A perfect night? Kobe Bryant’s daughter gets Taylor Swift’s ‘22’ hat during L.A. concert
Bianka Bryant wasn’t alive at the time her father joined Taylor Swift onstage during an L.A. concert.
That was Aug. 22, 2015, when Lakers legend Kobe Bryant helped unveil a banner commemorating Swift’s 16 sellouts at the venue then known as Staples Center.
Now 6 years old, Bianka followed in her late father’s footsteps by making an (almost) onstage appearance during Swift’s concert Thursday night at SoFi Stadium, the first of the singer’s six sold-out shows at the venue this month.
One of the signature moments of Swift’s phenomenally successful Eras tour this summer has been Swift gifting the black fedora she wears while singing the song “22” to someone in the crowd. This time, that lucky fan was Bianka.
Taylor Swift kicked off six sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium, and The Times’ Mikael Wood and Suzy Exposito were there to provide a full rundown.
The third-youngest of the four Bryant daughters was standing front and center on the top step in front of the stage when Swift, 33, approached her mid-song. The superstar performer dropped to her knees to give Bryant a huge hug, plopped the hat on the beaming child’s head, gave her another hug and a kiss, then resumed singing and walked to the back of the stage to join her dancers in a kickline.
The magical moment was captured on video and shared on social media by fans lucky enough to be in attendance, including Bianka’s oldest sister, Natalia.
“I don’t know how it gets better than this!🌟 @taylorswift,” Natalia Bryant wrote on an Instagram post that also included numerous videos and photos from the three-plus hour extravaganza. One of those videos shows the 20-year-old USC student with her mom, Vanessa Bryant, singing and jumping up and down to “You Belong to Me.”
Kobe Bryant might not have returned to the basketball court with the Lakers, but he was back in the spotlight at Staples Center on Friday night with Taylor Swift to help the superstar singer unveil her own banner.
The Bryants watched the show from what Times music critic Mikael Wood described as “the little tent in which Swift’s celebrity pals watch the show” (apparently it’s a thing on the Eras tour). Earlier in the day, Vanessa Bryant took to her Instagram stories to share photos of a denim jean jacket with a photo on the back of her late husband onstage with Swift.
The words “Say You’ll Remember Me” — lyrics from Swift’s hit “Wildest Dreams” — are included inside a heart on the front of the jacket. On the photo of that part of the jacket, Vanessa Bryant added the names of Swift, Kobe Bryant and “Mambacita,” the nickname of daughter Gianna, who died along with her father and seven others in a January 2020 helicopter crash.
The Bryants have been noted Swifties for a while now. In addition to Kobe’s banner night in 2015, the family attended a 2018 show at the Rose Bowl, where Vanessa, Natalia, Gianna and Kobe were filmed singing and dancing as Swift performed “Shake It Off.” Natalia and Gianna posed for photos with Swift backstage after the show.
A collection of texts, radio communications, quotes and scenes from the last hours of Kobe Bryant’s life before the fatal helicopter crash in Calabasas.
This time, Bianka was the one who got a special moment with Swift.
“My happy girl,” Vanessa Bryant wrote on Instagram with a photo of Bianka smiling near the stage. “Thank you @taylorswift !!!! We lysm!! ❤️”
Cultural dominance. History-making album sales. Sold-out stadiums. Add them up, and Taylor Swift’s current moment has little precedent in pop-music history.
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