the eras tour

Taylor Swift Has Been At The Center Of Pop Culture Like Never Before This Week

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Getty Image/Merle Cooper

Pop stars are rarely at their cultural peak nearly two decades into their career. Take Justin Timberlake, for instance. He put out the quickly forgotten Man of the Woods 16 years after his solo debut (hence the NSYNC reunion). But Taylor Swift, who released her first album 17 years ago, has never been more popular. Especially this week. She’s been a one-woman monoculture, a “did you see what Taylor did/wore/ate?” conversation starter among co-workers who otherwise have nothing else to talk about.

Let’s recap her dominance over all aspects of pop culture, from music to television to film to celebrity gossip to sports.

-Swift, who frequently racks up more streams than anyone, became the only artist to have five albums with over six billion streams on Spotify. She’s also the only female artist in Spotify history to reach 100 million monthly listeners.

-Chart Masters has Swift passing Bad Bunny to become the second most-streamed artist of all-time on Spotify behind only Drake. (This is a fascinating list: would you have guessed Coldplay is in the top 20? And can you name the only artist in the top 25 without a single stream coming from a song where they’re the featured artist? Here’s a hint: she’s a Swiftie.)

–Midnights continued to be the best-selling album of 2023, even though it came out in 2022.

–Swift’s appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Chicago Bears game to root for Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was a huge ratings boost. It was the week’s most-watched telecast on any network with 24.3 million viewers; the game did particularly well among female viewers ages 12 to 49. Normally ratings drop when a game is a blowout (the Chiefs won 41-10), but not here.

-The figures from Roku are staggering, too: the household reach for the game grew from 2.8 million to 4.4 million, an increase of 59 percent, with the largest demo increase (a whopping 63 percent) coming from women, ages 18-49.

-If Swift cheers, they will come (and buy): Travis Kelce jersey sales jumped 400 percent following the game. If Taylor wants to share this article on social media, that would be nice. I could use the clicks.

-The Chiefs play the New York Jets on Sunday. Swift is expected to be in attendance. If you don’t already have tickets, you might be out of luck: according to numbers provided by StubHub, there was a 175 percent increase in sales in the three days after her appearance, while nearly 20 percent of all tickets sold for the matchup have been purchased since Sunday night.

-The governor of California called Swift and Kelce dating rumors a bigger deal than the GOP debate, which isn’t great for the country, but it makes for tremendous content.

-The Empire State Building, one of the most iconic landmarks in the greatest city in da world (it’s been waiting for you), changed its color because she ate stadium food one time.

-Speaking of, “ketchup and seemingly ranch” took over the internet. It started with a tweet from fan account @tswifterastour — “Taylor Swift was eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch!” — and became a phenomenon. Heinz is selling a limited-time “Seemingly Ranch” bottle, Primal Kitchen is doing the same (with bonus friendship bracelets), and brand after brand made their own “seemingly ranch”-inspired jokes.

-This is just a good tweet:

-This happened earlier this month, but it’s still worth mentioning: Swift was the star of the MTV VMAs 2023 (which had its best ratings in three years among the all-important 18-49 demo), even though she didn’t perform. She danced and drank and was the life of the party. MTV wisely kept a camera on her all night, and let the fan accounts take it from there.

-Right-wing media is freaking out over everything she does.

–Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a concert film about her Ticketmaster-breaking tour, will be released in 100 countries worldwide. AMC projects that more than 7,500 theaters will play the movie. No wonder it’s on pace for a $100 million opening weekend. That would immediately make it the highest-grossing concert film of all time, besting Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.

–The Eras Tour movie is getting a glitzy Los Angeles premiere on October 11th. It’s unknown at this time if Swift will be in attendance, but if she is, something tells me you’ll hear about the “massive fan clusterf*ck” on social media.

This would be a great year for most artists. Swift did it in a few days, all without releasing any new music. Although, oh yeah, the next Taylor’s Version, 1989 (TV), comes out next month. She’ll also resume the Eras Tour in November to boost some local economies.

Swift isn’t raising sneaker sales or possibly dating a football player or helping save movie theaters or lending her home to a friend while they’re going through a very public divorce for attention. There’s a reason she rarely gives interviews anymore: the attention finds her.

