Swifties are certain that Taylor Swift is planning on staging an epic live television stadium concert event next February in Glendale, Ariz. — at which some football will also be played.
Following Apple Music’s Friday (Sept. 23) announcement that the streaming service would be taking over Pepsi’s decade-long role as sponsor of the annual Super Bowl Halftime Show, fans were quick to pick up on a couple clues that seemed to hint that a certain blonde pop star would soon be crowned as the show’s next headlining performer.
It wasn’t Apple’s announcement itself, per se, that sent Swifties spiraling over the idea of the “All Too Well” singer taking the Super Bowl LVII stage in February 2023. Rather, it was the precise timing of the announcement: 12 a.m., to be exact.
Why is that important? Swift is currently gearing up to release her 10th studio album, titled — that’s right — Midnights.
And ever since the 11-time Grammy winner announced Midnights at this year’s VMAs, she’s made every one of her important followup announcements regarding the album — be it the cover reveal, special edition vinyls or single track titles — at exactly midnight ET on different days over the past few weeks.
Now, if you think that that’s too small a detail to convince an entire fanbase that their favorite artist is confirmed to be doing something so major, then you clearly aren’t too familiar with Swifties — or Swift. She’s developed quite the reputation over the years for leaving an elaborate trail of minuscule Easter eggs for fans to decipher, hinting at whatever projects she has in the works.
If that’s still not enough to go on, though, some fans also pointed out something else worth considering: Swift has had partnerships in the past not only with Apple Music, but also Coca-Cola. With Pepsi stepping down as the Halftime Show sponsor, the “Willow” singer may have been freed from legal terms that previously restricted her from performing in a concert sponsored by Coca-Cola’s rival.
“Finally not blocked by her coca cola duties…,” one fan speculated on Twitter. “Swifties start a campaign for taylor QUICKLY.”
“The perhaps unspoken but major piece of this story is that for the first time in her career, Taylor Swift now has a path to headlining the Super Bowl halftime show,” noted another user on a post confirming Pepsi had ended its Super Bowl partnership.
Billboard has reached out to Swift and the NFL’s reps.
See some of the best tweets predicting that Taylor Swift will be the Super Bowl Halftime Show performer in 2023 below:
