Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic reinventions, and cultural impact, Swift is the highest-grossing live music artist, the wealthiest female musician, and one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Swift signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 and debuted as a country singer with the albums Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008). The singles "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Love Story", and "You Belong with Me" found crossover success on country and pop radio formats. Speak Now (2010) expanded her country pop sound with rock influences, and Red (2012) featured a pop-friendly production. She recalibrated her artistic identity from country to pop with the synth-pop album 1989 (2014); ensuing media scrutiny inspired the hip-hop-imbued Reputation (2017). Through the 2010s, she accumulated the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", and "Look What You Made Me Do". After Swift signed with Republic Records in 2018, she released the eclectic pop album Lover (2019), the indie folk albums Folklore and Evermore (both 2020), the electropop record Midnights (2022), and the double album The Tortured Poets Department (2024). In the 2020s, she re-recorded four of her Big Machine albums due to a dispute with the label and garnered the US number-one singles "Cardigan", "Willow", "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)", "Anti-Hero", "Cruel Summer", "Is It Over Now?", and "Fortnight". Her 2023–2024 concert tour, the Eras Tour, is the first to gross $1 billion in revenue. Its accompanying concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023), became the highest-grossing in history. Swift is the only artist to have been named the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year five times. A record seven of her albums have each sold over a million copies first-week in the US. Publications such as Rolling Stone and Billboard have ranked Swift among the greatest artists of all time. She is the first individual from the arts to be named Time Person of the Year (2023). Her accolades include 14 Grammy Awards—including a record four Album of the Year wins—and a Primetime Emmy Award. Swift is the most-awarded artist of the American Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, and the MTV Video Music Awards. A subject of extensive media coverage, she has a global fanbase known as Swifties. Life and careerEarly lifeTaylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania.[1] She is named after the singer-songwriter James Taylor;[2] her parents chose a unisex name, hoping it would help her succeed in business.[3] Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, was a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch, and her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), worked as a mutual fund marketing executive.[4] Swift's younger brother, Austin, is an actor.[5] The siblings are of Scottish, English, and German descent, with distant Italian and Irish ancestry.[6][7][8] Their maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), was an opera singer whose singing in church became one of Swift's earliest memories of music.[9] During childhood, Swift spent her holiday seasons on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania,[10] and summers at her family's vacation home in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, where she occasionally performed acoustic songs at a local coffee shop.[11] Raised Christian,[12] she attended preschool and kindergarten at a Montessori school run by the Bernardine Sisters of St. Francis before transferring to the Wyndcroft School in Pottstown.[13][14] When her family moved to Wyomissing, she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.[15][16] At age nine, she aspired to a career in musical theater, performing at local festivals and in Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions,[17][18] and traveling regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons.[19][20] After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, she changed her goal and became determined to pursue a country music career in Nashville, Tennessee.[21] At 11, Swift traveled to Nashville with her mother to visit record labels and submit demo tapes of Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks karaoke covers.[22] She was rejected by all the labels, which led her to focus on songwriting.[23] She started learning the guitar at 12 with the help of a computer repairman and local musician who assisted Swift with writing an original song.[24] In 2003, she and her parents started working with the talent manager Dan Dymtrow. With his help, Swift modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch, had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD, and was given an artist development deal from RCA Records at 13.[25][26] To help Swift break into the country music scene, her father transferred to Merrill Lynch's Nashville office when she was 14 years old, and the family relocated to Hendersonville, Tennessee.[27][28] Swift attended Hendersonville High School for two years before transferring to Aaron Academy, which offered homeschooling.[3][29][30] 2004–2008: Career beginnings and Taylor Swift.jpg) Swift signed to Sony/ATV Tree Music Publishing in 2004; at 14, she became the youngest signee in the publishing company's history.[31] In Nashville, she worked with experienced Music Row songwriters, including Liz Rose.[32][33] Rose and Swift would write songs every Tuesday afternoon after school.