Given her engagement to Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce—and the fact that she seemingly dropped Easter eggs about it during her New Heights podcast debut—fans were almost certain this was the year Taylor Swift would finally headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
Unfortunately for Swifties, the NFL has selected Bad Bunny—a three-time Grammy award winner who is more than deserving of the spotlight—as this year's lead performer, leaving them devastated that she won't take center stage.
Swift has since spoken about what many thought was a snub from the show, while addressing a rumor that she turned it down due to a disagreement with Jay Z's Roc Nation—who produces the act—about performance footage.
"Jay-Z has always been really good to me," the popstar explained during an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon while promoting her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. "Our teams are really close, like they sometimes will call and say, 'How does she feel about the Super Bowl?', and that's not like, an official offer or like a conference room conversation ... We're always able to tell him the truth, which is like, I am in love with a guy who does that sport, on that actual field, like that is violent chess. That is gladiators without swords. That is dangerous."
.@taylorswift13 addresses rumors that she turned down the Super Bowl Halftime Show 👀 #TaylorOnFallon #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/ZPFIpozZ1J
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) October 7, 2025
"I am—the whole season—I am locked in on what that man is doing on the field. Can you imagine if he's out there, every single week, like putting his life on the line doing this very dangerous, very high-pressure, high-intensity sport and I'm like, 'I wonder what my choreo should be. I think we should do two verses of "Shake it Off" into "Blank Space" into "Cruel Summer", would be great.'"
"And this has nothing to do with Travis. He would love for me to do it. I'm just too locked in."
It sounds like after all the fodder, Swift wasn't very close to doing the halftime show after all.
Perhaps if this does end up being Kelce's final season on the field, we'll see her take the stage at SoFi Stadium for Super Bowl LXI.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Taylor Swift Addresses Rumors She Declined to Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show.
