The odds of spotting Taylor Swift in the stands when the Kansas City Chiefs faced off against the Pittsburgh Steelers were never great. Before the game, anyone who had been paying attention to her patterns (namely, the fact that she's only attended the Chiefs home games in Kansas City this year) and the intel from sources close to the singer could have predicted that Swift would be a no-show at the Christmas day matchup, which was played at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.
Even so, some Swifties held out hope for a Christmas (/Swiftmas) miracle, with some even photographed at the stadium holding signs to exactly that that effect.
But then, there was a glimmer of hope. During the game, fans began posting on The Social Media Platform Formerly Known as Twitter, X, and TikTok sharing what they believed to be sightings of Swift at the game.
Taylor Swift in the house #steelers #NFLonNetflix #nfl #chiefs #NFL Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/hY8R504rGXDecember 25, 2024
In photos shared on social media, a not un-Swift-like woman with blonde hair and bangs, wearing a white sweater and prominent red lipstick, can be seen enjoying the game from a box.
Turned around to see Taylor swift at the Pittsburgh Steelers vs Kansas City Chiefs game omggg Tayyyyyy pic.twitter.com/FUzBT5JgvqDecember 25, 2024
Fans who saw the Swift-like figure were naturally overwhelmed with excitement, joy, and, we can only assume, a renewed sense of belief in the spirit of the holidays. But, alas, the blonde woman in the box was not, it turns out, an international pop star/billionaire cheering on her NFL star boyfriend.
No, actually the blurry figure that was going viral was actually a woman named Olivia (based on her TikTok username, @olivias.version13, anyway), who just happened to be at the game—and bear a bit of a resemblance to Taylor Swift, of course.
We know this because Olivia posted a video on TikTok (her first on ever, apparently) to set the record straight.
"Hi, so this is really random. I've never posted on TikTok before, but today, I was at the Steelers/Kansas City game for Christmas, and I was sitting in a box seat with my best friend, and we were having a really, really nice time," she begins in the video, explaining that, amid the excitement about being at the game, she didn't notice anything was off.
Looking back on the experience, Olivia did remember that a lot of people seemed to be taking pictures of her and waving at her, but since no one's first reaction to someone waving at them is that they're currently going viral in a case of mistaken identity with Taylor Swift, she just went with it.
"I would wave back, you know, like I didn't want to be mean or rude," she explains.
@olivias.version13 ♬ original sound - olivias.version13
It did, apparently, occur to Olivia at some point that some people in the stands might be waving at her thinking she was Taylor Swift.
"I can see it like, from far away—maybe they thought because of my hair, the way my makeup was done, because I had red lipstick on," she explains in the video of how people seeing her from a distance could make the mistake.
Even though Olivia wasn't shocked by the idea that strangers glimpsing her from across a stadium might mistake her for the "Fortnight" singer, she says she was completely unprepared for the scope of the mixup. In fact, she didn't realize pictures of her were flooding social media until she was leaving the stadium.
"At the end of the game, a staff member came up to me, and they're like, 'You know you're all over like Twitter and TikTok, right?'"
From there, a shocked Olivia scrolled through pages of pictures of herself (and her friend) in the box at the game, which she remembers accompanying captions like, "Oh my gosh, Taylor Swift is here! Taylor Swift is in my hometown!"
So, how did she feel about being mistaken for Taylor Swift? A little guilty, it seems, based on the apology she issued to anyone who wrongly believed they were seeing Swift at the Christmas game.
"So, I'm sorry [to] the people that thought I was Taylor Swift," she explained, definitively shutting down the rumor that Swift was the woman in the viral pictures. "Everybody was like, 'Oh, like, is this Taylor Swift in the white sweater?' It was, it was me."
