The song namechecks Travis Kelce's hometown and his old haunt The Heights, and both brothers couldn't help gushing about it on their podcast.
Taylor Swift dropped a song called "Cleveland!" as part of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, and it's basically a love letter to her husband's hometown. Travis Kelce is from the Cleveland area, and the lyrics make that pretty hard to miss.
"He already took me to Cleveland / And showed me The Heights, so hate all you like / This is the love of my life," Swift sings, a direct nod to Cleveland Heights, where Travis grew up. Another line references their wedding: "Now I'm wearing white / So hate all you like."
Travis didn't waste time responding. On the latest episode of his podcast New Heights, which he runs with brother Jason, he said, "Cleveland is rocking right now! Shout out to Tay Tay, for making that song just giving the city a little more life."
Jason, never one to hold back enthusiasm, went further. "Dude, that song is incredible," he said. "Kylie and I have been listening to it so much. There's just something about it that makes you feel real good. It's a great song."
The lyric video that dropped alongside the track apparently has footage of Taylor and Travis that fans hadn't seen before, so there's extra incentive for anyone who's been following this relationship closely, which, at this point, is most of the internet.
The Times of India's report on the reaction adds that Travis has been a long-time fan of Swift going back to her 1989 era, so this isn't some performative husband-supporting-wife moment. The guy's apparently been listening since before any of this was a storyline anyone could have predicted.
What's interesting here isn't that Travis liked a song his wife wrote about him. Of course he did. It's that the song works as a piece of actual songwriting people outside the Swift-Kelce universe are responding to, going by how it's being talked about online. A city namecheck on a pop album doesn't usually land this specifically, down to a neighbourhood and a street.
For Cleveland itself, this is the kind of cultural shoutout local tourism boards dream about. Don't be shocked if "Cleveland!" starts showing up on local radio rotations the way hometown anthems tend to once a global superstar decides your city deserves a verse.
The Encore is still rolling out, and Swift hasn't said whether Cleveland gets any more mentions across the rest of the record, so there could be more Ohio references buried in there. Whether Jason and Kylie keep the song on repeat through the NFL season remains to be seen too.
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