Taylor Swift reportedly turned down the NFL’s invitation to headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show in Santa Clara after the league refused to meet her terms, leaving the organizers to chase after Bad Bunny instead.
The NFL had hoped to secure one of the world’s most prominent recording artists to lead its flagship entertainment event in February 2026 at Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers.
According to Rob Shuter, a pop culture journalist, league officials formally approached Swift, but negotiations broke down when her representatives insisted on a deal that reflected her commercial value.
“Taylor Swift doesn’t need exposure,” the source told Shuter, via Sport Business Journal. “She wanted a deal that reflected her value.”
Swift, a 14-time Grammy Award winner, has been closely tied to the league’s recent surge in mainstream attention as her relationship with Travis Kelce drew significant crossover interest from her global fan base.
With Kelce‘s on-field success and their off-field engagement announcement, the partnership between pop culture and football seemed tailor-made for the NFL’s biggest stage but she isn’t interested at the moment.
Despite the momentum, the two sides could not reach agreement, which would have come just days before she launches her 14th studio album titled The Life of a Showgirl on October 3.
Just hours after the story circulated, the league moved quickly to unveil its official selection as the Puerto Rican rapper and reggaeton star, Bad Bunny, will headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show one year on from Kendrick Lamar’s impressive effort.
Will Taylor Swift be at the Super Bowl? Kansas City Chiefs odds to make it
While Swift won’t be performing on stage, speculation continues over whether she will attend the game in support of Kelce as the singer was in the stands at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunda.
She watched the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Baltimore Ravens 37-20 after flying in from California, shortly after she appeared at Selena Gomez’s wedding as a flower girl, underscoring her commitments to NFL events.
During the Ravens matchup, Kelce recorded five catches for 48 yards, contributing to the Chiefs‘ second win of the season and Patrick Mahomes, who recently partnered with Kelce in opening a steakhouse venture, acknowledged the team’s uneven start/
“We’ve been working extremely hard and we want to have success,” Mahomes said. “And we’ve just been making little mistakes here and there and that causes frustration.
“But at the same time, we’ve been learning from them.
“We’ll learn from this game.”
Kansas City’s early struggles had impacted their Super Bowl outlook. After opening the season with +750 odds to win a fifth Lombardi Trophy, consecutive defeats pushed that number to +1400.
With back-to-back victories, however, their odds have rebounded to +750, reflecting renewed confidence from bettors.
For Swift, her absence from the halftime show doesn’t diminish her connection to the NFL. Whether she appears in the stands in February may depend less on contracts and more on whether her fiancee’s talent on the field.
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