Sports fans and pop fangirls - two sides of the same coin?

They are obsessive, they are devoted. They plan their days around the next televised performance.

- Cherie Lok

They scream when the display of artistry in front of them hits its crescendo. They wear shirts stamped with the names of their idols and hoard merchandise and spend eye-watering sums of money on tickets.

Sound familiar? Hint: I'm not talking about the tens of thousands of Little Monsters who will flock to the National Stadium in May for the Lady Gaga shows, or their ilk.

No, these fans are all around you, showing up to family gatherings in a Manchester United jersey, texting you "YNWA" when you tell them about the rough patch you're going through.

Ah, football fans. Love them or hate them, we've accepted them as a part of the wallpaper. I get it. I spent the better part of my teenage years losing sleep to 3am La Liga matches buffering on a dodgy streaming site. I ran a Tumblr blog dedicated to FC Barcelona. I told my then boyfriend to shift his proposal to another day so I could focus all my emotional energy on another man. (In my defence, that man was Lionel Messi and he was playing in a World Cup final.)

I also spent those teenage years cramming my brain with as many Taylor Swift lyrics as it would hold. When she came to Singapore for The Eras Tour in 2024, I took a day off work to queue for concert tickets.

And yet, while I would've readily identified as a football fan, I've always been reluctant to call myself a Swiftie. The former label bestows a certain degree of cultural cachet upon girls or women - albeit after you prove that you can name at least five players on the team and explain the offside rule - while the latter kinda confirms that you're just as basic as the rest of your gender.