Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift, whose real name is Taylor Alison Swift, was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, on December 13, 1989. She is an American singer-songwriter of mainstream and country music whose songs about adolescent heartbreak became very popular in the early twenty-first century.

Early life

Swift first expressed an interest in music at a young age, and she rapidly advanced from parts in children's theater to her debut in front of a large audience. Before a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game when she was 11 years old, she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." The following year, she took up the guitar and started writing songs. Swift created original music that mirrored her experiences of tween alienation by drawing influence from country music performers like Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. Swift's parents sold their farm in Pennsylvania when she was 13 and relocated to Hendersonville, Tennessee, so she could spend more time pursuing country labels in nearby Nashville.

Swift met music industry veterans through a development deal with RCA Records, and in 2004, when she was 14 years old, she signed with Sony/ATV as a songwriter. She frequently performed songs she had composed at venues in the Nashville region, and it was during one of these performances that record executive Scott Borchetta became aware of her. Swift was signed by Borchetta to his budding Big Machine label, and in the summer of 2006, she issued her debut single, "Tim McGraw," which was heavily influenced by and featured a reference to Swift's favorite country musician.

Album

The tune became popular right away and stayed on the Billboard country singles chart for eight months. Swift, who is now 16 years old, released her self-titled debut record and embarked on a tour as Rascal Flatts' opening act. After selling more than a million copies of her album in the US, Taylor Swift was awarded the platinum certification in 2007. She then continued her rigorous traveling schedule, serving as the opening act for performers like George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill. Swift earned the CMA's Horizon Award for best new artist that November, capping the year in which she established herself as the genre's most prominent up-and-comer.

Swift displayed a sophisticated pop sensibility on her second album, Fearless (2008), managing to court the mainstream pop audience without losing sight of her country origins. Fearless debuted atop the Billboard 200 list with sales of over 500,000 copies in its first week. In the end, it stayed at the top of the chart longer than any other album published during that era. The digital market also saw success for singles like "You Belong with Me" and "Love Story," the latter of which had more than four million purchased downloads.

Swift started her first headlining tour in 2009, performing to packed houses across North America. Swift dominated the business award scene during that same year. She won the best female video award at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in September for "You Belong with Me," and the Academy of Country Music named Fearless the best record of the year in April. Rapper Kanye West stopped singer Taylor Swift during her VMA acceptance speech to object that Beyoncé should have received the honor for creating "one of the best videos of all time."

Later on in the show, when Beyoncé was receiving the video of the year award, she asked Swift to finish her speech on stage, which earned both artists a standing ovation. Swift won all four of the categories for which she was nominated at the CMA Awards that November. She was the first female solo performer to receive the CMA entertainer of the year award since 1999, and she was the award's youngest-ever winner. She made a strong first impression in 2010 by winning four awards at the Grammys, including best country song, best country album, and record of the year.

Later that year, Swift made her acting début in the love story Valentine's Day, and she was chosen as the new CoverGirl cosmetics spokesperson. Swift shied away from addressing her private life in interviews, but she was remarkably open in her music. She made numerous references to her relationships with John Mayer, Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, and Twilight actor Taylor Lautner on her third record, Speak Now (2010). Swift won the CMA entertainer of the year award again in 2011, and the following year, "Mean," a single from Speak Now, received Grammys for best country solo performance and best country song.

Prior to the release of her second album of songs, Red, in 2012, Swift resumed her acting career by lending her voice to the animated Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. (2012). The majority of the album embraced a bold pop-rock sound, and while she stayed focused on the whims of young love, her songwriting reflected a deeper perspective on the topic. Red sold 1.2 million copies in its first week of release in the US, which was a 10-year record. Additionally, it delivered Swift her first number-one hit on the Billboard pop singles chart with the jubilant "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" as its lead single.

2014 saw the publication of 1989 by Swift, an album with the same name as the year she was born and purportedly influenced by the sounds of the time. Swift referred to 1989 as her first "official pop album" even though she had already been gradually eschewing the traditional country elements that characterized her early work—"I Knew You Were Trouble," the second single from Red, even dabbled in electronic dance music. The record turned out to be another smash hit for Swift thanks to the upbeat "Shake It Off," and its first-week sales surpassed those of Red. Swift won her second Grammy for record of the year after it went on to sell more than five million copies in the US. Swift additionally had a supporting part in The Giver, the 2014 motion picture adaptation of young readers' dystopian novel by Lois Lowry.

After Kanye West's song "Famous" was released in 2016, their feud was once again in full swing. Swift claimed that the song's use of the term "bitch" in reference to her was sexist. Swift gave her permission for the line in a phone call in which West did not mention calling her a bitch, but the recording of the conversation was made public by West's wife, Kim Kardashian. In August 2017, Swift participated in a highly publicized civil trial after former radio host David Mueller sued Swift, her mother, and a promoter, alleging that Swift had falsely accused him of groping her while taking a photo in 2013 and ruined his career.

She filed a countersuit, adamant that the attack had occurred. Swift was dismissed from Mueller's lawsuit during the trial, and the jurors found Swift's countersuit to be valid while finding the other two defendants not liable. Swift's album Reputation quickly became the best-selling American LP of 2017, thanks to the success of the single "Look What You Made Me Do," which she released shortly after.

Swift parted ways with Big Machine in 2018 and inked deals with Universal Music Group and Republic Records. The master recordings of her six albums were sold by her former label, which held them, to talent agent Scooter Braun, whose clients included Kanye West, the following year. Swift publicly opposed the deal, alleging that Braun had mistreated her for years and that Borchetta had rejected her efforts to obtain the master tapes. She then attempted to reach an agreement with Braun, but in 2020, he sold her back catalog to a private investor company.

In response to this, Swift started rerecording her early music in an effort to take control of it. She did this in the hopes that her remade tracks would be chosen for licensing deals rather than the originals, and as a result, Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) were released in 2021. They were remakes of older albums that included a number of unheard songs.

Swift's seventh album, Lover, which she dubbed "a love letter to love itself," was published in 2019. She also made an appearance in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's wildly popular stage production Cats that same year. A documentary called Miss Americana (2020) is about her life and work. In 2020, without much attention, she published Folklore. Swift's eighth studio album, a departure from her earlier pop-inspired work, received praise for its introspection and restraint and earned the Grammy for record of the year. Later in 2020, the "sister record," Evermore, was released. For the open Midnights (2022), which Swift dubbed "the story of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life," she adopted a synth-pop sound.