Why Taylor Swift chose this week to make her new relationship so public.

Sitting at a piano over the weekend, Taylor Swift sung what might be her least piano-friendly song of all: pop rap banger 'End Game'.

It was actually a pretty obvious 'surprise song' choice given the context of the show, where she hard launched her relationship with Travis Kelce in the biggest way possible (the hook is quite literally "big reputation, big reputation, ooh, you and me, we'd be a big conversation"). 

But the most telling line came at the end of her verse: "You've been callin' my bluff on all my usual tricks, so here's the truth from my red lips."

Twenty minutes later, she was changing a lyric in the show's final song 'Karma'.

"Karma is the guy on the Chiefs," she sang, a laugh obvious in her vocal. "Coming straight home to me." (The original line is, "karma is the guy on the screen," fyi.)

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Naturally, footage of that moment from 70,000 different angles, including ones that showed Kelce's exact reaction, went mega viral, as well as their off-stage reunion a few moments later, where Swift ran to him after waving goodbye to a stadium of Argentinian fans.

And, well, there's really no arguing with that. Swift would very much like us to know that karma Kelce is her boyfriend.

That is the precise point of all this.

In October, Swift released a written prologue alongside 1989 (Taylor's Version), offering current Swift's perspective about her life at the time the original 1989 was released in 2014.

In it, she said she swore off dating because she became so disillusioned by the speculation surrounding her.

"It became clear to me that, for me, there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him," she wrote.

She said she chose to shift focus onto her female friendships, assuming that "people couldn't sensationalise or sexualise that, right?

"I would learn later on that people could and people would."

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As Swift fell into more serious relationships, the speculation quietened. 

But it didn't always stop. During her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, which was mostly characterised by how secretive it was, there was near-constant speculation that they were engaged or married. Neither could really address it, because to speak about the relationship publicly would break their golden rule.

Then earlier this year, after they broke up, we were right back into the classic 2013 pattern.

People wondered she if was dating her friend Dylan O'Brien, after he was seen leaving her apartment. She had "a cosy dinner" with Bradley Cooper – who is now dating one of her best friends, Gigi Hadid – according to a Deuxmoi blind article, so people took that and ran with it for a while there.

Gambling sites ran bets on who her new boyfriend would be (Pete Davidson had the best odds, of course). And for a few weeks, Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso rode the wave of a completely made-up fan rumour that they were dating. He referenced it in several TikToks and interviews, making it appear to be much more of a legitimate story. As far as we know, they've never even met.

That Swift is always super private about her personal life is a definite re-write of history, informed by the fact that she and Alwyn barely muttered each other's names. But, think back to a before the beginning of that relationship and she was posting then-bf Calvin Harris to Instagram every damn week.

In the past month, Swift's public displays of affection with Kelce in Argentina have felt like a continuation of the 1989 (Taylor's Version) prologue. She's the most famous person in the world with about 15 years of deep, public lore for people to draw on with theories and deep dives. She also happens to have the biggest non-traditional platform in media right now. So, if the gossip is going to happen anyway, why not control it herself?

There's no need to guess who she's dating. There's no need to follow Deuxmoi clues. There's certainly no need to place bets.

She's going to football games. She's holding hands in New York. She's liking Instagram posts about Kelce breaking records. She's giving shout-outs in stadiums with 70,000 people, and millions more watching on via livestreams.

We don't need to guess what is going on anymore. She'll tell us.

Feature image: Getty/Twitter.