Taylor Swift thanks Travis Kelce in acceptance speech as couple finally make award show debut

27 March 2026, 06:40 | Updated: 27 March 2026, 06:49

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce finally make their debut award show appearance together. Picture: Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images

By Katie Louise Smith

"I get to feel every single day of my life, because of my fiancé who's here tonight."

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It finally happened, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce just made their award show debut together at the iHeartRadio Awards on Thursday (March 26).

While the two didn't walk the carpet together, Tayvis sat next to each other inside the event where Taylor picked up the award for Best Pop Album for The Life of a Showgirl.

Of course, the album was inspired by her romance with Travis, and in her acceptance speech, she thanked him for the reason behind why it sounds so "happy and confident and free".

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2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards - Show. Picture: Getty

"I think that this album feels very happy and confident and free because that's the way that I get to feel every single day of my life, because of my fiancé who's here tonight,” she said as the camera cut to Travis, who smiled as the crowd cheered and mouthed "I love you" to Tay on stage.

Taylor picked up seven awards out of nine nominations she was up for.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Picture: Getty

Taylor also acknowledged the backlash she received over the album in her speech after winning Artist of the Year while thanking fans for supporting her for this long.

“To be receiving Artist of the Year, which is—I love being an artist," Taylor said. "I love writing songs more than anything in the world. And I didn’t think I was an artist when I first started doing it. It was a hobby. It was a hobby, and then it was my favourite hobby. And then it was what I would, like, rush home from school to do. It was like, ‘I can’t wait to get back to my guitar in my room and write a song.’"

"And I just want to say, like, when I was 12 years old, I had the luxury of spending thousands of hours working at my craft, practicing, making mistakes through trial and error. And that was all completely unobserved, right? So that was just me and my craft. And I’m looking out into this crowd, and I’m seeing so many ambitious, cool, smart, awesome people who have dreams."

"We live in this world where there’s so much immediate feedback constantly. You get feedback for everything you share with the world now. Everything you post, you get feedback, whether it’s good or bad or whatever. I just want to say, if I had one hope for you, I would say that I hope that you get to nurture your hobby and your passion just between you and that craft. And you give yourself time. Give yourself time to make mistakes. Give yourself some time to hone your craft."

"I’m a firm believer that anything you feed your mind, it will internalize. Anything you feed the internet, it will attempt to kill. And I don’t want that for your dreams. So thank you for allowing me to turn my hobby into a love, into a passion, into a dream, into a career. Thank you for allowing me to have it this long. And I wish you the best with everything you do. Thank you so much for this amazing, amazing night."

Taylor is set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her first album Taylor Swift in October.