Streams and sales for the Midnights hit shot up after the pop star changed a lyric referencing her Kansas City Chiefs boyfriend during Eras Tour stop in Argentina
What’s the worth of one changed word in a song? For Taylor Swift, it’s about a 22 percent jump in streams.
According to data from Luminate, sales and streams for her Midnights hit “Karma” both saw a noticeable bump the day after she changed one word in the lyric from the track and sang, “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me,” while performing her Eras Tour show in Argentina on Saturday. The alteration was a nod to her Kansas City superstar tight end boyfriend Travis Kelce, who was in the crowd that night and was later seen kissing Swift backstage.
Taylor Swift changes the lyrics to ‘Karma’ while performing at the Eras Tour with Travis Kelce in the audience:
“Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me”
— Pop Base (@PopBase) November 12, 2023
The day after the show on Sunday, streams jumped nearly 22 percent — up to over 993,000 from about 817,000 the day prior. Meanwhile, “Karma”‘s sales climbed more than 117 percent from Saturday to Sunday, although that’s from a mere 157 to 783 units. Still, the sales were enough to put “Karma” back to Number 11 on the iTunes sales chart as of Tuesday.
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The romantic gesture was the most viral highlight of Swift’s three-day stint in Buenos Aires for the Eras Tour. Swift’s relationship with Kelce is just one buzzy storyline in Swift’s unprecedented year. Since releasing Midnights last year, Swift’s Eras Tour has become one of the most covered spectacles in live entertainment, and may go down as the highest grossing concert tour ever. On the recording side, Swift released two more “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings this year — Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) — both of which topped the Billboard Albums chart. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in particular opened with a massive 1.6 million units this month, the biggest debut for an album since 2015.
Last week, Swift earned six Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year, and she became the most nominated Song of the Year nominee in Grammy history.