Featuring
Andrés Martinez
Co-Director
Isabel Migoya Iriso
Managing Editor
Yana Pashaeva
Documentarian
Aoife Kane
Sport and Globalization Research Aide
Shelby Evans
Sport and Globalization Research Aide
Andrés Martinez: Friday was an all-hands-on-deck day at the Great Game Lab, with the breaking news that Taylor Swift mentions Real Madrid in her Wi$h Li$t song on her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl. For an outfit focused on how sport connects America to the rest of the world (and sometimes doesn’t), the fact that our reigning pop culture queen would invoke the world’s biggest football brand in a song (and not her fiance’s team in our more insular varietal of football) struck us as a cultural watershed. Here are the lyrics:
They want that freedom, living off the grid.
They want those three dogs that they call their kids. And that good surf, no hypocrites.
They want it all. They want a contract with Real Madrid.
So what’s going on here? Is Taylor a longtime galácticos fan who had posters of Raúl and Zidane in her room as a kid? Is she more of a Castilian centralist in Spain’s culture wars? Or is this all a diss at Spotify, the shirt sponsor of Real Madrid’s rival Barcelona? Or did she really dig the Santiago Bernabéu [Real Madrid’s recently renovated stadium] when she played a couple of concerts there? Or is this just a throwaway line we shouldn’t overanalyze, beyond acknowledging that Taylor is a global citizen with most of her fans outside the U.S., for whom Real Madrid (and not the Chiefs, Cowboys, or some NBA or MLB franchise) are at the pinnacle of big-time global sports? So many questions.
Aoife Kane: I will not claim to be a Swiftie, but I do think the unmatched prestige that Real Madrid invokes is the reason why Swift picked them. They are literally “Royal” and they have such a classy brand. The white kits, the most Champions League trophies, the most stylish and slick players and managers.
It’s where Beckham went, where Cristiano Ronaldo went, Zidane and Mbappé. The best of the best.
Yana Pashaeva: Overanalyzing is basically Swiftie sport, so here are my two cents. Even though Taylor’s in her NFL era, I agree with Aoife that she picked Real Madrid because it’s more well-known around the world and sounds fancy and glamorous — maybe even a nod to Ronaldo’s party days in the 2000s. It fits with the idea of what “people want” — a big name and fame.
But in the song, it feels like she’s showing the opposite of what she wants. While others are chasing contracts and Balenci shades, she’s dreaming about a quiet life — Kelce, kids, and privacy. So Real Madrid works as the perfect contrast.
Also, name-dropping the Chiefs wouldn’t really fit. Taylor’s not the type to call out real-life things directly in her lyrics — she’d rather hint or use metaphors.
Isabel Migoya: I think the Real Madrid mention in Wi$h Li$t is just a textbook case of Occam’s Razor: the easiest explanation is that Taylor needed something that screams global success, money, and luxury. As Aoife and Yana mentioned, it fits perfectly in a song about people dreaming of yachts, fame, and private jets, while Taylor’s own dream is more humble: a basketball hoop in the driveway of her home with Travis Kelce.
The Eras Tour made one thing extremely clear: Taylor Swift isn’t just a pop star, she’s an international force. In 2024, she filled cathedrals of football (soccer) — Santiago Bernabéu, Wembley, Anfield, River Plate, Allianz Parque — casually turning sacred sports grounds into glitter-covered scream zones. And while her heart may belong to a Kansas City tight end, she’s definitely figured out that the other kind of football is the true global love language. For some fans, the NFL didn’t exist until Taylor Swift started dating a guy with a mustache and very enthusiastic touchdown dances.
And let’s talk about Madrid. It’s one of those cities, like Sydney, where Swifties have their own rituals. During “…Ready For It?”, the Spanish fans swap out the lyric “In the middle of the night, in my dreams” for “In the middle of the night, in MA-DRID.” It’s loud and iconic. Some fans swear Taylor sang along during her two concerts at the Bernabéu in May ‘24, but with 70,000+ Swifties screaming the word "Madrid" at full volume, it’s a bit hard to tell from the YouTube videos.
