Taylor Swift Dancing With Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s Son at 2025 Grammys Was Adorable Throwback to Their First Meeting
Written by djfrosty on February 4, 2025
Taylor Swift is well-known for her enthusiastic awards show audience dancing. But at Sunday night’s (Feb. 2) 67 Grammy Awards the singer had an unexpected dance partner: Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s 10-year-old son, Genesis.
Cameras caught Swift holding hands with the young man and jumping up and down during Shakira’s career-spanning performance, with Genesis even pulling a pro move and spinning the pop superstar around as his older brother, Egypt, 14, looked on with a smile.
People reported that proud papa Beatz also posted a snippet of the dancing video on his Instagram Story, captioning it “Gen & @taylorswift jamming.” In another picture from the Story, both boys are seen standing with Swift, with Egypt appearing to be showing the “Down Bad” singer something on his phone while Genesis stood between them.
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X user @wishescametrue posted a video noting that Swift and Genesis first met cute six years ago at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards. In that video, Swift is seen waving to toddler Genesis as he sits on his dad’s lap, with Genesis waving back. Back in March 2024, Keys talked about the video, telling Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon that in that earlier video Genesis, then three, was “flirting, like actually flirting.” She also noted that the pals had met up again at one of Swift’s Eras Tour shows and that Genesis wondered, “is she going to remember me?” Fallon then pulled out a pic from that night of Swift giving Genesis a sweet kiss on the cheek.
Keys posted pics from their Eras Tour excursion in August 2023, including snaps of Swift posing for snaps with the mother-son duo and giving Genesis a special handwritten note. “Gen, Hi my friend!!” read Swift’s card. “I was so excited when I heard you were coming tonight!! I hope you have so much fun at the show. I’ll be waving at you. Love, Taylor.
Genesis had a pretty big Grammy night with his mom. When Keys took the stage to accept the Dr. Dre global impact award she brought her youngest along with her. Standing behind his mom wearing a pair of shades, Gen watched as Keys gave shout-outs to the many people who believed in her prodigious talent early in her career.
“I just want to give big love to my brother Dr. Dre who created a sound that began a movement, and your sound told me that if you’re a creative growing up in Compton or Hell’s Kitchen, you can touch the world,” Keys said. “I always had to fight for a certain level of respect as a songwriter, a composer and especially a producer. It’s strange that we don’t think of women as producers like Quincy or Dre or Swizzy, but female producers have always powered the industry,” she added, shouting out foremothers and contemporaries Patrice Rushen, Missy Elliott, Linda Perry, Grimes and Solange.
Keys also made a point of criticizing President Trump’s executive orders rolling back the government’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as part of its first two weeks blitz of activity. “This is not the time to shut down a diversity of voices. We’ve seen on this stage talented, hard-working people from different backgrounds with different points of view, and it changes the game. DEI is not a threat — it’s a gift,” Keys said as the audience roared with supportive applause. “The more voices, the more powerful the sound. When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix. And as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all.”