The face-off between the Kansas City Chiefs and the 49’ers at last night’s thrilling Super Bowl game that ended with the Chiefs’ win in overtime, was not the only dramatic rivalry happening.
With both Taylor Swift and Beyoncé attending, one as a performer and the other as fan and girlfriend of the Chiefs’ tight end, Travis Kelce, the air was electric.
Both are superstars in the world of music, both have their own world of fanatical followers—Swifties and Beys—both have had a phenomenal year of success. Two megastars in the same arena? One had to upstage the other.
Taylor Swift’s romance with the Kansas Chief’s star player has gone viral, with fans breathlessly following every development.
But it was Beyoncé who was on the stage, holding the frenzied fans in thrall with her performance. First, she teased them with hints, and then she dropped the bombshell they had been waiting for. The “Break My Soul” singer announced that “act ii” of her 2022 album will drop on March 29. The Instagram clip that showed Bey driving through the desert gave fans a glimpse into her new sound, and to everyone’s surprise, it’s country! One song, with lyrics like, “This ain’t Texas, ain’t no hold’em, so lay your cards down, down, down, down” seemed to come right off the country playlist.
It’s not surprising that the two megastars have a rivalry–theirs dates back to 2009. Many fans will recall how Kanye West memorably cut off Swift’s Best Female Video victory speech at the MTV Video Music Awards that year, protesting that Beyoncé had “one of the best videos of all time” and claiming that Taylor’s win was an example of racism. Both Swift and Beyoncé were left embarrassed and unhappy, but the race was on for who was the best and most loved.
Taylor Swift has won countless awards, broken many records, and sold out huge stadiums. She is also very active on social media and lately has even acquired political clout. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that he admired Swift’s talent and influence, and that he hoped she would support his agenda of “making America great again”. He also claimed, falsely, that he had a good relationship with Swift, even though Taylor has publicly criticized him in the past.
That’s a record of success that’s hard to beat, but Beyoncé seems to have equaled it.
She too had a fantastic year in 2023. In February, despite again losing in the major Grammy Award categories, she became the biggest winner in Grammy history with her 32nd victory. That is 20 more than 12-time-winner Taylor Swift has thus far accumulated. Beyoncé’s historic win came for her album “Renaissance,” which was followed by her 56-city “Renaissance World Tour.” It grossed $579.8 million, a record for any Black artist. The tour drew over 2.7 million fans and generated — the New York Times reported — $4.5 billion for the U.S. economy.
In an Instagram post shown as the film was released, Beyoncé said of the release of “act ii”, “I practically slept in the edit, color, and mix sessions.”
Hinting at how crucial it was that this bombshell announcement should be ready in time for her Super Bowl performance, she added, “The race against time continued in order to get this film out so quickly. But it was so worth all the grind. I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from my Hive.”
