THE KELCE BROTHERS know who to thank for the success of their recent song, “Fairytale of Philadelphia”: Swifties. When Jason Kelce thanked fans of his brother’s romantic partner on the New Heights podcast Wednesday, Travis echoed his gratitude “one thousand percent.”
Jason told the podcasters that he’d unwittingly issued a call to arms for the song by tweeting that he was happy the song had made it to Number Eight on iTunes’ chart. “I got like 85 tweets from Swifties across the world being like, ‘You think eight is good? We’re taking this to Number One,” he said on the podcast, according to Entertainment Tonight. “It’s a powerful group of people.” And indeed, the song made it to the top of the chart. “Thanks, Taylor, appreciate you,” Travis said. “And thank you to the Swifties. Thank you.”
The brothers wrote and recorded the tune before rumors of Swift and Travis’ relationship lit up the internet. The song is a reworking of the Pogues’ mordant Christmas hit “Fairytale of New York,” which they retrofitted with cutesy lyrics about feeling brotherly love in the City of Brotherly Love. “You took my dreams from me,” elder brother Jason sings at one point. “When mom first had you.”
Both Kelce brothers were born in Ohio, though Jason plays center for the Philadelphia Eagles. The song features on a Philadelphia Eagles album they’re calling A Philly Special Christmas Special, which Jason helmed. It also features Eagles offensive tackles Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata. Travis, in case nobody has told you, plays tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and is in a very public relationship.
“Obviously I’ve never dated anyone with that kind of aura about them…. I’ve never dealt with it,” Travis recently said of his relationship with Taylor Swift. “But at the same time, I’m not running away from any of it.” Swift and Kelce’s relationship has captured the imaginations of the world at large.
