Taylor Swift is reported to be getting married this Friday at Madison Square Garden, just weeks after she was there cheering on the Knicks at Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
Swift will likely be exchanging more than just paper rings when she says “I do” to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
But her football playing-beau isn’t the only one she’s enchanted with. A tangled web of not-so-invisible string ties Swift to her adopted hometown: New York City.
The love story dates back to at least 2003, when a tweenaged Taylor Swift, wearing an orange off-the-shoulder shirt, strummed her guitar at a Knicks talent show. The NBA recently shared a snippet on social media of her first known performance at Madison Square Garden, where she sang “Lucky You.”
“I love you, New York!” she hooted at the crowd, a smile beaming across her face.
Six years later, Swift played her first sold-out shows in the famed arena during her “Fearless” tour. Tickets disappeared in about a minute, according to news reports from the time.
The singer-songwriter stayed in Nashville a while longer as she kept cranking out country hits. But by the time she released “Red,” New York had become a character in more of her music.
The city appears in songs like “Holy Ground”
“Back to a first-glance feeling on New York time Back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme”
And “Come Back…Be Here
“This is falling for you and you are worlds away In New York, be here But you're in London, and I break down”
Swift went searching for a sound she hadn’t heard before when she moved to New York City in 2014, just in time for her poppiest album yet, “1989.” In the opening track, she officially kicked off her New York era.
“Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you
Welcome to New York, welcome to New York
It's a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat, beat forevermore
The lights are so bright, but they never blind me.”
That same year, New York City’s official tourism organization declared Swift a global welcome ambassador. As part of the publicity campaign, she recorded cheeky videos about New York vocabulary, defining words like “bodega” and “stoop.” Some accused Swift of being an uninformed transplant.
Taylor Swift, Este Haim, and Alana Haim react after Game Four of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on June 10, 2026 in New York City.
But Swift shook off the haters in her “Reputation” era, as she crooned about a “dive bar on the East Side” in “Delicate.”
Her next album, “Lover,” was sprinkled with scenes of her life in the city. She sang about a “golden” love in “Daylight...”
“And I can still see it all (in my head) Back and forth from New York (sneaking in your bed)”
As well as the challenges of a transatlantic relationship in “False God.”
“And I can't talk to you when you're like this
Staring out the window like I'm not your favorite town
I'm New York City, I still do it for you, babe”
The song “Cornelia Street” made Swift’s former West Village home into a pilgrimage site for fans.
“‘I rent a place on Cornelia Street,' I say casually in the car”
Maddie Bessada of Atlanta visits Swift’s past home on Cornelia Street during a trip to New York City this week.
Since her Cornelia Street days, Swift and New York City have become increasingly intertwined.
She’s made a more permanent home for herself in Tribeca. She’s recorded multiple albums at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. She’s been spotted with celebrity besties at Monkey Bar, Via Carota and The Corner Store.
Housing Works’ SoHo bookstore makes a cameo in the closing scene of “All Too Well: The Short Film.” Swift’s songs also continue to reference the Big Apple, from a walk on the High Line in “Cardigan”:
“I knew you Your heartbeat on the High Line Once in 20 lifetimes”
To a Brooklyn beach day in “Coney Island”:
“And I'm sitting on a bench in Coney Island wondering where did my baby go? The fast times, the bright lights, the merry go”
And a blissful weekend in Central Park in “The Bolter.”
“When it's all roses, portrait poses Central Park Lake in tiny rowboats What a charming Saturday”
In 2022, one of the city’s most renowned institutions officially adopted Swift as one of its own. NYU awarded Swift an honorary doctorate, and she delivered the commencement speech, at Yankee Stadium, dressed in a dark purple robe and a tasseled cap.
US singer Taylor Swift delivers the commencement address to New Yor University graduates, in New York on May 18, 2022.
“Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard,” she said. “This outfit is much more comfortable.”
Swift advised her fellow graduates to never be ashamed of trying, to embrace mistakes and to live alongside “cringe.” She also had a message for all the loved ones who had supported them along the way.
“Let me say to you now: Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you,” she said, prompting the crowd to roar.
Amid the swirl of rumors about Swift’s wedding, one thing is clear. She and New York will always be this close. Forever and ever.
Because, as Swift once said, it’s a city that keeps you guessing, that drives you crazy. And she wouldn’t change anything.
