Credit: Inside the MagicIt’s hard to look anywhere these days without seeing pop megastar Taylor Swift. The singer and actress has dominated world media for years, but her hugely successful 2023 The Eras Tour has catapulted her into the stratosphere. With brands getting involved left and right, it seems the House of Mouse is now gunning for a collaboration. Taylor Swift and Disney, anyone?
Disney merchandise is some of the most popular memorabilia in the world. From apparel to plushes to pins, Disney brings fans’ favorite characters to life with new items and collections year after year. Most recently, The Walt Disney Company’s collaboration with Ravensburger, the gaming company behind the hugely successful Villainous series, released the hit new trading card game, Disney Lorcana.
Like other hot merchandise commodities in the Disney community, such as last year’s Figment popcorn bucket, Disney Lorcana was an instant sell-out, with demand outweighing the products available. Similarly, just last week, Disney’s new Starbucks tumbler, themed to Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), sold out within minutes of going live on shopDisney, causing wannabe shoppers to rage at the company.
Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and The Eras Tour
And now there’s a possibility that Taylor Swift may soon collaborate with the House of Mouse after a cryptic post sent fans of Disney and the singer-songwriter into a craze.
Taylor Swift, the 33-year-old musician hailing from Pennsylvania and later Tennessee, is the world’s biggest celebrity. After beginning her career with her self-titled debut album “Taylor Swift” (2006), Swift took the music industry by storm with her sophomore outing, “Fearless” (2008), which included the songs “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me.”
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“Fearless” went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, an accolade she would win again with her pop breakout, “1989” (2014) and “folklore” (2020). Swift is currently in the process of re-releasing her first six albums (“Taylor Swift,” “Fearless,” “Speak Now,” “Red,” “1989,” and “reputation”) following a 2019 dispute with her former label Big Machine Records, Scooter Braun, and Scott Borchetta.
The re-releases have become an event in themselves, with new “From the Vault” tracks added to each re-record. So far, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” “Red (Taylor’s Version),” and “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” have been released, with “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” coming out October 27, exactly nine years since the original debuted.
While Swift has said in the past she did not expect the re-releases to gain so much traction, her sell-out global The Eras Tour has become the perfect backdrop to announce upcoming albums.
Swift revealed her plans for the tour not long after the release of her tenth studio album, “Midnights” (2022). “Midnights” is the fourth album by Swift under her new label (Universal Music Group’s Republic Records), following “Lover” (2019), “folklore,” and “evermore” (2020), and features the chart-topping song “Anti-Hero,” as well as the track which spawned the friendship bracelet phenomenon, “You’re On Your Own, Kid.”
And Taylor Swift’s current romance may have also been started by a friendship bracelet. Enter National Football League star Travis Kelce.
Kelce, the tight end player for the Kansas City Chiefs, attended The Eras Tour back in July at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Revealing on a podcast not long after the concert, Kelce shared that he had intended to give the “Blank Space” singer a bracelet with his number on but didn’t manage to do so.
Fast-forward a couple of months, and after numerous coy interviews, Swift shocked the world when she was seen supporting Kelce with Kelce’s mother, Donna, at Arrowhead Stadium. Fueling rumors of their budding romance, Swift could be seen screaming and shouting support for the Chiefs, who won the game against the Chicago Bears, while getting close to Kelce’s mom. The pair were later seen exiting the stadium together and then leaving in a convertible at sunset — how “1989”.
Swift and Kelce’s romance has been the epicenter of pop culture ever since her appearance at the game, with promo coverage of the Chiefs’ following game on October 1 being set to Swift’s pop anthem “Welcome to New York.” The Kansas City Chiefs played against the New York Jets, winning the team at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. All eyes would be on whether Swift would be at the game, and sure enough, the singing superstar was there, along with friends Blake Lively, Sophie Turner, and Ryan Reynolds.
Taylor Swift and Disney
So, with Swift having dominated the news and NFL coverage over the last few weeks, where does shopDisney fit into this? Well, back when the “Shake It Off” star first appeared at the Kansas City Chiefs game, she was photographed with food, including chicken, ketchup, and “seemingly ranch.”
The post shared on X (formerly Twitter) soon caused “ketchup and seemingly ranch” to trend, with places like the Empire State Building (a certified Swiftie) and brands like Heinz getting involved in the craze.
And now, shopDisney has gotten involved with the Taylor Swift drama, taking to Instagram to post a picture of a Mickey Mouse plate complete with chicken, ketchup, and seemingly ranch. See the photo here.
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The photo, captioned “Nothing to see here. Just enjoying a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch!”, blew up on Instagram with close to 15,000 likes and over 200 comments. Fans were quick to comment on this surprising merge of Disney with Taylor Swift, and shopDisney was quick to drop even more Swift references in their replies to excited comments. From dropping lyrics to tracks like “Fearless” and “Sparks Fly,” shopDisney eventually made the most stunning comment.
Replying to a comment which read, “shopDisney x Taylor?! Only in my wildest dreams,” the company said: “If she ever wants to make some magic shopDisney style, Tree knows where to reach us.”
Tree Paine is Taylor Swift’s longstanding publicist who has been with the singer since 2014, seeing her through events like Swift’s sexual assault trial against former radio host David Mueller and the dispute over the singer’s masters, which spawned the ongoing “Taylor’s Version” rerecordings.
While it is not a straight confirmation that a Taylor Swift collaboration is incoming, it does show that the House of Mouse is open to it. Surely sharing a Swift-themed post to over 2 million Instagram followers means something? Only time will tell.
For those who missed out on tickets to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, the pop star’s concert film will hit movie theaters worldwide this month.
Would you like to see a Taylor Swift and Disney collaboration? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!