Taylor Swift

Biography:

Taylor Alison Swift, born December 13, 1989, is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She is the daughter of Andrea and Scott Swift, and the older sister of Austin Swift. She was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on a Christmas tree farm. Her family then moved to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She began writing songs in fourth grade, after winning a national poetry contest with “Monster In My Closet.” Taylor is known for her autobiographical and relatable lyrics. Her earlier work touched upon subjects like bullying and friendship, which eventually turned into topics like dangerous relationships and keeping your head up in tough situations. She then moved to Nashville, Tennessee at age 14 to pursue a career in country music.

In 2005 at age 14, trying to get into the music industry, Taylor Swift sent a musical package to the office of Scott Borchetta, a Dreamworks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label, Big Machine Records. Intrigued, Borchetta arranged a meeting with Swift who later performed for Borchetta at an industry showcase at Nashville’s The Bluebird Café. Clicking with Borchetta, Taylor went on to become one of the new label’s first signings. In 2006 she released her first single, “Tim McGraw”, which went on to become a top 10 hit on the country charts. It also appeared on her self-titled debut album in October of that same year, which went on to sell more than 5 million copies.

In 2009, following the release of her 2008 album, Fearless, Taylor would win big. That year, she became the youngest artist ever to win the Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the year. She also won the MTV Award for Best Female Video for “You Belong With Me.” After her speech was interrupted by Kanye West, the incident went viral and, according to some, made her more famous. In a 2010 article, Scott Borchetta, the president of Swift’s label, said that the incident attracted new audiences who weren’t familiar with her music.

In January 2010, Fearless won Album of the Year at the Grammys, making then-twenty-year-old Taylor the youngest person ever to win the award. Later that year, she released her third album Speak Now, which had the fifth-biggest release week in history for a female artist, selling over 1,047,000 copies.

Before the 2012 release of Red, Taylor began straightening her signature curls in favor of a more mature look that matched the maturity of her new album. Red was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2014 Grammy Awards, but ultimately lost to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. Taylor saw this as an opportunity to change her sound.

In 2014, Swift completely crossed over to pop with the release of her album, 1989. It merited her 11 weeks at number one on the album chart, three number one singles, two other top tens, and one other top twenty. At the 2016 Grammys, Taylor took home the prestigious Album of the Year award, making her the first woman to win it twice and to do so for two genres, and delivered a speech that has inspired many women and young girls.

Taylor announced that she would be taking a break at the end of her 1989 World Tour. Taylor did not release an album during the fall of 2016, breaking from her normal two-year album release cycle, but it was revealed that Taylor had been busy writing songs for other people. Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s song “This Is What You Came For” was written by Taylor under the pseudonym Nils Sjoberg. Later in the year, news came that Taylor secretly wrote another song for someone else. This time it was Little Big Town’s song “Better Man,” which won Taylor CMA’s Song Of The Year award in 2017.

On December 9, 2016, after a quick announcement on social media, Taylor released new material of her own: a duet with ZAYN titled “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.” The song was written for the film Fifty Shades Darker.

A few months later, Taylor completely wiped her social media accounts in a social media blackout. She later posted short animated clips of portions of a snake, referencing her ongoing feud with Kim and Kanye in which Taylor was called a “snake”. This led to the release of “Look What You Made Me Do” and the announcement of her album, reputation, which was released in November 2017.

In 2018, Taylor began her Reputation tour, released a pair of Spotify Singles, as well as featured on Sugarland’s “Babe”- a song Taylor wrote while working on the Red album.

On 10 October 2018, Taylor was nominated for Tour of the Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album and Artist of the Year for American Music Awards and won all four of them. She now holds 23 AMAs, beating a record previously held by Whitney Houston, and has the second most wins in general.

Reputation was her last album with Big Machine Records, as her contract of 12 years with the record label expired in November 2018, and she signed an international record deal with Universal Music Group and Republic Records in the US. In July 2018, Swift was cast in the movie adaptation of the musical Cats.

As of 2019, Swift’s career U.S. album sales stand at 32.7 million, making her the 23rd-best-selling album artist since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991, and the fifth-best-selling woman, after Mariah Carey (55.5 million), Celine Dion (53 million), Shania Twain (35 million) and Britney Spears (33.6 million).