Much to the dismay of conspiracy theorists, the majority of UFO sightings come with a common-sense explanation, and while today’s story is no exception, the involvement of Taylor Swift is unexpected, to say the least.
Frenzied Floridians Believe They See a UFO
Florida people report UFO — it was just Taylor Swift ‘opening gates of heaven’ https://t.co/DSkA4qseCl pic.twitter.com/lHp9g6hCME
— New York Post (@nypost) April 21, 2023
Last weekend in Tampa, Florida, a horde of spectators posted to TikTok clips that depicted bright lights in the sky, which they (of course) claimed to be alien in nature.
In the linked video, a person in the background can be heard suggesting that the unusual lights may have been coming from the nearby Taylor Swift concert, to which the woman filming replies, “That is not Taylor Swift… They’re coming for you!”
The Lights Were Indeed Coming From the Taylor Swift Concert
🎥 | The lights from “Don’t Blame Me” at #TSTheErasTour was mistaken by locals as aliens in Tampa.
— Taylor Swift Facts (@blessedswifty) April 17, 2023
— The video is going viral with 450K views and 40K likes on Tiktok. pic.twitter.com/7cejBjWJtN
As it turns out, the voice of reason in the video’s background was 100% correct: Taylor Swift had been performing at the nearby Raymond James Stadium. While she played her hit “Don’t Blame Me,” beams were shot from the stage to the air, dazzling spectators with a light show.
In response to the UFO allegations, one TikTok user commented, “It’s literally lights from the stadium. I’m so concerned for people’s critical thinking skills.”
“Sorry, girl, it’s not a UFO. The Swifties were just at church,” another quipped.
A Tour That Pulls Spares No Expense
The elaborate light show that accompanies “Don’t Blame Me” is the tip of the iceberg for visual spectacles utilized on Swift’s Eras Tour.
Each show on this tour includes onstage stunts, as well as constant costume changes and large-scale set swaps.
“It’s almost like a different Broadway musical for each song,” says Dave Brooks, senior director of live music and touring at Billboard. “The price tag [to put on the tour] has gotta be well north of $100 million.”
A Series of (Most Likely) False Encounters
Intel agencies say most UFO sightings they investigated were real objects (no, that doesn’t mean they’re alien spacecraft) https://t.co/KrxISXkCdt pic.twitter.com/ECqkjZZQ8P
— Forbes (@Forbes) June 26, 2021
This Taylor Swift incident is just one of many recent alleged UFO sightings. Sean Kirkpatrick—director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office—recently testified that the Pentagon is currently looking into around 650 cases of alleged UFO encounters.
He added, “I should also state clearly for the record that in our research, AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics.
“The majority of unidentified objects reported to AARO demonstrated mundane characteristics of balloons, clutter, natural phenomena or other readily explainable sources.”
However, he admitted that “a very small percentage” of UFO sightings could “reasonably be described as anomalous.”