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Blue supergiants are the brightest stars in their host galaxies and yet theirevolutionary status has been a long-standing problem in stellar astrophysics.In this pioneering work, we present a large sample of 59 early B-typesupergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud with newly derived stellar parametersand identify the signatures of stars born from binary mergers among them. Wesimulate novel 1D merger models of binaries consisting of supergiants withhydrogen-free cores (primaries) and main-sequence companions (secondaries) andconsider the effects of interaction of the secondary with the core of theprimary. We follow the evolution of the new-born $16-40$ M$_{\odot}$ starsuntil core-carbon depletion, close to their final pre-explosion structure.Unlike stars which are born alone, stars born from such stellar mergers areblue throughout their core helium-burning phase and reproduce the surfacegravities and Hertzsprung-Russel diagram positions of most of our sample. Thisindicates that the observed blue supergiants are structurally similar tomerger-born stars. Moreover, the large nitrogen-to-carbon and oxygen ratios,and helium enhancements exhibited by at least half our data sample are uniquelyconsistent with our model predictions, leading us to conclude that a largefraction of blue supergiants are indeed products of binary mergers.

Evidence for stellar mergers of evolved massive binaries: blue supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud