Taylor Swift shared a special moment with Bianka Bryant, the daughter of late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, during a concert at SoFi Stadium. During the performance, Swift gifted Bryant her "22" hat and hugged the six-year-old. The moment came the first of six shows that Swift is performing at the Inglewood stadium. They are the last six shows Swift will perform on the Eras Tour in the United States until October 2024. After her run in Inglewood, Swift will perform in Mexico before closing out the year with shows in Argentina and Brazil in November. The Eras Tour will then resume in February in Tokyo.
However, the gesture goes beyond Swift interacting with the daughter of a famous basketball player. There was a serious level of mutual respect between Swift and Bryant. When Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash in 2020, Swift shared her sorrow on social media. “My heart is in pieces hearing the news of this unimaginable tragedy. I can’t fathom what the families are going through. Kobe meant so much to me and to us all. Sending my prayers, love, and endless condolences to Vanessa and the family and anyone who lost someone on that flight.”
Swift And Bryant Shared A Special Bond
For Bryant's part, he shared his respect for Swift during a 2019 interview. “I think it’s important to listen to people who do great things. […] Taylor’s been at the top of the game for a very, very long time. Why and how? How did she write? How did she get into that mental space to be able to create things over and over and over? I mean, it’s a lot of pressure for her to follow up a No. 1 album with a better album. I don’t care if you like her music or you don’t like her music: Look at what she’s doing. It’s frightening stuff, it’s unbelievable to be able to pull that off over and over and over and over. So I’ll look at things like that to try to learn from them as much as I can. […] She’s a sweet kid. I mean, she was a sweetheart to my girls before she even blew up and became Taylor Swift, so that’s why I’ll always… if she needs anything from me, I’m always there. But you can’t have that level of consistent success and not be a killer. It’s impossible.”
Swift's success has been elevated even further by the Eras Tour. At the time of writing, Swift has one song in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and three albums in the top ten of the Billboard Album 200.
[via]