By Larisha Paul
Travis Kelce orchestrated his onstage debut during Taylor Swift‘s recent Eras tour performance in London himself. During a new episode of his podcast New Heights, the Kansas City Chiefs player revealed that he jokingly floated the idea of making an appearance during the 1989 portion of the show, which got the wheels turning in the singer’s mind as she asked him: “Would you seriously be up for doing something like that?”
The pair have been dating for nearly one full year and have both shown praise for the other for how they have navigated their hyper-public relationship. But the stage is a sacred space for Swift. Before Sunday’s show at Wembley Stadium, she had never been joined by any of her boyfriends on a tour stage — even the ones who actually did sing.
“I was just like, ‘What? I would love to do that, are you kidding me? I’ve seen the show enough — might as well put me to work here,’” Kelce recalled telling Swift. He initially imagined himself emerging on a bike in 1989, but they determined that would be a safety hazard for the band and dancers. Still, once Swift knew he was being serious, “she found the perfect part of the show for me to come in.” He noted that it was an “honor” to stand beside a “true showman” like her.
Kelce took on the role of one of the men in top hats carrying Swift during the intro to “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” He drew inspiration for his choreography from Dumb and Dumber, which features Jim Carey tap dancing. “I always wanted to pull out this move, but I never knew like when I should pull it out where it made sense,” Kelce explained. “That’s one of my favorite moves of all time!”
The vaudeville-styled segment has a few moving parts, so it took the audience a moment to realize that the six-foot-five athlete was there. “When everyone found out that it was me — because it took a second for everyone to figure it out — that moment was pretty jarring. I was just like, ‘Oh shit,’ ” he said. “And you don’t realize how big that damn stage is. It is easily as big as a football stadium … it’s way bigger than I could have ever imagined.”
Playing with the Chiefs, Kelce is no stranger to high-stakes performances of his own. But his appearance with Swift was more play than pressure. “It was an absolute blast,” he shared. “It was such a fun, playful part of the show, and it was like … the perfect time for me to go up there, just be a ham and have some fun — not only with [Swift] … but the crowd and really try and get everybody excited for the rest of the show. It was awesome.”
Recapping her three sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium on Instagram, Swift wrote: “I’m still cracking up/swooning over @killatrav’s Eras Tour debut.” More than anything, Kelce walked away with one proud takeaway: “I didn’t disappoint Taylor, so that’s all that really matters.”
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