Taylor Swift Jokes About Famous Kanye West Interruption At Concert

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There are still so many pop cultural ties dating back to a viral moment at the 2009 MTV VMAs. When Kanye West took the stage to grab the mic from Taylor Swift and claim that Beyonce had “the best music video of all time,” he was widely criticized. Many fans credit his resulting vanish from the spotlight for the creation of his beloved 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The drama also emerged again a few years later when Kanye mentioned Taylor directly on The Life Of Pablo. The resulting beef led to Taylor’s much maligned Reputation era, though many people’s perspective on the beef has shifted in the wake of Kanye’s fall from grace.

Now, Taylor Swift is showing that she’s more than capable of laughing at the event in retrospect. During a recent show in Mexico she was interrupted from performing by the massive crowd of fans cheering her name. “People chanting your name, it’s really the only way to be interrupted, and I would know,” she told the crowd. A clip of the interaction quickly began making the rounds online as fans loved her ability to find humor in the situation. Check out the video below.

Read More: Flavor Flav Shows Up At Taylor Swift Concert And Hugs Her Parents

Taylor Swift Has A Great Response To Fan Chanting

Taylor Swift’s eras tour has been a massive success all year. Celebrities like Stephen A. Smith, Flavor Flav, and even Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce have found themselves in attendance. She also shared a memorable moment with Kobe Bryant’s daughter Bianka Bryant. Swift gifted her a special “22” hat and gave her a hug on-stage during a show in LA.

Earlier this year Taylor Swift surprised fans by tapping Ice Spice for a remix of her song “Karma.” The track instantly became a hit and is still nestled in the top 20 of the Hot 100. What do you think of Taylor’s joke about Kanye’s famous on-stage interruption? Let us know in the comment section below.

Read More: Stephen A. Smith Calls Taylor Swift “The Best Concert” Of His Life

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Stephen A. Smith Calls Taylor Swift “The Best Concert” Of His Life

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Taylor Swift is deep into her Eras Tour. She’s currently preparing for four shows in Mexico City before she closes out the year with shows this November in South America, namely Brazil and Argentina. It’s been a massively successful tour and earned Swift major acclaim. And of course, every now and then we see a handful of amusing headlines from her various tour stops. This is nothing out of the ordinary, especially with

Now a lot of people have professed themselves to be Swifties during this tour. Just about every city she has been to has put on some big show, such as renaming themselves or making Swift the temporary mayor. Meanwhile, she had earned the love of athletes like Mac Jones and Aaron Rodgers. But what about Stephen A. Smith? The often stoic ESPN broadcaster recently revealed that he dropped around $20,000 on ten tickets for his daughters and their friends. And Smith talked about the experience on a recent edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show.

Read More: Flavor Flav hugs Taylor Swift’s parents during surprise visit to Eras concert

Smith Gives Swift Some Major Props

“That’s the best concert I’ve ever been to in my life,” Smith said. “Excuse my language, but that shit was off the chain. Taylor Swift brought the damn house down. I was jamming to Taylor Swift. She was sensational. I’d pay to see her again. Seriously, I’m not joking. She was a superstar that night. That girl is special.” That’s very high praise from the often hard-to-please Smith.

After the concerts in Mexico and South America, Swift shuts up shop for the winter. She returns to the concert circuit in February 2024 with an Asian leg across Japan, Australia, and Singapore. She then heads to Europe between May and August. Finally, she concludes the whole tour with more shows in the US and Canada. The tour concludes with six shows in the Rogers Center in Toronto. Have you been to the Eras Tour? Do you agree with Smith about how good it was? Let us know in the comments.

Read More: Taylor Swift shares sweet moment with Kobe Bryant’s daughter

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Flavor Flav Leveled Up His Swiftie Game By Meeting Taylor Swift’s Parents At ‘The Eras Tour’ In Los Angeles

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There’s no shame in Flavor Flav’s Swiftie game. He used to be synonymous with wearing a massive clock chain, but now he’s just as likely — if not more likely — to rock stacks of friendship bracelets associated with Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. In March, the rap and pop culture icon fulfilled his wish of meeting Swift at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards. He also attended Swift’s Eras stops in June at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. He proclaimed online, “In my Red (Taylor’s Version) era and makin new friends.”

