Taylor Swift Updates “Karma” Lyrics in Nod to Travis Kelce

It looks like Travis Kelce was up past his bedtime last night. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end was drubbed by analysts last week for using part of his team’s week off to visit presumptive girlfriend Taylor Swift in Argentina, where the billionaire singer recently kicked off the latest leg in her seemingly never-ending Eras Tour. Though sports pundits hoped Kelce would get to bed by 8 p.m. during his bye week, the player was awake far past that Saturday night, watching Swift perform at Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires—and receiving an extremely public embrace at its conclusion.

This was Swift’s second show after a months-long break for her tour—during which she attended several Chiefs’ games, to the benefit of Kelce’s statistics. Now back on the road for a month-long stint in Latin America, Swift is less likely to attend any of Kelce’s November games. Perhaps that’s why Kelce jetted to Buenos Aires on Friday, where the alleged couple dined with her dad, Scott Swift, at (of all places) a steakhouse inside the Four Seasons hotel.

That dinner date was possible because bad weather shut Swift’s Friday show down, but she was back on the clock Saturday. And this time, it was Kelce’s job to watch from the stands.

Or, in this case, a “VIP tent,” as USA Today puts it, where social media users captured him alternately playing to the crowd, holding up a sign, and bobbing to the beat while consuming snacks from an indeterminate bag, shoulder-to-shoulder with Swift’s pop. 

Swift made a point of acknowledging Kelce from the stage, multiple outlets report. While singing “Willow,” she “sang to Kelce directly and mouthed the lyrics: ‘That’s my man,’” writes the Daily Mail. Then, when singing her song “Karma,” she changed a line from the song to allude to Kelce, trading “karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me” for “karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.” In response, Swift’s father gave Kelce a bro-ish nudge, while Kelce clutched his own face, Home Alone style. (That interaction was captured by fans, as well.)

While the lyric swap elicited screams from the crowd, the biggest rom-com reaction was saved for the end of the show. By then, Kelce had made his way to the side of the stage, and as Swift concluded her last song, she dashed past a set of porta-potties to embrace Kelce, before they exchanged a long kiss as the audience roared in seeming approval.

It’s unclear when Swift and Kelce will be able to give a PDA performance like Saturday’s again. Kelce is back at work as of Monday, so he’ll likely jet back to KC soon to be back at practice tomorrow. Swift’s tour schedule is packed until Nov. 26, after which she’ll be on a break until Feb. 7. 

If all goes well for the Chiefs this season, that could make things tricky, but not impossible—though she’d be free to cheer Kelce on (and reportedly improve his performance) through December and January, the Super Bowl is set for Feb. 11, 2024. Swift has a show in Japan on Feb. 10, so bookies worldwide will be watching for a late-night flight from Tokyo to Las Vegas, where the game (headlined by Usher) will kick off just a few hours after Swift leaves the Tokyo Dome stage.