Taylor Swift once again shut down rumors of a rivalry with Beyoncé, with a subtle satirical gesture.
@taylorswift My soul = broken. In the best way possible. Honestly can’t even remember my own name 😇🙏🥹 📷: Mason Poole
The 34-year-old singer was photographed out and about in New York City on Thursday wearing a pair of sneakers from Beyoncé’s athleisure brand, Ivy Park.
Swift was spotted rocking the sandy beige “Savage” design. A collaboration between Ivy Park and Adidas, the style is a throwback to the German sportswear brand’s iconic 1990’s low-top sneakers and costs around $179.99.
The Grammy winner paired the shoes with black leggings, a beige tiger-stripe fleece jacket and a pair of cat-eye sunglasses, with her signature long blonde hair tied back in a pony tail.
📷| @TaylorSwift13 wearing Ivy Park sneakers by @Beyonce pic.twitter.com/HY4ncy2OXC
— The Swift Society (@TheSwiftSociety) January 11, 2024
Fans believed the sneakers were a low-key nod to Queen Bey, with social media users on X, formerly Twitter, calling the duo “queens.”
“Taylor [and] Beyoncè – always supporting each other,” X user James wrote.
“OH YASSSSSSSS,” wrote Adrian.
“Queens supporting queens! Classy as hell!” commented user Rebecca Matney.
The music icons both launched hugely successful world tours in 2023, leading to comparisons online—despite their very different sounds.
Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, which ran from May 10 to October 1, added $90 million to the 42-year-old’s net worth. The singer performed in 39 locations across Europe and North America, earning $579 million globally.
Dubbed the “Beyoncé Bump,” the Renaissance tour contributed an estimated $4.5 million to the U.S. economy. For a brief period, it was the highest-grossing tour ever by a female artist, until Swift’s Eras tour took the top spot.
Initially scheduled to run from March to August, the Eras tour has been extended, with both national and international dates added until December 2024.
So far, the pop star has pocketed in $1 billion in ticket sales, making her Eras tour both the highest-grossing tour by a female artist and the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Like Beyoncé, Swift’s earning power has also broadened to the towns and cities that she performs in. The “Anti-Hero” singer has boosted the economy of every tour location in the U.S., with Swifties spending an extra $1,300 on average during the North American leg of Eras.
Are Beyoncé and Taylor Swift Friends?
Their dedicated fandoms may battle, but Swift and Beyoncé have always publicly praised one another.
After Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West—a former friend of the “Flawless” singer and her husband Jay-Z—interrupted Swift while she was collecting her award at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Beyoncé immediately tried to make things right.
Ye was annoyed that Swift had won the Best Female Video Award over Beyoncé, telling the crowd: “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
After she was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2023, Swift addressed the comparisons between the Eras and Renaissance tours in an interview with the publication.
She described the R&B legend as “the most precious gem of a person” and a “great disrupter of music-industry norms.”
“She taught every artist how to flip the table and challenge archaic business practices,” Swift said last month.
Swift attended the London premiere of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, which documents the development and release of the world tour. The pair were photographed smiling on the red carpet in December, leaving both Swifties and the Beyhive in awe.
Beyoncé was also present at the Eras Tour Film launch in October, with Swift sharing a clip of the music legends in the theater together.
“I’m so glad I’ll never know what my life would’ve been like without @beyonce’s influence,” Swift wrote alongside the post. “Her generosity of spirit. Her resilience and versatility. She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale.”