Swift is finishing out her US leg of The Eras Tour with six shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, finishing on Wednesday, August 9. It won’t be the finale it was expected to be because Swift announced a smaller 2024 North American leg last week, but it has still felt like a culmination of a monstrous 2023 run. The LA shows have welcomed the likes of Channing Tatum and the Bryant family in the audience. Of course, Flav was in on the celebration.

Flav posted a few Instagram videos from the evening, including one in which he hugged Andrea Swift and Scott Swift and another labeled his “Eras Outfit Fit Check” that incorporated Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and Midnights.

“FLAVOR FLAV::: I’m honored to meet Taylor Swift’s Mom and Dad plus Papa Swift gave me the guitar picks to hand out!!! COME FIND ME #TaylorSwift,” Flav wrote in the caption.

See Flav’s posts below.

Flavor Flav Shows Up At Taylor Swift Concert And Hugs Her Parents

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It seems like absolutely everyone wants to get their chance to see Taylor Swift on the “Eras Tour.” Just last week Swift herself shared a precious moment with Kobe Bryant’s daughter. During his lifetime Kobe was outspoken in his support of Taylor and she often returned the favor. Last month NFL superstar Travis Kelce turned up to one of Swift’s shows and took to social media to share how big of a fan he is. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end even tried to give Taylor his number, to no avail.

Someone else you might not expect to be a Swiftie is Flavor Flav. The rap legend doesn’t necessarily seem like the type to be into Taylor’s music but he’s been vocal about his love for her for a while. Back in June he showed up at a stop on the tour in Detroit and got plenty of attention for being there. On Monday, he was once again in the crowd for another one of Taylor’s shows, this time at So-Fi stadium. According to TMZ, he became somewhat of an ambassador for Swifties passing out guitar picks, bracelets, and buttons to the crowd. Video also popped up of Flav meeting Taylor’s parents Scott and Andrea which can be seen below.

Flavor Flav Is A Swiftie

Earlier this year Flav attended the iHeartRadio Music Awards. In further proof of his Taylor Swift fandom he donned a shirt with her lyrics on it. Flavor Flav recently celebrated a number of sobriety milestones. His three years sober from alcohol and cigarettes also happens to align with an incredible 15 years sober from drugs. Flav has often spoke in detail about his battles with various substances and journey to sobriety.

Earlier this year Flavor Flav made a notable donation to Harvard. During a visit to the school, he gifted them his iconic clock chain. He’s taken the opportunity to cash in on his iconic chain often before officially gifting it. What do you think of Flavor Flav showing up to another Taylor Swift concert? Let us know in the comment section below.

Read More: Flavor Flav Unveils The Story Behind His Famous Clock Chain

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Kim Kardashian Should Be “Dragged To Jail” If She Attends Taylor Swift’s Tour, Dave Portnoy Says

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During a recent interview with Page Six, Dave Portnoy weighed in on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. The BFFs podcast host also shared his thoughts on some beef between Kim Kardashian and her ex-husband Kanye West. According to Portnoy, Swift shouldn’t let Kim attend her tour, and should send her to jail if she even tries. “If I were Taylor, I would have security waiting at the entrance and I would throw handcuffs on her and drag her to jail,” he told the outlet. “It would surprise me if she didn’t [attend]. That would be a very Kim move.”

“A lot of people don’t actually know the story but they edited her phone call and called her a liar,” he explained. “The phone call came out a few years later and it backed up everything that Taylor Swift said, so that was kind of what started me on the Swiftie path.“ Portnoy continued, “When everyone was crucifying her I was like, ‘This is not right,’ so now I’ve just grown to be a huge fan.” Famously, Kanye crashed Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs in 2009. She won an award for Best Female Video, but Ye insisted the award should have gone to Beyonce. Things between them have been weird ever since.

Read More: Dave Portnoy Claims “Real Housewives” Star DM’d Him Before Instagram Comment

Taylor Swift’s Beef With Kim And Kanye

Kim Kardashian Should Be "Dragged To Jail" If She Attends Taylor Swift's Tour, Dave Portnoy Says
Kanye West takes the microphone from Taylor Swift and speaks onstage during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on September 13, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Kanye later issued an apology, retracted it, and then the duo randomly appeared to be on good terms again. Kanye even claimed in 2015 that they’d be coming out with a collab. In 2016, however, Kanye released “Famous,” which includes a questionable line about Swift. “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b*tch famous,” he says in the song. He claimed to have gotten approval from Swift for the lyric, but her team denies this.

