On Tuesday, a report floated around that Taylor Swift would be performing at this year’s College Football Playoff National Championship halftime show. The news of the game’s first-ever true halftime show was announced in May, but who was performing hadn’t been announced just yet.
Why is Taylor Swift playing the CFB National Championship halftime show? It makes sense
Love her or hate her, she’ll bring in ratings.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for DIRECTV
The game will be played in Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and the concert will reportedly take place at nearby Centennial Olympic Park downtown, per Entertainment Tonight:
“She will headline a concert in Centennial Olympic Park during halftime of the game,” the source says. “It will be a free concert. ESPN has her booked for the event and has a massive deal to release new music from [her upcoming album] Reputation through its college football coverage this season.”
The traditional halftime show featuring the bands will air on ESPN’s Megacast broadcast of the game, but the halftime show will air on ESPN.
Swift has teamed up with college football recently, so this isn’t too surprising.
Swift’s two new singles have been featured both during recent college football games, as well as in ABC promos for its upcoming fall shows. ABC owns ESPN, so this partnership makes sense.
Swift’s new song debuted during college football’s opening weekend with a clip of “Ready For It” airing during Alabama vs. Florida State. It had been previously confirmed that Swift could not perform at the Super Bowl halftime show due to her endorsement deal with Coke clashing with the NFL’s agreement with Pepsi — leaving the door open for Swift to headline college football’s biggest game.
While Swift hasn’t performed at sporting events much during her career, her one and only live performance from last year was leading up to the Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, and it was a hit.
“Leave it to Taylor Swift to deliver a KO blow and simultaneously please her fans beyond all expectations,” Billboard wrote of the performance last October.
She’s not liked by all, but she has a loyal following that brings in huge audiences.
It’s the same idea, on a much smaller scale obviously, behind the Super Bowl’s halftime show — putting a performance in the middle of a sporting event that non-football fans would otherwise never watch. Swift obviously has immense popularity, which will benefit ESPN’s ratings. Most recently, Swift’s music video for her single “Look What You Made Me Do” had over 31 million views in less than 24 hours, and she set a YouTube record with the lyric video, getting 19 million views in just the first 24 hours.
People who want to tune into just the halftime show will either watch or stream it, even if they don’t have an investment in the game itself. On the other side of that, if you’re watching the game anyway, you’ll be around for the show, too.
I’ve been adamant on Twitter that the show should have had Migos, given the Atlanta location, but this is why I don’t get paid to make these decisions. Swift will definitely bring in an audience, which is what ESPN thrives on, especially for college football’s biggest event.
ESPN recently has tried to tie in certain artists, a lot of them country artists, with college football — much to my dismay.
Brad Paisley (sigh) went on College GameDay two years ago, and Sam Hunt was a guest picker from last week’s GameDay in Atlanta.
Like her or not, I’d take Swift over some country music dude wearing skinny jeans any day.
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