Thinking Out LoudYou’ve performed to 10 million+ fans in a global tour that grossed more than two BILLION dollars.
You’ve worked with the world’s most famous designers, and worn multiple wedding dresses in music videos spanning two decades.
Hundreds of millions of people follow your every move.
And you’re getting married. How can you possibly make that day special enough?
In case your algorithm is wildly different to mine, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married on Friday. In what must have been a mind-bogglingly expensive and complicated event to organise, they shut down several New York streets over the Fourth of July weekend and reportedly turned Madison Square Garden into something like a rose garden (let the Swiftie understand).
Celebrities streamed to the venue. Adam Sandler officiated. Paul McCartney sang ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ live for the first time in 60 years. In a blurring of public and private that illustrates why people are calling this America’s ‘royal wedding’, the Empire State Building lit up in celebration – ‘Her something blue’, according to its official X account.
Sure, you can scoff at the expense or the aesthetic or at so many people caring about someone they’ve never met. But compare this spectacle with one that took place the same weekend in DC, where hundreds of masked men belonging to white supremacist group Patriot Front marched to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.
At a time when almost everything is pushing us to distrust and demonise each other, to circle the wagons and care only about our own tribe, there’s something lovely about hearts going out in joy and solidarity to someone we don’t know and genuinely want to be happy. I’m all for the kind of spectacle that helps us invest in one another, rather than drive us apart.
This Thinking Out Loud was first published on Facebook.