If Travis Kelce does retire from the NFL at the end of the season, it looks like he could tour with wife-to-be Taylor Swift for a future job.
Incredible new footage has emerged on social media of a young Kelce back in his college days, singing ‘Lean On Me’ by the legendary Bill Withers. And the Swifties are impressed by Kelce’s singing voice.
The clip begins by presenting ‘The Singing Bearcats’ ahead of the Liberty Bowl, which the Cincinnati Bearcats played and won on Dec 31, 2011 in Memphis against Vanderbilt Commodores.
And Kelce, who would have been 22 at the time, was clearly channeling his inner musician while he was in the home city of Elvis Pressley. He was taking part in a sing-off with his teammates Ralph David Abernathy IV and Maalik Bomar against the Commodores.
Kelce takes the first verse of the famous Withers song, before his two fellow singers belt out a few lines for themselves. Kelce then rejoins them towards the end, showing off a surprisingly soft vocal range.
‘I’ve never seen this, this is great!’ one fan wrote about the video. Another said: ‘He has such a good voice!’.
Video of Travis Kelce signing ‘Lean On Me’ by Bill Withers has emerged on social media
The footage was filmed in late 2011 during Kelce’s college football days at Cincinnati Bearcats
A different fan urged Kelce to discuss it on his next New Heights episode, saying: ‘@newheightshow we haven’t seen this before.’
Despite Kelce’s vocals, the sing-off was apparently declared a draw with the Commodores. But the footage comes from a big week in the early days of Kelce’s now iconic career in football.
His college team went on to win the Liberty Bowl days later and Kelce would go on to have a breakout year in 2012. In April 2013, he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs and has won three Super Bowl titles there, establishing himself as one of the all-time great tight ends in the history of the NFL.
It’s fair to say that the Kelce family do have some musical talent in their genes, but it’s more commonly associated with Travis’s older brother Jason.
He played the saxophone in college and was confident enough to join in with the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band back in September when he was covering the team in his role as an NFL analyst.
Travis, of course, also joined fiancee Swift on stage at an Eras Tour show at Wembley, London, in 2024, although it wasn’t to sing.
The Chiefs star suprised thousands of fans by appearing in a tuxedo and top hat as a backup dancer for Swift’s song “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”, where his cameo ended with him carrying her off the stage.
Recalling the moment on the August New Heights episode where Swift was a special guest, Kelce said: ‘I rose from that stage and I saw how many people are looking at you and I was just like… blackout. I felt like an ant. I felt like the smallest piece of life ever.’
Kelce famously joined wife-to-be Taylor Swift on stage in London on her Eras Tour
Kelce’s long-term future in the NFL with Kansas City Chiefs could soon fall under scrutiny
Swift was hugely complimentary though, adding: ‘It was one of the loudest, if not the loudest screams I have ever heard on the tour. It really was.’
Otherwise, the most that people had heard of Kelce’s vocal range was from him belting out lines from ‘Fight for your Right to Party’ by the Beastie Boys in 2024, after the Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens to reach the Super Bowl.
For Kelce, attention right now is firmly fixed on the NFL. The Chiefs play the Houston Texans on Sunday night, knowing that it is pretty much win or bust from here in terms of making the playoffs.
And given how losing would all but see the Chiefs fail to make the postseason, scrutiny will inevitably fall upon Kelce and his future plans.
He is out of contract at the end of the campaign and at the age of 36, will naturally be quizzed on if he wants to keep on playing.
While his team has struggled, Kelce has had an excellent individual season as he keeps Father Time at bay. He has five touchdowns and 719 receiving yards to his name so far, the second-most of any tight end in the 2025 campaign so far.
