Why Taylor Swift Shared a Seat With Cynthia Erivo at the 2025 Grammys

When Trevor Noah announced, “Taylor Swift is here!” at the 2025 Grammy Awards, some fans noticed that the pop singer was sharing a chair with Wicked star Cynthia Erivo — and there’s a heartwarming reason why.

In a video posted to X during the awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 2, Erivo, 38, can be seen wandering through Crypto.com Arena looking for her seat while host Noah, 40, began his opening monologue.

She then catches the eye of Swift, 35, who waves her over to her table and pats her own seat, encouraging Erivo to share her chair. Also seated at the “Fortnight” singer’s table were her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff and his wife, Margaret Qualley.

Once Erivo was seated on the chair next to Swift, the pair shared an embrace and a laugh.

In a different video shared to X, Swift can be seen giggling as she grabs Erivo’s finger, reenacting the actress’ viral “holding space” moment with her costar Ariana Grande from the Wicked press tour last year. (While Grande was nominated for three awards this year, she did not attend the ceremony.)

“HELP?!? TAYLOR SWIFT JUST TRIED HOLDING SPACE FOR THE LYRICS OF DEFYING GRAVITY WITH CYNTHIA ERIVO AT THE #GRAMMYs 😭,” the user captioned the post.

“THE DUO WE NEVER KNEW WE NEEDED,” another user commented.

Erivo — who has a Grammy win herself for Best Musical Theater Album for her performance in The Color Purple in 2017 — is slated to perform during the awards show. Just last month, the actress and singer was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Elphaba in Wicked.

While Swift will not be performing during the 2025 Grammys, she will take the stage to present Best Country Album. Nominees for the award include Beyoncé for Cowboy Carter, Post Malone for F-1 Trillion, Kacey Musgraves for Deeper Well, Chris Stapleton for Higher and Lainey Wilson for Whirlwind.

For her part, Swift is nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Us,” her duet with Gracie Abrams, Best Pop Vocal Performance and Album of the Year for The Tortured Poets Department, and Song of the Year, Best Music Video and Record of the Year for “Fortnight” feat. Post Malone.

She lost the Best Music Video award to Kendrick Lamar for Not Like Us, and she lost the Best Pop Vocal Performance award to Sabrina Carpenter for Short n’ Sweet.