Taylor Swift chugged a drink, chewed her nails, buried her face in her hands, and hugged her companions during a nerve-racking Super Bowl LVIII.
In the end, it was embraces and kisses for her Kansas City Chiefs tight end boyfriend Travis Kelce on a field covered in glitter and ticker tape as the globe absorbed a historic, dynasty-creating triumph over the San Francisco 49ers.
Swift was vital to the Super Bowl story all week, but by the end of the 25-22 overtime triumph, she was simply another fatigued, elated fan like so many others, content to share rockstar billing with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes – for the day, at least.
Swift had been performing in Tokyo on Saturday, and when she took her seat at the Allegiant Stadium, it ended a week-long will-she-won’t-she saga that had dominated the lead-up to the football event of the year.
Her arrival some two hours before kick-off had fired an almost palpable frisson around the stadium and social media rapidly filled with pictures and video footage of the singer.
The cameras followed her as she walked through the bowels of the stadium with friends Blake Lively and Ice Spice dressed in a black top, black jeans and with a red Chiefs jacket slung over her shoulder.
A punishing travel schedule in which she had flown from Japan to the U.S. for a brief stop before she heads on the long flight down to Australia for seven more sell-out concerts meant her presence had been far from a foregone conclusion.
When giant television screens showed Swift for the first time, a ripple of cheers went around the still-mostly empty stadium.
But while Chiefs fans, neutrals, TV viewers and legions of “Swifties” the world over were delighted by her presence, the overwhelmingly pro-49ers crowd in the stadium was perhaps understandably less enthusiastic.
In the first half when cameras showed Swift up on the big screens, it prompted 49ers jeers. She handled that by quickly grabbing her drink and chugging it all down before slamming the glass on the surface in front of her.
It was the first of what seemed to be several unguarded moments and as the on-field tension ratcheted up and the game headed into overtime — Swift nibbled a nail, hugged her friends and hid her face.