After various digs at each other, Kim got involved in 2016. She claimed that they had a recording of Swift agreeing to the line, which she later released. Swift released the unedited recording in 2020, revealing that she never agreed to Ye referring to her as “that b*tch.” Kim responded, calling Swift’s release of the recording “self-serving.”

Read More: Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian & NAV Share A Selfie Together

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Taylor Swift Shares Moment With Kobe Bryant’s Daughter During Eras Tour

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Taylor Swift shared a special moment with Bianka Bryant, the daughter of late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, during a concert at SoFi Stadium. During the performance, Swift gifted Bryant her “22” hat and hugged the six-year-old. The moment came the first of six shows that Swift is performing at the Inglewood stadium. They are the last six shows Swift will perform on the Eras Tour in the United States until October 2024. After her run in Inglewood, Swift will perform in Mexico before closing out the year with shows in Argentina and Brazil in November. The Eras Tour will then resume in February in Tokyo.

However, the gesture goes beyond Swift interacting with the daughter of a famous basketball player. There was a serious level of mutual respect between Swift and Bryant. When Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash in 2020, Swift shared her sorrow on social media. “My heart is in pieces hearing the news of this unimaginable tragedy. I can’t fathom what the families are going through. Kobe meant so much to me and to us all. Sending my prayers, love, and endless condolences to Vanessa and the family and anyone who lost someone on that flight.”

Read More: Taylor Swift can’t get through Kanye-inspired song without laughing

Swift And Bryant Shared A Special Bond

For Bryant’s part, he shared his respect for Swift during a 2019 interview. “I think it’s important to listen to people who do great things. […] Taylor’s been at the top of the game for a very, very long time. Why and how? How did she write? How did she get into that mental space to be able to create things over and over and over? I mean, it’s a lot of pressure for her to follow up a No. 1 album with a better album. I don’t care if you like her music or you don’t like her music: Look at what she’s doing. It’s frightening stuff, it’s unbelievable to be able to pull that off over and over and over and over. So I’ll look at things like that to try to learn from them as much as I can. […] She’s a sweet kid. I mean, she was a sweetheart to my girls before she even blew up and became Taylor Swift, so that’s why I’ll always… if she needs anything from me, I’m always there. But you can’t have that level of consistent success and not be a killer. It’s impossible.”

Swift’s success has been elevated even further by the Eras Tour. At the time of writing, Swift has one song in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and three albums in the top ten of the Billboard Album 200.

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Flavor Flav Rocks Out At Taylor Swift’s “Eras” Tour

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Flavor Flav recently took to social media to share some clips of him attending Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour stop in Detroit. He sings along and dances to her performance, even quoting her lyrics in his caption. The rapper also shared a clip of him posing with various young fans at the event.

It’s no secret that Flavor Flav is a Swiftie. In March, he arrived to the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards wearing her merch. He then showed off his shirt, which featured lyrics from her song “Willow.” “Always love Taylor Swift’s music,” he said, “I’m here to support her! I’m here to support my girl.” He went on to sing a play on Swift’s “Bad Blood.” “‘Good blood!’ I ain’t got no bad blood today! I got the good blood, you know what I’m saying! Word up! But yeah, I wanna meet her, too. One day,” he claims. Later, his dreams came true and he posed for selfies with the pop star at the event.

Read More: Nick Cannon Considers Dating Taylor Swift On “The Howard Stern Show”

Flavor Flav Flexes Taylor Swift Merch

Though the Public Enemy rapper’s love for Swift may come as somewhat of a shock, she’s recently done a bit of a crossover herself. She collaborated with Bronx rapper Ice Spice to drop “Karma (Remix)” in May, which turned out to be a massive success. Ice Spice made an appearance at one of her tour stops, and it even allowed the young rapper to break a streaming record. Despite the song’s success, many Ice Spice fans felt as though there were ulterior motives behind the collab.

