Taylor Swift says her fiancé, Travis Kelce, is a key reason she’s not interested in performing at the Super Bowl.
Swift was promoting her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on “The Tonight Show.” She was playing a game where she debunked rumors about herself with host Jimmy Fallon. One such rumor was that Swift had turned down an offer to perform at the halftime show because the National Football League wouldn’t let her own the rights to her performance footage.
“Jay-Z has always been very good to me. Our teams are really close. They sometimes will call and say, ‘How does she feel about, you know?’ And that’s not like an official offer or like a conference room conversation,” Swift told Fallon in an interview that aired on Monday night.
Jay-Z’s entertainment label, Roc Nation, has produced the Super Bowl halftime shows since 2019, when it teamed up with the NFL.
Last month, Roc Nation, the NFL, and Apple Music announced that Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny would headline the next Super Bowl halftime show in February 2026.
Swift said on “The Tonight Show” that the main reason she didn’t want to perform was because she wanted to concentrate fully on supporting Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kelce has seen three Super Bowl wins in 2020, 2023, and 2024 with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“We are always able to tell him the truth, which is that I am in love with a guy who does that sport on that actual field. That is violent chess, that is gladiators without swords, that is dangerous,” Swift said of her team’s exchanges with Jay-Z.
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Swift announced her engagement to Kelce in August. The couple has been dating since 2023.
“The whole season, I am locked in on what that man is doing on the field. Can you imagine if he’s like out there, every single week, 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?'” Swift told Fallon.
“This has nothing to do with Travis. He would love for me to do it, I’m just too locked in,” she added.
Representatives for Swift and Roc Nation did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Swift has never headlined a Super Bowl halftime show, though multiple media outlets reported that she has turned down offers to do so several times.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show last month that Swift could “maybe” perform at next year’s Super Bowl.
“We would always love to have Taylor play. She is a special, special talent, and obviously she would be welcome at any time,” he said.