[34] After one year on the development deal, she left RCA Records, who decided to keep her in development until she turned 18.[35] Swift made this decision because she wanted to release the songs immediately, to make sure that they still resonated with her teenage experiences.[36] Swift organized a showcase concert at Bluebird Cafe on November 3, 2004; among the attendees were Scott Borchetta, a music executive who was planning to establish an independent record label, Big Machine Records.[37] She signed a recording contract with Big Machine two weeks after the concert, on the condition that her albums would be written by herself;[38][39] her father purchased a three-percent stake in the company.[40] The contract was finalized by July 2005, when Swift ended the working relationship with Dymtrow.[41] She spent four months near the end of 2005 recording her debut album, Taylor Swift, with the producer Nathan Chapman.[42] Swift's debut single, "Tim McGraw", was released in June 2006. She and her mother spent mid-2006 sending promotional copies of the song to country radio stations across the US.[43] Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006.[44] On the US Billboard 200 chart, the album peaked at number five and spent 157 weeks—the longest chart run by an album in the 2000s.[45] With Taylor Swift, she became the first female country music artist to write or co-write every track on a platinum-certified debut album.[46] The album was promoted by a six-month radio tour and Swift's opening for other country artists, including Rascal Flatts in 2006,[42][47] and George Strait,[48] Brad Paisley,[49] and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in 2007.[50] She opened for Rascal Flatts again in 2008,[51] when she dated the singer Joe Jonas.[52] Taylor Swift was supported by four more singles in 2007 and 2008: "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song", "Picture to Burn", and "Should've Said No". "Our Song" and "Should've Said No" reached number one on the Hot Country Songs chart; with the former single, Swift became the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number-one country single.[53] "Teardrops on My Guitar" was Swift's breakthrough single on mainstream radio and charts, reaching the top 10 of the Pop Songs, Adult Pop Songs, and Adult Contemporary charts.[54][55] Her next releases were the Christmas extended play (EP) The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007,[56] and the Walmart-exclusive EP Beautiful Eyes in July 2008.[57] Swift became the youngest person to be awarded with Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist of the Year in 2007.[58] 2008–2010: Fearless Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008, in North America,[59] and in March 2009 in other markets.[60] Fearless spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard 200, becoming her first chart topper and the longest-running number-one female country album; it was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US.[61][62] The album's lead single, "Love Story", became the first country song to top the Pop Songs chart, and its third single, "You Belong with Me", was the first country song to top Billboard's all-genre Radio Songs chart;[63][64] both reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked atop the Hot Country Songs chart.[65][66] Three other singles—"White Horse", "Fifteen", "Fearless"—all reached the top 10 of Hot Country Songs.[66] In 2009, Swift opened for Keith Urban's tour and embarked on her first headlining tour, the Fearless Tour.[67] Fearless became the most-awarded country album of all time.[68] It won the three highest awards for a country album: Album of the Year by both the Country Music Association Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards in 2009, and Best Country Album by the Grammy Awards in 2010.[69] At the Grammys, it also won Album of the Year, and "White Horse" won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance.[70] Also in 2009, Swift was named Artist of the Year by both the American Music Awards and Billboard,[71][72] and Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association Awards, becoming the youngest person to win the honor.[73] "You Belong with Me" won Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. Her acceptance speech was interrupted by the rapper Kanye West, an incident that became known as "Kanyegate" and turned into the subject of controversy and widespread media coverage.[74] Swift collaborated with other musicians in 2009. She featured on "Half of My Heart" by John Mayer, with whom she was romantically linked later that year.[75][76] She wrote "Best Days of Your Life" for Kellie Pickler,[77] co-wrote and featured on Boys Like Girls' "Two Is Better Than One,[78] and wrote and recorded "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier" for the soundtrack of Hannah Montana: The Movie, in which she had a cameo appearance.[79][80] She had her acting debut in the 2010 rom-com Valentine's Day and wrote "Today Was a Fairytale" for its soundtrack.[81] "Today Was a Fairytale" reached number one on the Canadian Hot 100.[82] While shooting Valentine's Day in October 2009, Swift dated co-star Taylor Lautner.[83] On television, she made her debut as a rebellious teenager in a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode[84] and hosted and performed as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live; she was the first host to write their own opening monologue.[85] 2010–2014: Speak Now and Red Swift wrote her third studio album, Speak Now, entirely by herself.