Taylor Swift has completed stage one of her mad dash from Tokyo to make it to Super Bowl LVIII after touching down in Los Angeles Saturday evening.
The pop superstar has flown around nine hours and 9,000 miles in an attempt to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs play in the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
Swift stepped off stage at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday night and was rushed straight to her private jet at Haneda Airport, according to The Associated Press.
The 14-time Grammy Award winner’s jet, which was listed as ‘VistaJet (The Football Era)’ – in an apparent nod to Swift’s new love for the sport – on popular flight-tracking website FlightRadar landed in Los Angeles at 3.35pm local time .
The singer is expected to stay at her Los Angeles home before carrying on to Sin City Sunday morning.
Taylor Swift has completed stage one of her mad dash from Tokyo to make it to the Super Bowl
Swift headed straight from the stage to her private jet at Haneda Airport to fly back to America
A plane labeled ‘The Football Era’ was waiting for Swift on the tarmac in Tokyo. The pictured plane is a stock image and not the exact jet the popstar is flying on
Swift’s own private jet is believed to be at Burbank Airport on standby to rush her to Las Vegas for the big game.
She now has just over 24 hours to complete the final, far shorter, leg of her journey – 300 miles across to Vegas, Nevada.
The time difference from Asia to the west coast of North America meant that, although she performed on Saturday night in Tokyo, she actually landed earlier than that in LA.
All eyes have been on Swift to see whether she’d make the mad dash across the world to see her man, with more Eras Tour shows taking place in Melbourne, Australia from Friday.
Fans will be desperately trying to track the jet across the world, as she heads to her 13th Chiefs game of the season – coincidentally her lucky number.
On stage in Tokyo earlier in the night, Swift had told the crowd ‘we’re all gonna go on a great adventure’. While she was presumably referring to the show, it also applies to her next few days as she travels across the world and back again, all in the name of Kelce.
With a final bow at the end of her sold-out show, clad in in a blue sequined miniskirt, the crowd screaming, strobe lights pulsing, confetti falling, Swift disappeared beneath the stage – and her journey to the other side of the world began.
Meanwhile, her boyfriend Kelce had a more subdued Saturday compared to his superstar girlfriend after the Chiefs completed their final full practice before the big game on Friday.
Superstar tight end Kelce has been building up to the Super Bowl from Las Vegas all week
In Vegas, Kelce has fielded questions about his superstar girlfriend throughout the week
The singer has traveled thousands of miles to make the Super Bowl from Tokyo, Japan
Swift has already been to 12 Chiefs games this season, and Sunday is set to be her lucky 13th
It’s been a long week of buildup for both teams and Patrick Mahomes, Kelce and co will now hope they have done all they can to lift the Lombardi Trophy this weekend as they completed their final training session before the big day.
The reigning Super Bowl champions reportedly worked on red-zone, short-yardage and goal-line plays in a 66-minute session Friday.
And on Saturday, they were scheduled to have a mock game then take a team photo and return to its hotel 30 minutes from Allegiant Stadium.
Swift’s expected trip to see Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas on Sunday, US time, has fired imaginations, and speculation, for weeks.
‘I hope she can return in time. It’s so romantic,’ office worker Hitomi Takahashi, 29, told the AP before the Tokyo Show on Saturday.
At the concert, there was plenty of evidence of the unique cultural phenomenon that is the Swift-Kelce relationship, a nexus of professional football and the huge star power of Swift.
In addition to people wearing sequined dresses celebrating Swift in the packed Tokyo Dome, there were Travis Kelce jerseys and hats and other gear celebrating the Chiefs.
Some in Tokyo spent thousands of dollars to attend the pop superstar’s concerts this week – although perhaps not quite as much as it’ll cost to get into the Super Bowl in Vegas tomorrow night.
Swift has received criticism for the regular use of her private jet in recent weeks and months
Fans line up outside Swift’s fourth and final Eras Tour show in Tokyo earlier on Saturday night
Amid a crazy week, even Japanese diplomats have gotten in on the act and commented on Swift’s mad dash across the world.
The Japanese Embassy in Washington posted on social media that she could make the Super Bowl in time, including in their statement three Swift song titles – ‘Speak Now’, ‘Fearless’ and ‘Red.’
‘If she departs Tokyo in the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins,’ it said.
Takahashi, the fan at the Tokyo Dome, was aware of the criticism Swift has faced about her private jets, but said the singer was being singled out unfairly.
‘Many other people are flying on business, and she is here for her work. She faces a bashing because she is famous and stands out,’ Takahashi said to AP.
Swift fans stand outside the Tokyo Dome ahead of her Eras Tour concert on Saturday night
Kelce and Swift kiss on the field in Baltimore after the Chiefs’ AFC Championship victory
Swift has been crisscrossing the globe this week already.
Before coming to Asia, she attended the Grammys in Los Angeles, winning her 14th Grammy and a record-breaking fourth Album of the Year award for ‘Midnights.’ The show was watched by nearly 17 million people. She also made a surprise announcement that her next album is ready to drop in April.
Then the four concerts in Tokyo, and now apparently a rushed trip to try to make it to Las Vegas to watch Kelce, the tight end for the Chiefs, play in the Super Bowl. She has followed Kelce for much of the Chiefs’ season.
‘This week is truly the best kind of chaos,’ Swift posted Wednesday on Instagram.