Taylor Swift’s Super Bowl nightmare is latest in new era of PR disasters… from Grammys snubs to Blake Lively backlash

IT began with a kiss that broke the internet and finished with a record-breaking tour so successful it brought $1billion to the UK economy alone. But just two months after the so-called ‘Year of Taylor Swift’ - otherwise known as 2024 - came to a dazzling end, things are already looking remarkably different for the global music icon. Over the weekend, loud boos filled the air at the 73,208-seater Caesars Superdome stadium on America’s biggest night of sporting entertainment - the Super Bowl.

However, the complaints weren’t protesting Kansas City Chiefs’ crushing defeat against the Philadelphia Eagles, they were due to Swift appearing on the ground’s jumbotron. When the popstar flashed up on the screen, she gave an awkward side-eyed glance at pal Ice Spice as the jeers rang out and appeared to say, “Aww, what, what’s going on?”. Even US President Donald Trump, a long-term critic of the singer, chimed in, sharing footage of the booing on his social media platform Truth Social alongside a savage put-down.

“The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!” he said. With a legion of Swifties to back her up - including retired tennis ace Serena Williams, who proclaimed: “I love you… don’t listen to those booo[s]!!” - Taylor will no doubt brush off the awkward backlash. But in the wake of an uncharacteristically bleak night at the Grammys and an apparent fallout with bestie Blake Lively, the 35-year-old - who is said to be worth £1.3billion - appears to be quietly losing the Midas touch which turned last year’s Eras tour into pure pop gold.

Just a year ago, millions fawned over Taylor as she passionately snogged Kansas City Chiefs' star player Travis Kelce - who she began dating in September 2023 - following a nail-biting Superbowl win over the San Francisco 49ers. But flash forward to today and it’s a very different story, with football fans increasingly voicing their frustrations about the couple steering the spotlight away from the game itself.

Taylor has become a regular fixture at the team’s matches - including once when she took a 12-hour and 5,000-mile flight from Tokyo to Las Vegas to catch one of Travis' games in February last year. But things came to a head in November when Kelly Stafford, the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Ram, fumed over Swift and Kelce’s romance eclipsing other NFL moments. “I watched my husband work his ass off and all of these guys who work for the league work their asses off and all of a sudden they’re like the sideshow,” she said.

The mum-of-four moaned that Taylor was “outshining the games”, claiming their romance was making the sport “the sideshow”, before backpedalling after a backlash from Swifties. Swift’s fans are notorious keyboard warriors, unafraid to leap to the defence of their leader and flood those who dare to criticise her with thousands of messages. And Taylor’s fans were particularly riled up by Kelly's comments that the appearances were “a good business decision for the NFL”.

It fed into the narrative that the singer and Travis are engaged in a ‘showmance’, which was further fueled by a leaked fake ‘contract’ outlining how the couple would break up in September last year. The document, which was branded “entirely false and fabricated”, said both parties would make a "gracious, respectful and stress mutual respect" announcement, followed by a three-day cooling off period.

While the 'contract' was bogus, the rumours punctured a hole in the ‘perfect’ all-American couple’s love story - despite some fans claiming it’s befitting of a Hollywood blockbuster. Taylor’s taken a hit musically recently, too. Just over a week ago, she left the Grammys empty-handed, despite being nominated for six awards. In previous years, she has cleaned up at the ceremony and holds 14 of the gongs to date.

It follows a tricky start to 2025, which has seen claims emerge that Taylor has distanced herself from close pal Blake, 37. Insiders say she’s ‘frozen out’ the Gossip Girl star amid her messy legal battle with director and co-star Justin Baldoni, 41, over the film It Ends With Us. Despite being “firm friends” for 10 years, the singer has remained silent in the ever-escalating defamation case against her pal, while Blake's husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, and others have become firmly embroiled in the furore.

Insiders told a newspaper that Taylor has “stayed clear of the drama” because she didn’t want to face “the wave of bad press” that surrounds it and “doesn’t want to get tangled in this more than she already has”. She’s allegedly taking “a step back from Blake” and supposedly “doesn’t like the fact that she’s been dragged into it” as part of texts from the actress shared by Baldoni’s legal team.