[86] Released on October 25, 2010,[87] Speak Now expands on the country pop sound of Fearless and incorporates strong rock music influences.[88] Speak Now debuted on the US Billboard 200 with over one million first-week copies sold, registering the highest single-week tally for a female country artist.[89] Five of its singles—"Mine", "Back to December", "Mean", "Sparks Fly", and "Ours"—charted in the top three of Hot Country Songs; "Sparks Fly" and "Ours" reached number one.[66] "Mine" peaked at number three and was the highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100.[90] Swift embarked on the Speak Now World Tour from February 2011 to March 2012.[91] In 2011, Swift was honored as Woman of the Year by Billboard,[92] Entertainer of the Year by both the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards,[93] and Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards.[94] She again won Entertainment of the Year by the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2012.[95] At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, "Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.[96] After Speak Now's release, Swift dated the actor Jake Gyllenhaal.[76] On October 22, 2012, Swift released her fourth studio album, Red,[97] which featured collaborations with Chapman and new producers including Max Martin, Shellback, Dan Wilson, Jeff Bhasker, Dann Huff, and Butch Walker. Conceived as a record that expanded beyond Swift's country pop releases, Red incorporates eclectic styles of pop and rock such as Britrock, dubstep, and dance-pop,[98][99] leading to a critical debate over Swift's status as a country musician.[100] The album opened at number one on the Billboard 200 with 1.21 million sales, becoming the fastest-selling country album in US history.[101] It was Swift's first number-one album in the UK.[102] During promotion of Red, Swift was romantically involved with the political heir Conor Kennedy, and subsequently the singer Harry Styles.[76]  The two most successful singles from Red, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble", peaked at numbers one and two on the Billboard Hot 100.[103] Both of them also reached the top five on the UK singles chart, and the former was Swift's first chart topper in the US.[104][105] Two other singles, "Begin Again" and "Red", peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100;[65] while two others, "Everything Has Changed" and "22", reached the top 10 on the UK singles chart.[104] The Red Tour ran from March 2013 to June 2014 and became the highest-grossing country tour with revenue of $150.2 million upon completion.[106] Swift was named Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards in 2013.[107] Swift wrote and recorded two songs for the soundtrack album to the 2012 dystopian film The Hunger Games: "Eyes Open" and "Safe & Sound".[108] The latter, which was co-written with the Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media in 2013.[109] She wrote and recorded "Sweeter than Fiction" for the soundtrack to the 2013 biographical film One Chance,[110] and featured as a guest vocalist on B.o.B's 2012 single "Both of Us" and Tim McGraw's 2013 single "Highway Don't Care".[111][112] Her acting roles included a voice acting role in the 2012 animated film The Lorax,[113] a cameo in a 2013 episode of the sitcom New Girl,[114] and a supporting role in the 2014 dystopian film The Giver.[115] 2014–2018: 1989 and ReputationSwift relocated from Nashville to New York City in March 2014 and transformed her image from country to pop with her fifth studio album, 1989.[116][117] She produced 1989 with Martin, Shellback, Chapman, and new collaborators Jack Antonoff, Imogen Heap, Ryan Tedder, and Ali Payami.[118] Rooted in 1980s synth-pop, 1989 incorporates upbeat dance and electronic arrangements of synthesizers, drum machines, and processed vocals.[119] Released on October 27, 2014, the album spent 11 weeks at number one and one year in the top 10 of the Billboard 200.[120][121] It has sold 14 million copies worldwide, becoming Swift's best-selling album.[122] .jpg) Three of 1989's singles—"Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood"—reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100; the first two made Swift the first woman to replace herself at the top spot.[123] Two other singles—"Style" and "Wildest Dreams"—peaked at numbers six and five, making 1989 the first album by Swift to have five consecutive top-10 singles on the Hot 100.[124] The 1989 World Tour was the highest-grossing tour of 2015 with $250 million in revenue.[125] She was named Billboard's Woman of the Year and received the inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence at the American Music Awards in 2014,[126][127] and "Bad Blood" won Video of the Year and Best Collaboration at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards.[128] At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in 2016, 1989 made Swift the first woman to win Album of the Year twice; it also won Best Pop Vocal Album, and "Bad Blood" won Best Music Video.[129] During promotion of 1989, Swift publicly opposed free music streaming services. She published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in July 2014 to stress the importance of albums as a creative medium for artists,[130] and, in November, removed her discography from ad-supported, free streaming platforms such as Spotify.[131] Big Machine kept her music only on paid, subscription-required platforms.