Serena Williams defends Taylor Swift after singer booed at 2025 Super Bowl

Independent

10-02-2025

Serena Williams was quick to offer Taylor Swift some words of support after the singer was booed by the crowd at the 2025 Super Bowl.
The Grammy winner, 35, attended this year's game to show her support for her Kansas City Chiefs tight end boyfriend Travis Kelce in New Orleans at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday (9 February).
However, Philadelphia Eagles fans were quick to show support for their team and began to boo the singer during the game, with Swift's reaction caught on camera and shared widely on social media.
After cameras showed Swift on the jumbotron, the crowd erupted into boos. The singer looked over at her fellow guests - Ice Spice and the Haim sisters - before giving the camera a side eye.
Williams defended Swift in a post shared to X/Twitter, writing: 'I love you @taylorswift13 don't listen to those booo!!' after the singer appeared baffled by the stadium's response to her attendance.
The tennis player made a surprise appearance during Kendrick Lamar 's halftime show, which The Independent's Mark Beaumont called 'the most significant mass-televised rap performance of all time' in his five star review.
Williams performed a crip walk, a dance move created by Robert 'Sugar Bear' Jackson in the Seventies, while Lamar performed his chart-topping Drake diss 'Not Like Us'.
'Kendrick getting Serena Williams to crip walk while performing Not Like Us is nasty work,' one viewer responded to the surprise appearance.
Meanwhile, another person added: 'The Serena Williams crip walk during They Not Like Us was a wild flex by Kendrick.'
During the 2012 London Olympics, Williams performed a crip walk at the All England Club after beating Maria Sharapova in their gold medal match.
Addressing her dance moves in a video shared to social media after the Super Bowl performance, Williams said: 'Man I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon, I would've been fined.'
Kendrick Lamar refrained from rapping some of the more explicit lyrics in his hit track during his half time show.
In one line referencing Drake's 2021 album, Lamar raps: ' Certified Lover Boy? Certified paedophile.' However, during his halftime performance, Lamar omitted the word paedophile as well as the n-word throughout.
'Kendrick is too good censoring himself, I'd slip up,' one fan tweeted during the show.
Last month, Drake sued his own record label, Universal Music Group - which also represents Lamar - for defamation over 'Not Like Us.
'Though Lamar is not named in the suit, the filing claims that Universal knew the paedophilia allegations were false but 'chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.'
Universal Music Group told The Independent in a statement that the claims were 'untrue' and 'illogical'.
The label said: 'We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.'