CELEBRITY
It’s a love story — and this Swiftie just said, “Yes!” While live streaming Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour show in Portugal at Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz on Friday, May 24, Beatriz Simões unexpectedly captured her boyfriend proposing to her during “Love Story.”
Simões, 23, kept her stream rolling as Ricardo Matos, 20, dropped to one knee exactly when Swift, 34, sang, “He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said, ‘Marry me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone.’ ”
“It was a total surprise,” Simões tells PEOPLE a day after the proposal, during which she gave Matos a silent “yes” while she sobbed. “I’m still in total shock. It was magical, and everyone was so happy.” The couple, who met five years ago and started dating three years ago, live together in Porto, Portugal. Matos timed his marriage proposal to Simões perfectly, waiting until the eighth song in Swift’s 46-song setlist to pop the question.
“He kept singing the song and I was just ugly crying and hugged him,” Simões says, before sending PEOPLE a one-minute clip of her stream. Swift continued to sing, unaware of the moment happening in section 3, as Matos lip-synced along: “I love you and that’s all I really know. I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress. It’s a love story, baby, just say, ‘Yes.’ ”
Keren Noyman, 28, who was also at the May 24 concert, captured the proposal of the fellow Swifties from another angle. “I felt jealous because I went with my boyfriend of eight years last time and got no proposal,” Noyman of Tel Aviv jokes to PEOPLE. “But seriously, I watched these kinds of proposals as a kid online so it was super exciting to watch it happen with my eyes. They were insanely cute, and everyone around us got really excited and so happy for them!”
Later in the show, during the surprise songs segment, Swift performed an acoustic mashup that meant a lot to the newly engaged couple.
At each Eras Tour stop, the 14-time Grammy winner performs two songs or mashups just for that night’s crowd acoustically either on piano or guitar. “One of the surprise songs was ‘Come Back…Be Here,’ which was one of our songs when we did long-distance [for two years]. We looked at each other in shock,” Simões says of Swift’s mashup of “Come Back…Be Here,” “The Way I Loved You” and “The Other Side of the Door” on the guitar.
Fans who were watching Simões’ stream around the world were not only in shock about the live-streamed proposal, but they were also surprised that she kept the stream going throughout the remainder of the concert. “She’s still live-streaming after the proposal 😍😍😂😂,” Elisa Gioia, 39, of Italy, reacted on X (formerly Twitter). Later, Gioia told PEOPLE witnessing the moment was “so romantic.”
“It felt like being part of a big family,” Gioia says. “I don’t know the bride-to-be. I’ve read her tweets lately on X, so I thanked her for continuing with the live stream after this big moment in her life.” What’s next for the couple? “We’re gonna take it easy, but we expect to move to a big house with our cat next year so we can start our journey,” reveals Simões, whose cat is named Tijolo, adding, “And get more cats!!!”