Hoda Kotb Boldly Recalls Her First Time Meeting Taylor Swift
Hoda Kotb has been introduced to many celebrities throughout her outstanding career, but even as time passes, she'll never forget what it was like to meet Taylor Swift for the first time.
During Monday's (June 24) episode of the fourth hour of Today, Kotb recalled her experience meeting the international pop superstar when she was just a teenager preparing for her first big tour.
While the 59-year-old media personality's regular co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, was noticeably absent from the conversation, Kotb had no issue dishing out all the details to the face in her place, Sheinelle Jones.
"Way back in the day when she was just having one of her first concerts, they [producers] sent me for a Dateline [episode]," Kotb began. "And I won't forget it because I thought she was just like a teenager."
But she was soon proved wrong by Swift, who, while the two were walking around on set, noticed something she needed for her performance was missing, and instead of hoping her team would take care of it, she took matters into her own hands.
"We were walking around on the set and she goes, 'So, Hoda, I'm gonna be here and here.' And she goes, 'Uh, excuse me, guys, guys? Excuse me,'" Kotb said, reenacting the "Fortnight" songstress' attempt to get the attention of stagehands. "And they go, 'Yeah?'"
"She goes, 'I need a kick light here,'" Kotb shared, still stunned. "And I looked at this girl and I thought to myself: polite and in charge. Both things."
"And I thought, this is a kid who probably people said, 'Look, honey, I've lit this room for the greatest, so you just leave it to me.'"
"She knows what she wants," Kotb said of the 14-time Grammy winner. "She is who she is."
"And she knows what she likes, she trusts herself as opposed to every other voice around her."
Kotb's memory of the event is supported by IMDb record of the documentary show's episodes, which ran a special behind-the-scenes with the singer-songwriter in 2009– Parade even found a backstage photo from the event that occurred just one year before the now-34-year-old chatted with Kotb and former NBC personality Kathie Lee Gifford on Today in December 2010.
That said, according to Today's own archive of photos, it appears as though Kotb may have met Swift one time before filming for Dateline, when the singer collected toys for charities on the Plaza with anchor Ann Curry in November 2007, back when Kotb was just an NBC correspondent.
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