Taylor Swift made her highly-publicized appearance on The Tonight Show last night, sitting down with host Jimmy Fallon to discuss her new album, The Life of a Showgirl.
“This was a surprise and a secret I was carrying around for a year,” she said of the album. “And it’s so exciting. It’s like when you’re like, ‘I got a really great Christmas present for my brother!’ But you have it for a year. And so it’s really exciting that they have opened the present and they are playing with the toys.”
She added, “This has just been, I think, the most well-matched era in terms of where my life was when I wrote it and then where I am now when it’s out in the world. I feel exactly the same way as I did when I wrote and recorded these songs.”
During the lengthy interview, the pop star reflected on her proposal from Travis Kelce and recently getting control of her masters.
“The fact that this happened still feels absolutely outlandish to me,” she said of regaining the masters to her first six albums. “Because I kind of had made peace with the fact that I was going to re-record my music, that I was going to try to replicate these songs as accurately and exactly as possible. And that was just what I was going to do because nobody had ever given me the opportunity to bid on my work before.”
During the interview, Fallon read a series of rumors about Swift and asked her to respond to each one. The first rumor: that Swift turned down the Super Bowl halftime show because the NFL wouldn’t allow her to own her performance footage.
“Here’s the thing: Jay-Z has always been very good to me,” Swift responded, nodding to the fact that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation produces the halftime show. “Our teams are really close. They sometimes will call and say, ‘How does she feel about [the Super Bowl]?’ And that’s not like an official offer or like a conference room conversation. Just ‘Our teams are really close, how does she feel about it in general?’”
She continued, “And we’re always able to tell him the truth. Which is that I am in love with a guy who does that sport on that actual field. That is violent chess. That is gladiators without swords. That is dangerous. The whole season I am locked in on what that man is doing on the field. Can you imagine that he’s out there every single week, like putting his life on the line, doing this very dangerous, very high pressure, high intensity sport, and I’m like, ‘I wonder what my choreo should be?’”
She added of not wanting to perform during the Super Bowl, “And this is nothing to do with Travis. He would love for me to do it. I’m just too locked in.”
Swift also used her appearance on The Tonight Show an opportunity to break down many of the songs on The Life of a Showgirl, including “Opalite” and the LP’s title track.
In September, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell extended an open invitation for Swift to perform during the halftime show. “We would always love to have Taylor play,” Goodell said during an appearance on the Today Show. “She is a special, special talent and obviously, she would be welcome at any time.”
Last week, it was revealed that Bad Bunny will helm the Super Bowl halftime show in 2026. Roc Nation, the NFL, and Apple Music officially announced that the Puerto Rican superstar will take center stage at the NFL championship during halftime of today’s Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers game. “What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” Bad Bunny said in a statement. “It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown … this is for my people, my culture, and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
