Taylor Swift Shares Travis Kelce Kiss
For a fortnight, the billionaire singer gives fans a peek into her daily life and time with her NFL boyfriend.
Taylor Swift kisses Travis Kelce after the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 11, 2024.PATRICK T. FALLON/GETTY IMAGES
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are no strangers to public displays of affection. By now, we’ve seen them embrace after shows on Swift’s Eras Tour and lock lips after Kelce’s football triumphs. But a new bit of footage, released by Swift herself, is a notable shift for the couple. For months, we’ve played the role of voyeurs, peering in at a couple’s private moments (albeit in public). But now we’re all just consumers of a couple’s private moment that’s been handed to us to view.
Of course, this isn’t happenstance. As you of course know, Swift’s (unexpectedly double) album, The Tortured Poets Department, was released Friday, with all the three-ring hype one might expect. Then Friday night, Swift dropped a YouTube short (that’s what the Alphabet-owned video platform calls its horizontally shot and time-constrained TikTok and/or Instagram Reels competitor) of seemingly candid and personal scenes from Swift’s life, including a kiss from the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.
Or is the moment of affection more of a distraction? Fans are doubtlessly Zaprudering the 15-second video, which also shows clips of Swift crafting, hoisting a cocktail, and working out. The moment with Kelce, which appears in the video’s first second, shows Swift at a stove, spoon in hand. The camera is apparently set just behind whatever Swift is cooking, so one hopes it’s not anything prone to sloshes or spatters. Suddenly, Kelce appears from behind, leaning in from Swift’s right to kiss her on the cheek. Swift, laughing, leans away as the words “for a Fortnight” appear on the screen.
That’s because the video isn’t just a cozy and humanizing set of images. Instead, it’s intended to kick off a social media challenge (we’re still doing those?) inspired by TTPD song “Fortnight,” which Swift had just announced as the first single from the album. That song has its own, far more slickly produced video, which was also released last night and stars actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles—yes, the stars of Dead Poets Society, you get the connection, I’m sure—as well as Swift and fellow “Fortnight” singer Post Malone.
“Share your ‘fortnight’ recap with #ForAFortnightChallenge 🤍 brought to you by YouTube Shorts,” reads the caption to the video, but further instructions were not provided. YouTube remedied that on Saturday, issuing a press release that explained that “A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (or nights), and a lot can happen in that amount of time! This challenge is all about sharing your fortnight recap – 14 snippets of your life – in one single Short soundtracked to ‘Fortnight (feat Post Malone).’”
“The 14 clips from 14 moments can reflect anything users want to share,” the platform writes, “it’s all about having fun and connecting with one another!” That’s what Swift did, and we’re being led to believe that her short story was all about “giving viewers 14 little glimpses of her everyday life.” Which is less about what one actually does as an incredibly famous and powerful person, it seems, but is instead about cats, boys, and crafts.
