- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
- Trump demonizes migrants in dark, misleading speech
- X says 'alert' to manipulation efforts after pro-Russia bots report
- US, European markets rise before Boeing unveils sweeping job cuts
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Comoros shock Tunisia, Salah, Mbeumo strike in AFCON qualifiers
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Germany win in Nations League as 10-man Dutch rescue point
- Undav brace sends Germany to victory against Bosnia
- Israel says fired at 'threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- Ecuador's last mountain iceman dies at 80
- Milton leaves at least 16 dead, millions without power in Florida
- Senegal set to announce breakaway development agenda: PM
- UN says 2 peacekeepers wounded in south Lebanon explosions
- Injury-hit Australia thrash 'embarrassing' Pakistan at Women's T20 World Cup
- Internal TikTok documents show prioritization of traffic over well-being
- Israel says fired at 'immediate threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- New US coach Pochettino hails Pulisic but worries over workload
- Brazil orders closure of 2,000 betting sites
- UK govt urged to raise pro-democracy tycoon's case with China
- Sculptor Lalanne's animal creations sell for $59 mn
- From Tesla to Trump: Behind Musk's giant leap into politics
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- Supercharged hurricanes trigger 'perfect storm' for disinformation
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
The Super Bowl (Taylor's Version): Top Chiefs fan takes spotlight
The Super Bowl, already a spectacle of American football, music and advertising, kicks off Sunday with yet one more attention-grabbing lure: megastar Taylor Swift cheering from the VIP suites.
The 34-year-old pop culture icon has been very publicly dating tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, who will face off against the San Francisco 49ers in a bid to take the Lombardi Trophy back home.
It's all but assured that legions of fans who don't care a lick about the outcome will be tuning into the game on the basis of Swift's mere presence.
There's also speculation over the ability of Swift -- who just made Grammys history by scooping her fourth Album of the Year prize -- to make it to Las Vegas for Sunday's game after she plays a string of dates in Tokyo on her blockbuster Eras Tour.
Normally anticipation builds for the artists booked to play the field at halftime; recent performers include Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. Last year, Rihanna's set dominated the conversation after she revealed a second child was on the way.
This year, Usher is slated to take one of the most watched stages in music, but the pop and R&B singer behind chart toppers including "U Got It Bad" and "Yeah!" has been somewhat sidelined, with Swift's name on everyone's lips.
"If I were performing in that halftime show, I would be thinking, 'Why did they have to book me during the Taylor Swift Super Bowl?' said pop culture and media professor Robert Thompson of Syracuse University.
Kansas City Chiefs games -- where Swift has been a regular in a private box -- have smashed a series of ratings records this past season.
Most recently, the Chiefs playoff game against the Buffalo Bills last month was the most-watched Divisional Round game in NFL history, and the first to surpass more than 50 million viewers.
The Chiefs game against the Baltimore Ravens similarly was the most watched AFC conference championship ever.
The Super Bowl is already television's crown jewel: last year, the event drew 113 million US viewers –- or roughly a third of the country.
And the Taylor Swift effect could boost those already mammoth ratings even higher.
- Miss Americana -
The National Football League is all for it, capitalizing on the phenomenon beginning with Swift's first appearance at a Kansas City game in September, alongside Kelce's mother.
In November ahead of the traditional Thanksgiving games, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called Swift "an unbelievable artist" and said "it's great for the league to have that kind of attention."
"We welcome it... It has connected more fans of Taylor's and more fans of the NFL in some ways."
It's too early to quantify the impact that Swift has had on American football's already big business, said Joe Favorito, a Columbia University professor who consults on sports marketing.
"A lot of it is anecdotal," he told AFP. "The easy way to measure it is in social media impact -- those numbers are clear."
"And I think when you look at the earned media that has come from her involvement around the Kansas City Chiefs, it's in the millions."
Favorito also pointed to new angles on sports betting as well as merchandise sales, and growing brand recognition of the Chiefs.
Swift's connection has "become a door opener for awareness for the team and probably for the league outside of the US much more than it is inside the US," he added.
Ashley Brantman, a co-head at Jack 39, a sports and entertainment arm of the Jack Morton consulting agency, noted that more women seem to be engaging with the NFL, which she called "a really positive shift."
"I happen to have been an NFL fan far before Travis and Taylor," Brantman said. "However, people are gaining interest because it's something that is a shared passion point outside of football, right? It's cultural."
- Everyone's 'an expert' -
Swift's blossoming relationship with Kelce, and the league, has not come without some controversy and grumbling over the airtime she gets during games, an annoyance to some diehard fans.
Thompson said the backlash is just part of the game.
Pop culture delivers a lot in the form of entertainment, but it's also "something that we can complain about, something that we can weigh in about," he told AFP.
"Everybody feels comfortable weighing in about these issues because everybody feels like they're an expert."
Which begs the question: Why do we care?
"In American culture, pop stars and football players, it doesn't get much higher on the pyramid than that," Thompson said.
"Why are people so obsessed with this?" he continued. "This is America."
"How many seasons of 'The Kardashians' have we watched?"
Y.Kobayashi--AMWN