Serena Williams touched off a fierce online debate about Taylor Swift’s cultural power when she defended the pop star, who endured what one unfriendly tabloid called her “horror night” Sunday by being booed at the New Orleans Superdome while watching her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs get trounced by the Philadelphia Eagles 40-22.
Indeed, it got pretty bad for Swift when President Donald Trump, while present at the game, gloated on social media about her getting booed. The boos possibly came from a combination of his MAGA supporters, Eagles’ fans, people who generally resent Swift’s global stardom and those who are angry about her alleged role in Blake Lively’s legal drama with Justin Baldoni. The boos erupted early in the game when the stadium’s jumbotron panned to Swift. The arguably most famous woman on Earth turned to the camera, looking confused as X users thought they saw her asking, “What’s going on?”
But Williams tried to have Swift’s back, writing on X: “I love you @taylorswift13 dont listen to those booo(s)!!”
It appears that the tennis legend penned this post before she herself made a splashy, surprise Super Bowl appearance. Kendrick Lamar brought Williams, a fellow Compton native, out on the field during his Halftime Show, specifically to dance to the rapper’s popular but controversial diss track, “Not Like Us.” The song takes aim at his enemy Drake, whom Williams briefly dated in 2011.
Williams’ post about Swift was liked by more than 245,000 users as of Monday morning, but also spurred a wide range of more than 4,000 comments. “We love to see queens supporting queens,” one user wrote, while another said: “Awesome! Way to elevate it!! Nicely done Ms. Williams.”
But many comments were negative about Swift, which could add to the singer’s “horror night.” Some said Swift was getting booed for supporting the Chiefs over the Eagles, even though she was born near Philadelphia. Many more said it revealed people’s anger at her for opposing Trump’s candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. One person asserted that “it’s probably best to STFU about your politics,” while another said: “All celebrities need to listen … u go woke and u too will lose us … America is back.”
Others opined that America has generally become weary of Swift’s omnipresence across all media. “If you want to be in the public spotlight relentlessly and continuously, don’t assume that things will always go your way,” one person said.
Others similarly suggested that Swift should take the boos as sign that her “era” of being a cultural force is over, with her global Eras Tour wrapping up in December. “Waaaaaaa. America has spoken. The party is over,” one person said.
However, comments questioning Swift’s cultural relevance prompted one Swift fan to note: “Meanwhile, she continues to be the highest-selling artist out there by a mile. Try living in reality.” Another person also called such comments “absurd”: “You clearly don’t know anything about Taylor Swift. She was literally recognized by the FED for single-handedly improving the US economy with her ERAS tour. She has shattered more records than you can count. The absurdity of your response is too much.
Many commenters suggested to Williams that the boos show that both Swift and her friend, Lively, are losing the P.R. war in Lively’s messy and sordid legal fight with Baldoni, her co-star and director for her film “It Ends With Us.”
“People don’t like what she did with Blake Lively. Her role will come out,” one person wrote, while another said, “She’s a mean girl with her bestie Blake. Justice for Baldoni!!!”
In fact, there might have been even louder boos directed at Swift’s VIP suite if Lively had been Swift’s guest Sunday night, as she was at the 2024 Super Bowl when the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. But both TMZ and the Daily Mail reported last week that the women’s decade-long friendship has been “badly damaged” by the actor dragging the “Bad Blood” singer into her court fight with Baldoni.
The Baldoni legal drama began when Lively went to the New York Times in December, then filed a lawsuit, accusing the actor and director of sexually harassing her during production of the 2024 domestic violence drama. Lively also accused Baldoni and his co-producer and publicists of orchestrating a smear campaign against her during the “It Ends With Us” press tour.
But Baldoni has hit back with a defamation and extortion lawsuit of his own, denying that he sexually harassed Lively and accusing her and Ryan Reynolds of wresting control of the movie from him and then going on their own P.R. campaign to damage his reputation.
TMZ and the Daily Mail have reported that Swift is distancing herself from Lively and feels that the actor used her in her effort take take control of the movie from the director. The outlets reported that Swift is not happy that she’s been identified in Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit as Lively’s “mega-celebrity” friend who made the director feel intimidated.
Baldoni specifically alleged that Lively used her friendship with Swift to put pressure on him to comply with Lively’s re-write of a crucial scene in the drama, in which Lively and Baldoni play lovers. Baldoni’s legal offensive also reveals what’s become a sore point for Swift, according to the Daily Mail and TMZ. It’s a lengthy text exchange between him and Lively in which Lively likened herself to “Khaleesi,” the iconic “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen, and referred to Reynolds and Swift as her two “dragons” who help her get what she wants.
“Justice for Justin Baldoni,” one person wrote. “TayTay is a Mean Girl & a Bully.”