Is Taylor Swift Performing at the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show? 

On August 13, Taylor Swift announced that her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” would make its global debut on October 3. The reveal, coming just months after the “Karma” singer regained sole ownership of her entire back catalogue of music, came during Swift’s recent appearance on the “New Heights” podcast, hosted by her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce. 

While fans online have since gone wild over the forthcoming release, others have spent the days since Swift’s appearance breaking down the singer’s comments on the podcast, searching for the singer’s trademark easter eggs, particularly focusing on a conversation surrounding the singer’s love of baking, which has led some fans to speculate that she is preparing to perform during the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show. 

But how did Swifties connect the singer’s comments about baking sourdough bread to a potential performance at next year’s big game? Here’s a closer look at fan’s latest theory. 

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Why Do Fans Think Taylor Swift is the Next Super Bowl Performer? 

During the podcast, Swift not only revealed the tracklist for the upcoming album, but similarly opened up about her love of baking, telling the Kelce brother: “I’m really thinking about bread 60 percent of the time now…We’re very deep into a sourdough obsession that had taken over my life.”

To casual viewers the comment might come off as the singer simply discussing her hobbies outside of cranking out album after album of award-winning tracks. To diehard fans, however, they know that nothing is ever quite as it seems when it comes to Taylor Swift’s public comments. 

Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images

During a 2021 appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” ahead of the release of her “Red” album, Swift herself admitted to hiding easter eggs in nearly everything she does. From song lyrics to music videos, the artists told Fallon, “It’s sort of a tradition that we started a very long time ago.”

What started as a secret code hidden in the lyric sheets of her first album has since turned into a global phenomenon, with fans dissecting nearly every aspect of the singer’s music, online presence, and public appearances. 

Now, fans believe that Swift’s comments about loving to bake sourdough bread were actually a cleverly hidden hint that the singer will be the latest artist to perform during the Super Bowl Halftime show next year, which is set to be hosted at Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers and the team’s mascot, Sourdough Sam. 

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Fans Support Their Theory with Even More Easter Eggs from Swift

While the off-hand comment wasn’t enough by itself to convince fans that Swift will follow up Kendrick Lamar’s Halftime Show performance earlier this year, the singer similarly thanked Jason Kelce for “screaming for 47 seconds” at the top of her appearance on the brothers’ podcast. 

Not quite a reference to the 49ers, fans online have since pointed out that Levi Stadium was the 47th stop on Swift’s recently wrapped Eras Tour, which currently holds the record for the highest grossing tour in music history, earning the artist more than $1 billion over 149 shows in 21 different countries from March 2023 to December 2024. 

Is the theory far-fetched? Maybe not. Swift has become inextricably linked with the NFL since she started dating Travis, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs in September 2023, even attending the most recent Super Bowl to support her boyfriend. 

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Similarly, Swift revealed that she’s always intentional when it comes to her references to numbers. 

“I love numerology. I love math. I love dates,” Swift revealed. “That stuff, I find really fun.”

She continued: “I want Easter eggs to be a certain thing, where if you are a part of the fandom and you want to experience music in a normal way, then you don’t even see these. You don’t even care what that thing is.”

But for fans who get a kick out of breaking down Taylor’s every move to sleuth out what’s next from artists, she added, “For me, that’s really fun, because they find it fun.” 

As to whether the newly minted Super Bowl theory is correct or not, only time will tell. That being said, fans may not have to wait long to find out the truth. 

For example, the NFL, alongside Apple Music and Roc Nation, announced that Kendrick Lamar would be headlining the Halftime Show of Super Bowl LIX on September 8, 2024. Assuming the organization follows the same pattern this year, fans could be just weeks away from seeing their theory come to fruition – if they’re correct.