Las Vegas (AFP) – Music megastar Taylor Swift arrived back in the United States from Japan on Saturday, en route to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play in the Super Bowl, US media reported.
The TMZ.com entertainment news website said the singer touched down in Los Angeles on a private jet from Tokyo, where she had performed on the latest leg of her money-spinning Eras tour.
The website published a grainy photograph of the pop icon — almost completely obscured by a light blue umbrella — as she clambered into a waiting SUV to be whisked away in a presidential-style motorcade.
It capped a day of breathless speculation on social media about the precise whereabouts of Swift, whose relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star Kelce has taken the NFL by storm this season.
Flight-tracking internet sleuths on X, formerly Twitter, posted regular updates about the status of a jet believed to be carrying Swift which left Tokyo on Saturday.
The plane — dubbed the “Football Era” on the Flightradar24 flight tracking website — touched down in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon.
Others, however, said Swift was on another jet altogether.
Meanwhile Gracie Hunt, daughter of Kansas City Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt, could scarcely contain her excitement about the 34-year-old’s imminent arrival.
“She’s coming! She’s coming! We’re excited,” Gracie said at a red carpet event in Las Vegas.
Swift’s 5,530-mile (8,900km) trans-Pacific dash across the international dateline means she will be in Vegas in good time to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl, which kicks off at 3.30pm local time (2330 GMT).
It was not immediately clear when she would travel on to Las Vegas.
The pop culture icon’s relationship with Kelce has captivated fans this season, and is believed to be behind a sharp increase in female viewership of games involving Kansas City.
Swift has regularly appeared in a private box at Kansas City games to watch Kelce, and her appearance at Sunday’s Super Bowl in ‘Sin City’ could help set a television ratings record for the NFL showpiece, the biggest event on the US sporting calendar.
The charismatic Kelce, meanwhile, says he is relishing the attention that his celebrity romance has brought, and joked this week that he feels under pressure to win on Sunday after Swift’s record-breaking fourth Album of the Year award at last weekend’s Grammys.
“She’s unbelievable,” Kelce said of Swift. “She’s rewriting the history books. “I told her I need to hold up my end of the bargain and bring home some hardware, too.”