Andrés: The historian Eric Hobsbawm argued that there are two "universalizing agents" in the world: American culture and soccer. And it is fascinating when they come together like this. For decades we had this disconnect between American pop culture having a global reach our sports did not, and the one sport with global reach not having the pop culture vehicle or tailwind to accompany it. Think about how few great movies there are about soccer (despite a receptive global audience for them) and how many great movies about baseball there are, that few people outside the US care about. That is why Ted Lasso was such a fascinating phenomenon, or Taylor Swift singing about Real Madrid. Now we're cooking with gas here...
Shelby Evans: In The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, Swift said the song Wi$sh Li$t is about hoping her peers get what they want but it’s not what she craves. Referencing Real Madrid, a symbol of global prestige, while claiming disinterest in status feels ironic, especially given her finance’s comparable stature in American football.
On the New Heights podcast, Swift admitted not knowing the difference in offensive and defensive lines when she started dating Travis Kelce. She asked him what it was like to look across the line of scrimmage and see his brother Jason at the Super Bowl. While writing the song Wi$h Li$t, Swift could have wanted to avoid name-dropping an American football team and simply googled the most popular football teams in the world to get her point across and landed on Real Madrid. It wouldn’t be the first double entendre of the album (see track 9, Wood).
But Swift is a long way from the woman who thought Travis and Jason were on the Superbowl field at the same time. She has attended the US Open men’s finals and a Stanley Cup playoff game. Kelce is an investor in the Alpine Formula 1 team and it’s only a matter of time before the couple is seen in the paddock.
Wi$h Li$t is a song about the prestige and luxury surrounding her that Swift she doesn’t crave. In a song that mentions a Palme D’Or and an Oscar, it makes sense to name drop the most successful club in European football history. It’s Swift’s tone when she suggests this detachment from fame and wealth that clashes with her own lifestyle; she is one of the most decorated artists in Grammy history with four Album of the Year awards. She brushes off designer brands when she says “they want those bright lights and Balenci’ shades.” But earlier in the album on her song Elizabeth Taylor, Swift says she will not be giving up her Cartier jewelry for love.
Her fiancé is a Kansas City Chief with three Super Bowl rings. Maybe it’s only for a couple that has been as successful as they have that the dream of a Midwest middle-class life can become the most exotic pursuit. Leave the Real Madrid contracts for materialistic strivers.
Andrés: For all her pop culture dominance, it is interesting that Taylor Swift has fewer than half the Instagram followers of Real Madrid’s biggest star in recent years (now playing out the twilight of his career in the Saudi League). Cristiano Ronaldo has 665 million followers to Taylor’s 281 million, and Leo Messi (a better player than Cristiano!) is the second-most followed human with 506 million.
But of course, Swift has more followers than any American athlete.
Isabel: Looking at Real Madrid’s own Instagram account, I was really disappointed with how they handled the song mention. Their response was incredibly underwhelming. All they posted was a photo of Aurélien Tchouaméni, a French defensive midfielder on the team, wearing headphones with a caption saying he was listening to Wi$h Li$t. They didn’t even bother to add the song to the post!
They could've posted a photo of Franco Mastantuono or one of the other new signings and made a cocky contract joke. Literally anything but what they did.
Meanwhile, rivals Sevilla understood the assignment and knew exactly what the moment called for, posting: “Always been more of a Dua Lipa fan anyway.”
Even the F1 team Williams was more creative. They posted a slow-motion video of Spanish driver Carlos Sainz arriving at the Singapore Grand Prix, using another song from the new album that includes the lyrics “smooth operators,” and in the caption, they played with the track number (5) and Sainz’s race number (55).
For context: there’s a running joke in F1 that Sainz is the “smooth operator.” It started in 2020 when he had a great race and, over the team radio randomly sang “Smooth Operator” by Sade. Totally off-key and with his thick Spanish accent. Since then, it’s become his signature celebration whenever he has a good race. It’s meme culture at its finest.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid with all their resources and reach, completely missed the opportunity to create something memorable.