Trevor Noah is back as the host of the Grammy Awards for the fourth time, and made it clear that Taylor Swift is the star of the show.
“As Taylor walks in the room, the economy improves,” Noah, 39, said in his Sunday, February 4 monologue, as Swift, 34, entered Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena alongside longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff. “I think it’s so unfair how NFL fans have been complaining about the cameras cutting to Taylor Swift like she’s controlling the cameras at the game. Just let her live.”
Many diehard football fans have been angry with the NFL showing Swift at her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs games. Noah, for his part, made it clear that he’s on Team Taylor.
“In fact, tonight, on Taylor’s behalf, you know what I’m going to do? I’m gonna give her a break,” he joked. “Every time they mention Taylor Swift, I’m gonna get revenge. Every time someone says Taylor Swift, I’m gonna cut the cameras to someone who plays football. Cut, bam.”
Swift clearly approved of the joke, hilariously laughing from her seat in the audience especially when Noah asked fellow attendee and former football player Terry Crews if he approved of the plan.
Noah has previously hosted the musical awards show in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but recently teased that he planned to bring new tricks to Sunday’s ceremony.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. So that’s what I love about the Grammys is it’s live; it’s happening; it’s on the fly,” he said during a Wednesday, January 31, appearance on CBS Mornings. “Here’s the thing about award shows is everybody loves the joke when it’s not about them, and your goal and your hope is to tell a joke about the person that they also think is funny. So it’s difficult. And I think every comedian understands this.”
For Noah, he gets nervous when writing jokes about “superstars.”
“Like, I don’t wanna get on the wrong side of Taylor Swift fans,” he joked on Wednesday. “So you’re trying to walk this fine line of being, you know, the comedian, but then also, still being nice about the night.”
Swift, who is up for six Grammy trophies this year, recently was the subject of a joke that shocked the internet at the Golden Globes last month. After host Jo Koy quipped that the ceremony would have fewer shots of Swift, 34, than NFL games, the pop star looked visibly annoyed. Koy, 52, then threw his writers under the bus when it was clear that the joke did not land.
Noah, for his part, has already taken responsibility for his remarks.
“I collaborate as much as I can. I’m responsible for everything that comes out of my mouth,” he told Billboard in January. “I’m responsible for everything that I write in and around the moments with my team. We’ve always been given complete leeway and I think it’s because the producers and I guess the [Recording] Academy trust me that I’m not there to spoil anybody’s night.”
He continued, “Most importantly, I’m not there to make the night about me. A good Grammys is a night where you don’t remember me, but you go, ‘That was a great show.’ A great Grammys is where you remember me and you think it was also a great show.”
