun to be engaged with her at the same time. I’ve been showing my boyfriend photos of the ring and saying how unique it is. That’s not my style, but we talk about what I might like.
One TikToker put out a PSA on the day of the big engagement announcement, warning all partners of Swifties that if they also were at the two-year mark, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had effectively just issued a call to action. Check out his post:
It was always a joke amongst Taylor Swift’s critics that she had so many boyfriends and couldn’t find anyone to settle down with her. So you can bet that when that proposal finally happened, many Swifties took the opportunity to evaluate where they were at in their own relationships. As comedian Jeremy Cangiano said, she and Travis Kelce just changed the game:
Listen, if you are a boyfriend of a Swiftie girlfriend, and you’ve been together for two, two-and-a-half years now, listen bro, just go get the ring now because the expectations have been reset. You need to reassess your expectations on when you thought it was appropriate to propose, because the game has changed. As of 1-ish o’clock this afternoon Eastern Standard Time, um, you’re on the clock, buddy. You are on the clock. The draft, it’s happening. You can’t trade up, you can’t trade down. You better get that ring.
Swifties’ social media reactions proved him right, too. Just look at some of these tweets:
- How do I tell my boyfriend he needs to propose ASAP so I can be engaged at the same time as Taylor Swift without sounding crazy – oxycontinNmybra
- When I’ve been with my boyfriend longer than Taylor swift has been with Travis kelce yet THEYRE ENGAGED? we literally have a child IM HEATED – AshleySalmontha
It certainly says something about the Swiftie fandom that being able to say you were engaged at the same time as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce is something to strive for. As passionate as I know the fanbase is, I had not realized how much pressure this would ultimately put on Swiftie partners.
If anyone out there needs inspiration for ring shopping or proposal ideas, go ahead and throw on Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour or folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which are both available with a Disney+ subscription.
