10 Reasons Taylor Swift Was the Queen of Our Hearts in 2023
Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty ImagesTaylor Swift doesn’t celebrate her birthday until December 13, but she spent all year dominating the pop culture landscape. Already a 12-time Grammy winner, Swift’s career skyrocketed even further with the debut of her highly anticipated Eras Tour and its subsequent concert film, both of which broke records across the board. She also made VMAs and Grammys history in 2023, found love after heartbreak and continued to dominate the charts with her rerecorded albums, two of which hit shelves earlier this year. As for the key to her success? “My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art,” she shared in her TIME Person of the Year cover story in December. “But I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote-unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out every single time.” Scroll down to see every reason why 2023 was the year of Taylor Swift: Related: Taylor Swift Through th
Taylor Swift doesn’t celebrate her birthday until December 13, but she spent all year dominating the pop culture landscape.
Already a 12-time Grammy winner, Swift’s career skyrocketed even further with the debut of her highly anticipated Eras Tour and its subsequent concert film, both of which broke records across the board. She also made VMAs and Grammys history in 2023, found love after heartbreak and continued to dominate the charts with her rerecorded albums, two of which hit shelves earlier this year.
As for the key to her success? “My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art,” she shared in her TIME Person of the Year cover story in December. “But I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote-unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out every single time.”
Scroll down to see every reason why 2023 was the year of Taylor Swift:
1. ‘The Eras Tour’ Earned a Big Reputation
When Swift kicked off The Eras Tour in March, little did she know that it would break the record for the highest-grossing music tour of all time. Since debuting her sixth concert tour in Glendale, Arizona, Swift has performed hits from her entire discography both across the U.S. and around the globe.
Swift’s ever-changing stage outfits have been the subject of countless fan videos, as have her jaw-dropping performances. In particular, “Vigilante S–t” from the Midnights portion of the show became a fan-favorite number because of its sexy, cabaret-style choreography.
Throughout the tour, Swifties showed their devotion by trading friendship bracelets (inspired by a lyric from the song “You’re on Your Own, Kid”). Several celebrity attendees partook in the trend, including Gigi Hadid, Mindy Kaling, Sofia Richie, Mariska Hargitay, Halsey, Kyle Richards, Simu Liu, Jennifer Garner and more.
After the first U.S. leg of shows concluded in August, Swift took The Eras Tour to Mexico, Argentina and Brazil with special guest Sabrina Carpenter. Swift will resume performances in Japan, in February 2024 before making additional stops across Europe, Australia, Canada and the U.S. through December 2024.
2. ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ Movie Broke Records
Swift made sure that fans who were unable to attend The Eras Tour in person didn’t miss out on seeing the show. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film hit theaters in October and dominated on its opening weekend, earning $123.5 million at the worldwide box office and quickly becoming the highest-grossing concert film ever.
Swifties brought the same energy they had at the tour’s live shows to theaters by singing and dancing in their seats and purchasing Swift-themed popcorn buckets and cups (which sold out in many locations).
The movie also marked a major moment for women in music as both Swift and Beyoncé released film versions of their 2023 concert tours. While many fans compared the tours’ successes, the pop stars shut down any rivalry rumors by attending the premieres of each other’s films.
“I’m so glad I’ll never know what my life would’ve been like without @beyonce‘s influence,” Swift wrote via Instagram after Beyoncé walked the red carpet at the premiere of the Eras movie. “The way she’s taught me and every artist out here to break rules and defy industry norms. Her generosity of spirit. Her resilience and versatility. She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale.”
3. She Made Headlines With Travis Kelce
Swift started the year with a high-profile split (from longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn), but she ended 2023 with a romance that captivated everyone from her fans to NFL commentators. The love story began in July when Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce attempted to give Swift a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it when she played Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium. He was unsuccessful, but the act caught Swift’s attention, and the two eventually sparked a romance.
Swift has since supported Travis at several football games and won over his family members, including mom Donna Kelce, dad Ed Kelce and brother Jason Kelce.
One of the couple’s most viral moments occurred at one of Swift’s Eras Tour shows in Argentina. The Grammy winner gave Travis a shout-out on stage by changing the lyrics to her closing song, “Karma.” Instead of singing, “Karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me,” she sang, “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs,” prompting Travis to blush in the audience.
4. She Took Over the NFL
Swift and Travis’ relationship has dominated NFL coverage throughout the 2023 season, largely thanks to Swift’s presence at several Chiefs games. In October, CBS reported that Travis performed better at games that Swift attended versus ones where she was absent. That same month, Swift’s attendance at the Chiefs matchup against the New York Jets helped boost NFL ratings by bringing in 2 million female viewers.
Some football fans took issue with the attention Swift drew away from the actual sport, but Swift herself remained unbothered. “I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in. There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you on the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once,” she told TIME in December.
“I’m just there to support Travis,” she added before joking, “I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads and Chads.”
5. She Rocked the World — Literally
The first U.S. leg of The Eras Tour was full of memorable moments, but nothing topped the day Seattle Swifties reportedly caused a 2.3 magnitude earthquake just by cheering and dancing.
“The shaking was twice as strong as Beast Quake,” seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach told CNN in July, referring to a famous 2011 incident wherein former Seattle Seahawks player Marshawn Lynch’s touchdown caused fans to shake the ground. “The primary difference is the duration of shaking. Cheering after a touchdown lasts for a couple seconds, but eventually it dies down. It’s much more random than a concert.”
Another seismologist, Mouse Reusch, later reported that the two songs that prompted the biggest response from the audience were Swift’s 1989 hits “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space.”
6. She Put a Spell on Fans — and Planes
The viral moments didn’t stop with an earthquake. Swift has often alluded to witchcraft in her music, causing fans to joke that the singer has magical powers. Those theories gained further credibility in November at one of her Argentina tour stops.
During the surprise song section of the night — where she performs two acoustic songs not on the standard set list — Swift jumped into a piano rendition of “Labyrinth” from her 2022 album, Midnights. As Swift sang the lyrics, “I thought the plane was going down / You just turned it right around,” a plane could be seen descending over Argentina’s Estadio River Plate.
After a fan video of the moment went viral on social media, Swift joked about the eerie coincidence. “Never beating the sorcery allegations 
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