Remember all those stories comparing Ed Sheeran to Usher? Wait, you don’t, because that’s not a thing. Those kinds of stories only exist about female artists. Case in point, we spent all of 2023 constantly comparing Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.
With their world tours running simultaneously, and their concert films being released a month apart, the comparisons between the two entertainment juggernauts have been endless. However, this perceived competition might only be in our minds because they’ve been nothing but supportive of one another. But it appears to also be in Shannon Sharpe’s mind as well.
As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to match up against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, there’s been a lot of talk about whether Swift will make it to the game to cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas City tight end, Travis Kelce. For the record: She has three shows in Tokyo Feb. 7-10, followed by multiple dates in Australia, so it seems unlikely that she’ll be in Las Vegas for the big game.
The clips of the couple celebrating after the AFC Championship and her regular appearances on screen during games has led to discussions about how the NFL has capitalized off of the relationship and her popularity to boost ratings.
On Sunday’s edition of their sports talk show “Nightcap,” Unc Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson jumped into the conversation, with Sharpe wondering if anyone else could “move the needle” like Taylor. When Johnson suggested that Beyonce has the same impact, they debated the draw and popularity of the two women. Shannon cited numbers from Front Office Sports to explain how impactful the “Bad Blood” singer is on pop culture.
“Taylor Swift has generated an equivalent brand value of $331,000,000.5 for the Chiefs and the NFL,” Sharpe said. “That figure includes print, digital radio, TV highlights, social media, going back to Taylor Swift first game in September.”
In a sense, Shannon is right. As much as we all love Beyoncé, Taylor has a global crossover appeal and influence that a Black woman—no matter how popular—might never reach. That’s just the colorism world we live in. This isn’t a knock against Taylor Swift as the queen of friendship bracelets, it just highlights that she will always be on a different level from her contemporaries because of her skin color. And she doesn’t deserve to be punished or criticized for her success.
It doesn’t have to be one or the other. We can enjoy and celebrate both women without always pitting them against each other. You can blast “Cuff It” when you need a club banger to dance to, and then fall into “All Too Well” when you need to be in your feelings.
In case you actually care about the game, or in our case, Usher’s halftime show, Super Bowl LVIII airs Sunday, Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. on CBS.