Not gonna lie, Taylor Swift’s interview with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” broadcast Monday evening was on the lite side — at one point they talked at length about bread. However, the expanded interview on the show’s website contains some actual news.
During one of Fallon’s trademark games that he plays with guests, Swift was asked to say which of five rumors he’d found online were true, and the first was that she’d declined an offer to be the Super Bowl‘s Halftime performer because she would not own rights to the performance footage. On the broadcast, she makes a face but is not seen saying anything about the issue.
However, in the expanded version of the interview posted on the show’s social media and website, she speaks at length about why she’s not performing at the big game, as had been rumored before Bad Bunny was officially announced as the 2026 halftime entertainer.
After denying with a flat “No” that footage rights were the reason she declined to perform, Swift explained that her management had only received unspecific questions about it from Roc Nation, which programs the Super Bowl’s entertainment, rather than a formal offer. She added that regardless of whether or not an offer was official, she’d be too concerned about her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, to even think about performing in the middle of the Super Bowl (which does not necessarily mean she presumes that he or the Chiefs will be in the game: Halftime performers are announced too early in the season to know which two teams will be playing).
Speaking of Roc Nation, which is led by Jay-Z, she said, “Jay-Z has always been very good to me — our [business] teams are really close. They sometimes will call and say, ‘How does she feel about… [she murmurs something vague meaning ‘whatever’]. And that’s not, like, an official offer or a conference-room conversation, more ‘How does she feel about it in general?’
“And we’re 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,” she explained. “Like, [professional football] is violent chess. That is gladiators without swords. That is dangerous. I am, [for] the whole season, locked in on what that man is doing on the field. Can you imagine if he’s 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 [she puts on a ditzy voice and face], ‘I wonder what my choreo should be? I think we should do two verses of “Shake It Up,” into “Blank Space,” into “Cruel Summer,” that would be great!’”
She laughed before adding, “This has nothing to do with Travis — he would love for me to do it. But I’m just too locked in.”
So — Swifties will have to wait for a Super Bowl Halftime performance… until further notice.
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