After launching her The Life of a Showgirl promo run with a bunch of English interview appearances, Taylor Swift was back on U.S. late night TV on Monday night (Oct. 6) for an extended sit-down with The Tonight Show‘s Jimmy Fallon that included the singer weighing in on whether she was approached to play next year’s Super Bowl halftime show, the real meaning behind one of the lustiest songs on her new album and the reason bestie Ed Sheeran found out about her engagement on the internet like the rest of us.
After Fallon came out to do his traditional monologue, the Roots interrupted him and said, “Just stop wasting time and bring her out already.” So, after what he called the loudest ovation he’s ever heard from the studio audience, Fallon greeted the singer — who came out sparkling in a shimmery silver mini dress and matching heels — saying he needed to get a look at that gigantic “blinding” engagement ring on her finger.
They rehashed the by-now-canon details of her elaborate engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (“he’s just my favorite person I’ve ever met”), then Swift and Fallon played a modified version of two truths and a lie that opened with the rumor that she turned down a chance to play the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show because the NFL wouldn’t allow her to own the performance footage.
“Here’s the thing: Jay-Z has always been very good to me,” Swift said of the rap mogul who’s Roc Nation produces the halftime show after smiling and holding her tongue until the rest of the rumors were read. “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?’”
Swift explained that her team has always been very frank with Roc Nation about her ties to the NFL via Kelce. “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,” she said. “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?’”
As for allegedly turning down the most-viewed performance slot of the year, Swift said that her decision to pass “is nothing to do with Travis. He would love for me to do it. I’m just too locked in.” It’s not like the NFL wasn’t interested. In September, commissioner Roger Goodell told the Today Show, “we would always love to have Taylor play... she would be welcome at any time.” The slot ended up going to Bad Bunny, who will take the stage at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Feb. 8.
Here’s the thing about her bestie Sheeran.
He famously doesn’t have a cell phone, so Swift, 35, confirmed that he found out about her engagement by reading about it online. “That’s so true,” she confirmed as Fallon fell on the floor in shock.” He doesn’t have a phone!,” Swift jumped in to clarify that it was nothing against Sheeran, who she emphasized is an important person in her life. “It’s very eccentric, love it,” she said, pantomiming going through her contacts to alert people to the good news.
“I’m going through my texts and being like, ‘who have I texted within the last month of my life?’ And he just wasn’t there,” Swift explained. “You have to email him and then set up a FaceTime and he has to find an iPad and they have to give it to him like he’s like a child… this is one of my absolute favorite people on the planet and the news came out and I was like, ‘Oh my God, we forgot to call Ed!’ He’s like family, I love him, but he doesn’t have a phone!”
With Showgirl easily on track to be the best-selling album of the year with three million copies sold in the first four days, Swift described the album as a “surprise and a secret” she’s been carrying around with her for a year, comparing it to a really great Christmas present you got for your brother that you need to sit on for 12 months. “It’s really exciting that they have opened the present and they are playing with the toy,” she said, calling the album the “most well-matched” era in terms of where she’s at personally and the vibe of the album synching up.
Though The Diplomat star Keri Russell was also on the show Monday night — and was welcomed by Fallon with a reading of a vintage 2008 MySpace bio from Swift in which she called Russell the “coolest celebrity ever” — the night truly belonged to Taylor. From the cold open in which Fallon dressed up in a sparkly marching band costume and danced to “The Fate of Ophelia” with a group of glittery showgirls, to house band the Roots changing up their typical shout-out of the episode number to proclaim “She’s here!,” the show made Swift feel right at home.
Later in the episode, Swift and Fallon sat down to dissect a few of the songs on the album, including, of course, the randy homage to her fiancé Travis Kelce’s “Wood,” with both Swift and the studio audience enthusiastically singing along. “You know the words already?” both Fallon and Swift marveled at the studio audience chanting along to “Opalite,” another homage to Kelce.
She said her idea for “Wood” started out in a “very innocent place” as a string of nods to different superstitions. “I don’t know what happened man,” she said with a smirk about the tune that many have interpreted as her homage to Kelce’s equipment. “I got in there, we started vibing, I don’t know how we got here, but I love the song so much.”
In extended versions of the interview posted on YouTube, Swift also addressed being “the most annoying” person when it comes to talking about her obsession with baking bread, as well as the joy of getting her masters back after years of getting sad watching her old music videos at a time when she didn’t own her music. She also swatted down Fallon’s false rumor that she joked that good pal Selena Gomez “beat me to the altar” when she attended the singer’s wedding to Benny Blanco on Sept. 27.
“I got to see her be the most elegant gorgeous, not only bride, but vision that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Swift said. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful than her on her wedding day… I did make a speech but I actually made a point not to mention anything about my engagement.” She then impersonated that woman who makes it all about her and shows off her ring during her speech. “I was like ‘don’t mention it,’ maybe turn it around.”
Check out clips of Swift on The Tonight Show below, including her playing a game of “lasts” and breaking down her self-directed video for first single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” including explaining the very personal story behind the “Kitty Finlay” shout-out in the clip.