Taylor Just Gave Her First Surprise Performance Since Regaining Her Masters

It’s the dawn of a new era for Taylor Swift. In the six months since her Eras Tour ended, Swift has been enoying her time away from stage, shirking the spotlight to spend some private time with her boyfriend Travis Kelce. But the pop star made her grand return to the spotlight on June 24, though the venue was very different from the massive stadiums she’d been headlining. Swift’s surprise performance at Kelce’s benefit event was a big deal for a lot of reasons — not only was it a full circle moment for the artist who got her start playing local Nashville shows, it also marked her first live performance since regaining ownership over her whole catalogue of music.

This convergence of significance made Swift’s song choice all the more meaningful. After the announced special guest of the Tight Ends & Friends benefit concert, Kane Brown, took the stage, the country star shocked the crowd by bringing out Swift, who launched into an impromptu performance of “Shake It Off.” Of course, fans recorded the whole thing, which you can watch here.

“We decided we were gonna perform that three minutes ago,” Swift told the crowd at the Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville. “We’re up there, me and Kane are having some drinks, and we were thinking like how loud could this place get?”

Before she launched into an acoustic version of her 2014 hit, she dedicated the performance to “our favorite players who are going to play and these are the tight ends.” Fans noted that Swift locked eyes with Kelce (who was recording the moment from the audience) while singing “players gonna play” in the song’s chorus.

Not only is “Shake It Off” one of Kelce’s favorite songs by his girlfriend, the song’s message about rising above “haters” has extra significance as Swift’s first live performance since she finally bought back ownership over her first six albums less than a month prior.

The Eras Tour may be over, but Swift isn’t done with her surprise songs just yet.