Not too long ago, Taylor Swift and her megastar boyfriend Travis Kelce seemed to be living at the absolute peak of both their careers and their relationship. Recently, however, that once-unstoppable momentum appears to have slowed in a big way.
About two years ago, Swift was arguably the biggest artist in the world, riding the unprecedented success of her record-breaking Eras Tour and further cementing her legacy by setting a new Grammy record with yet another Album of the Year award. Meanwhile, Kelce was fresh off his second consecutive Super Bowl championship, with Swift proudly supporting him from the stands as the confetti fell.
Over the past several months, though, things have changed.
Swift’s Eras Tour has officially come to an end, closing the chapter on what may ultimately be remembered as the crowning achievement of her career. On top of that, she has come up empty at the past two Grammy Awards. Last year, she didn’t win a single award despite a handful of nominations. This year, she failed to earn even one nomination and won’t be in attendance at all.
Things haven’t been much better for Kelce. Coming off what was statistically the worst season of his career, he and the Chiefs were routed by the Philadelphia Eagles in last year’s Super Bowl. Swift attended the game, but instead of celebrating another title, she watched a one-sided defeat while being booed loudly by the crowd and later ridiculed by United States President Donald Trump. Things only worsened this season, as Kansas City failed to reach the playoffs altogether.
Clearly, the tide has turned against Taylor and Travis.
Earlier this month, the pop superstar received some sobering news when YouGov reports showed that her popularity had dropped to its lowest level since the firm began tracking the data in 2020. Her current favorability rating sits at 46.7%, down sharply from 55.4% at the same point last year. At the same time, the percentage of people who say they dislike her has jumped from 23.5% to 29.2%.
To make matters worse, the survey was conducted before a series of unflattering text messages attributed to Swift surfaced amid the ongoing legal dispute between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. That suggests her popularity could be even lower than the reported figures.
Unsurprisingly, the news sparked plenty of reaction online.
“I always thought it was weird she had to do so many variants to break records other artists made with one album on like four types of media. She’s very famous, but doubt she’s as popular as she, and her cult, wants people to believe,” one fan commented beneath a Reddit post.
“I swear she’s putting all her billions into seeming like she’s more loved and famous than she actually is!!!!! So infuriating!” another person wrote.
“Taylor is definitely popular, but she’s not as popular as the media (or her team) paints. I think it has a lot to do with how much her PR team pushes out articles and inflates events like the Eras tour into something so much bigger than it really is. I can name 10 other artists who can sell out as many, if not more, stadiums than Taylor. The only difference is that their PR teams are not on a frenzy to keep them in the news cycle,” another commenter added.
“She did it to herself by playing the perpetual victim even at age 36, her music which you think would get more soulful and meaningful as she got older, only got worse and more infantile. And now with the release of the blame Lively texts we can see that she thinks much too highly of herself. She’s always been annoying,” someone else wrote.
“The harder she and her team try to make her seem popular, the more cringey and off putting she becomes,” another user chimed in.
The good news is, Swift remains almost universally known, with 97.6% of respondents saying they have at least heard of her. Still, the data suggests she may have some ground to regain when it comes to winning back broader public approval.
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