Flavor Flav isn’t the only unexpected Swiftie. Last month, rapper Moneybagg Yo pushed back the release date of his album Hard To Love in honor of Swift. “I just got the news my little baby Taylor dropping tonight. I ain’t gonna lie, y’all know how I feel about Taylor, man,” the rapper shared. He went on to say, “So I think I’m gonna push Hard To Love back just a few days, y’all be patient with me. Let Taylor have this sh*t.”

Read More: Taylor Swift Gets Some Post-Break-Up Advice From Ne-Yo

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Ice Spice Makes Surprise Appearance At Eras Tour Stop

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Taylor Swift had fans riled up this week amidst the Eastern Seaboard leg of her Eras Tour. The star announced a surprise collaboration with red-hot rapper Ice Spice in the form of a remix of Swift’s top-10 hit “Karma”.

However, despite the star power, the track has met with a fairly cool reception outside of the pair’s respective die-hard fandoms. Many social media users have called the “collaboration rushed“, pointing to a fairly muted verse from the usually savage Spice. Furthermore, there are myriad theories that the track is nothing more than a PR stunt. Swift is currently rumored to be dating The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who was involved in a podcast episode earlier this year where a plethora of racist comments were made about Spice. Despite this, it hasn’t stopped the pair from putting on a show.

Ice Spice Rocks All Black For Eras

As mentioned, Taylor Swift is currently deep into her 52-stop Eras Tour. The current leg sees her in New Jersey, performing at MetLife Stadium. Furthermore, she’s received a warm welcome from the state – having the state sandwich named after her and getting Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers to declare that he is a die-hard Swiftie. However, fans at the May 26 show got an extra surprise when Swift brought Ice Spice out on stage.

Dressed in a stylized wraparound top and matching black skirt with a black shift, Spice wowed alongside Swift, who was dressed in a midnight blue mini dress. The pair performed their “Karma” remix, to the delight of the packed crowd. It’s the perfect spot for Spice to appear. Spice hails from the Bronx, which lies just 11 miles from MetLife Stadium. However, it’s unclear if the Spice will appear at the other two New Jersey shows but fans certainly wouldn’t complain if she did. After MetLife, Swift is headed to Soldier Field in Chicago. Furthermore, the Eras Tour is set to continue until August. Swift will conclude the tour with five shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Furthermore. what did you think of the “Karma” remix? Are you hitting up The Eras Tour? Let us know in the comments.

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Aaron Rodgers Confirms He’s A Swiftie

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Taylor Swift is currently in the midst of her Eras Tour. The tour began in March and runs through August, hitting 20 cities. Swift has set multiple records at a variety of the stadiums she is playing at. However, Last week she was in New England for a trio of shows at Gilette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. She also received a governor’s citation from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.

For their part, the Patriots made sure that Swift felt welcome during her time in their stadium. Leading the way amongst the Patriot Swifties was quarterback Mac Jones. The three-year starter attended one of Swift’s tour stops alongside her girlfriend Sophie Scott. Furthermore, the Patriots put together a video highlighting some of their other players’ favorite T-Swift songs.

Aaron Rodgers Goes Hard On Swift

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CONFIRMED: Aaron Rodgers is a Swiftie TaylorSwift

♬ original sound – New York Jets

After Foxborough, Swift headed to New Jersey with a trio of concerts at MetLife Stadium. After the Patriots showed out, it was clear that Rodgers, the new signal-caller for the hometown Jets, would be asked about the pop star’s concerts. Turns out Rodgers is a major Swiftie. “I’m a fan, big fan,” he began when asked before going into a deep dive into Swift’s discography. “It’s tough. It’s really tough. I think my favorite album is Folklore and my favorite song off that album is probably “August.” And my favorite music video is ‘I Bet You Think About Me.’”

Furthermore, like the Patriots, the Jets put together a video showcasing their roster’s knowledge of Swift. But back to Rodgers, he also confirmed that would he would be in attendance at least one of Swift’s shows. Elsewhere, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy named the state sandwich after Swift. Murphy announced the “Taylor Swift ham, egg, and cheese” sandwich ahead of her stop at MetLife. After East Rutherford, Swift hits another 10 NFL stadiums so expect to learn the Swiftiness of Justin Fields, Joe Burrow, Pat Mahomes, Brock Purdy, and Russell Wilson to name a few. Follow all the latest sports news here at HotNewHipHop.

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