Taylor Swift is a singer-songwriter who was born on December 13, 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Swift’s music is a blend of Country, Pop, Folk, Rock, and Alternative. Besides being a gifted songwriter, she can also play guitar, banjo, piano, and ukulele. When Swift was 9 years old she performed in four Berks Youth Theatre Academy Productions. At age 11 she and her mother went to Nashville to give demo tapes to record labels, but this effort was unsuccessful. She learned to play guitar at age 12 and soon after began penning lyrics.
At age 13 Swift was given an artist development deal when she performed original songs at a RCA Records showcase; she then had to begin making frequent trips to Nashville. To help Taylor with her music career her parents moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee. Swift initially attended Hendersonville High School before transferring to Aaron Academy. Her debut album titled Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006 by Big Machine Records. The first single released from this record was “Tim McCraw.” Swift performed as the opening act for Rascal Flatts on select dates during their 2006 tour. Throughout 2006-2007 she opened for other country acts such as Brad Paisley, George Strait, and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
In 2007 She was one of the recipients of the Nashville Songwriters Association’s Songwriter/Artist of the Year; Country Music Association’s Horizon Award for Best New Artist, and the Academy of Country Music Awards’ Top New Female Vocalist.
Swift released her second album, Fearless on November 11, 2008 in North America and was released in other locations in March 2009. “Love Story” was one of the singles released from Fearless and was the first country song to top Billboard’s Top 100. Fearless also won Album of the Year at the 2009 Country Music Association Awards. On October 25, 2010 she released her third album Speak Now; Swift wrote every song on the album. Speak Now achieved 278,000 downloads in one week; because of this Swift was entered in the 2010 Guinness World Records. Swift was named Woman Of The Year by Billboard in 2011, and Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in 2011 and 2012.
On October 22, 2012, Swift’s fourth album Red was released. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was the first song released from Red, and it reached the top place on iTunes’ digital song sales chart only 50 minutes after its release. Other songs released from Red include; “I Knew You Were Trouble”, “The Last Time”, and “Red.”
On October 27, 2014 Swift released her fifth album, 1989. Some of the singles from the album include, “Shake It Off”, “Style”, “Out of the Woods”, and “Bad Blood.” She won the Dick Clark Award For Excellence at the 2014 American Music Awards. The 1989 World Tour was the highest grossing concert tour of 2015; raking in $250 million dollars in total revenue. Also in 2015 she won the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist. 1989 won Album of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016.
Swift released her sixth album, Reputation on November 10, 2017, this was her last album under Big Machine Records. “Look What You Made Me Do” was the first single released from this album and was her first U.K. number-one song. Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour ran from May to November 2018. In the United States the tour sold over 2 million tickets and was the highest-grossing North American concert tour in history. In November 2018, Swift signed a new deal with the Universal Music Group; now all her subsequent releases would be promoted by Republic Records. On August 23, 2019 Swift released her seventh album, Lover. Some of the songs released from Lover include; “Me!”, “Lover”, and “You Need to Calm Down.” In 2020 she released two surprise albums; On July 24th she released Folklore, and on December 11th she released Evermore.
After a legal dispute with her former record label Swift released two re-recorded albums in 2021; on April 9th she released Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and on November 12th she released Red (Taylor’s Version).
Swift’s two most recent albums are Midnights; released on October 21, 2022, and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) which was released on July 7, 2023. All of the songs recorded on Speak Now(Taylor’s Version) were written by Swift. Midnights won Album Of The Year at the 2024 Grammys. Swift’s eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, is set for release on April 19, 2024.
Besides a very successful music career; Swift has also acted. She appeared as herself in the 2009 movie Hannah Montana: The Movie; Valentine’s Day(2010) as Felicia; she performed the voice of Audrey in the 2012 animated movie Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax; The Giver(2014) as Rosemary; Cats(2019) as Bombalurina; All Too Well: The Short Film(2021) as older Her. She also acted Elizabeth Meekins in the 2022 movie Amsterdam.
All Too Well: The Short Film(2021) was written and directed by Swift. She also had a role in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Swift supports many charities including; Boys & Girls Clubs Of America, Cancer Research Institute, Feeding America, PETA, Shriners Hospitals For Children, and UNICEF.
Swift began dating the Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelce in 2023.
With out question Swift is one of the most successful and popular performers in history; and there is certainly a bright future ahead for this icon of pop culture.