[132] In a June 2015 open letter, Swift criticized Apple Music for not offering royalties to artists during its free three-month trial period and threatened to withdraw her music from the platform,[133] which prompted Apple Inc. to announce that it would pay artists during the free trial period.[134] Big Machine returned Swift's catalog to Spotify and other free streaming platforms in June 2017.[135] Swift dated the DJ Calvin Harris from March 2015 to June 2016.[136] They co-wrote the EDM single "This Is What You Came For", which featured vocals from Rihanna; Swift was initially credited under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg.[137] "Better Man", the 2016 single which Swift wrote for the country vocal group Little Big Town, won the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year.[138] She recorded "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" with Zayn Malik for the soundtrack to the 2017 film Fifty Shades Darker; the song became the highest-charting single from the Fifty Shades franchise on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number two.[139] .jpg) In April 2016, Kanye West released the single "Famous", in which he references Swift in the line, "I made that bitch famous." Swift criticized West and said she never consented to the lyric, but West claimed that he had received her approval, and his then-wife, Kim Kardashian, released video clips of Swift and West discussing the song amicably over the phone. Although the clips were proven to be purposefully edited,[140] the controversy made Swift a subject of an online "cancel" movement, where her critics denounced her as a fake and calculating "snake".[141] In late 2016, after briefly dating the actor Tom Hiddleston, Swift began a six-year relationship with the actor Joe Alwyn and underwent a hiatus.[142][143] In August 2017, Swift countersued and won a case against David Mueller, a former radio jockey for KYGO-FM, who sued her for damages from loss of employment. Four years earlier, she informed Mueller's employer that he had sexually assaulted her by groping her at an event.[144] The public controversies influenced Swift's sixth studio album, Reputation, which explores themes of fame, drama, and finding love amidst the tumultuous affairs.[145] A primarily electropop album, its maximalist production experiments with urban styles of hip-hop and R&B.[146][147] Released on November 10, 2017,[148] Reputation opened atop the Billboard 200 with 1.21 million US sales[149] and also reached number one in Australia,[150] Canada,[151] and the UK.[152] Reputation's lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do", topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the highest sales and streaming week of 2017,[153] and was Swift's first UK number-one single.[154] The singles "...Ready for It?", "End Game", and "Delicate" were released to pop radio, all of which reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.[155] In 2018, Swift featured on Sugarland's "Babe",[156] surpassed Whitney Houston as the most-awarded female musician at the American Music Awards,[157] and embarked on the Reputation Stadium Tour, which grossed $345.7 million worldwide.[158] 2018–2021: Lover, Folklore, and EvermoreIn November 2018, Swift signed a record deal with Universal Music Group, which promoted her albums under Republic Records' imprint.[159] The contract included a provision for Swift to maintain ownership of her masters. In addition, in the event that Universal sold any part of its stake in Spotify, it agreed to distribute a non-recoupable portion of the proceeds among its artists.[160][161]  Swift's first album with Republic Records and seventh overall, Lover, was released on August 23, 2019.[162] She produced the album with Antonoff, Louis Bell, Frank Dukes, and Joel Little.[163] Lover peaked atop the charts of such countries as Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US,[164] and was the global best-selling album by a solo artist of 2019.[165] Three of its singles—"Me!", "You Need to Calm Down", and "Lover"—were released in 2019 and peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. "The Man" was released in 2020 and reached the top 30, and "Cruel Summer" became a resurgent success in 2023, reaching number one.[166] In 2019, Swift was honored as Artist of the Decade by the American Music Awards and Woman of the Decade by Billboard,[167][168] and became the first female artist to win Video of the Year for a self-directed video with "You Need to Calm Down" at the MTV Video Music Awards.[169] During promotion of Lover, Swift became embroiled in a public dispute with the talent manager Scooter Braun after he purchased Big Machine Records, including the masters of her albums under the label.[170] Swift said that Big Machine would allow her to acquire the masters only if she exchanged one new album for each older one under a new contract, which she refused to sign.[170] In November 2020, Swift began re-recording her back catalog, which would enable her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use.[171] In February 2020, Swift signed a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group after her 16-year contract with Sony/ATV expired.[172] Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Swift surprise-released two "sister albums" that she recorded and produced with Antonoff and Aaron Dessner: Folklore on July 24, and Evermore on December 11.[173] Joe Alwyn co-wrote and co-produced several songs under the pseudonym William Bowery.[174] Both albums incorporate muted, atmospheric | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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