Biography:

Taylor Swift is an American country pop singer and songwriter. During her career, the artist has received not only an army of fans and hundreds of music awards, but also more than fifty achievements in the Guinness Book of Records. Swift’s talents are multifaceted – she has also proven herself as a film actress, earning positive reviews in this field.

Childhood and youth:

Taylor Swift was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania. She was the first child of parents Scott Kingsley Swift and his wife Andrea, nee Finley, both of whom were involved in the investment field in their professional activities.

The daughter’s name was chosen in honor of one of the couple’s favorite performers – James Taylor. The family raised their youngest son, Austin, who today graduated from the University of Notre Dame and acts as a dramatic actor.

As a child, Swift was interested in musical theater and performed in productions at the Berks Youth Theater Academy. The future singer also took vocal and acting lessons in New York. Inspired by the songs of Shania Twain, Taylor became interested in the country style, but auditions with record companies were not successful.

Young Taylor attended Windcroft private elementary school and attended high school in the town of Wyomissing. It was there that Swift began making music. She mastered playing the guitar. Already at the age of 12, texts began to appear for invented melodies.

But the start of her career was unsuccessful: having signed a contract with RCA Records, the singer never achieved the release of a disc, so at the age of 14 she terminated the cooperation agreement.

While performing at an industry trade show in Nashville at the Bluebird Cafe club with her compositions, Swift attracted the attention of Scott Borchetta, who was just opening his own record company, Big Machine Records. The conclusion of a contract with the studio served to further develop the successful creative biography of the 15-year-old performer.

Music Taylor Swift:

First, in August 2006, the single Tim McGraw was released, and in October, the debut album of Taylor Swift, which critics considered successful. Taylor was even awarded a local Nashville award for best emerging female vocalist.

Released in November 2008, the second album, Fearless, won awards in the categories “Album of the Year” and “Best Country Album” at the Grammy Awards and turned Taylor into a real star. The third album, entitled Speak Now, was released in 2010. Taylor wrote the lyrics and music for all 12 tracks herself. The album again topped the Billboard 200 and, according to critics, demonstrated Swift’s “artistic maturity”.

The disc Red (2012) reinforced the success of the young singer. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In March of the following year, Taylor Swift and a team of musicians began the musical Red Tour with concerts in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia, which raised more than $150 million.

In 2014, Swift presented her fifth studio album, “1989.” She positioned the new collection as her first official pop disc. In the songs of this record, the performer moved away from the usual country music.

The 58th annual Grammy Awards took place on February 15, 2016. The singer was nominated for awards in seven categories for the songs Blank Space and Bad Blood and won in three of them. Taylor Swift won Album of the Year, becoming the first woman to win the category twice.

In May, the singer was awarded a special Taylor Swift Award at the BMI Pop Awards. This was the second time during the existence of the BMI Pop Awards that a musician was presented with such an award. The first was Michael Jackson.

On December 9, 2016, the single I Don’t Wanna Live Forever and its video were released. The song was co-written by Sam Dew and Jack Antonoff and performed as a duet with Zayn Malik. The single became the soundtrack to the film Fifty Shades Darker.

In August 2019, the seventh studio album Lover was released, the lead single of which was called Me!. Already in the first week, views of the video for this hit, where Taylor appeared in a fluffy pink dress, reached a record high of 65.2 million. During this time, the track rose on the Billboard Hot 100 from the hundredth to the second line of the chart, which became a record. The disc, with 3.2 million copies sold, surpassed all rivals in the race for the title of the best-selling album by a solo artist in the world in 2019.

The following year, two discs were released at once: Folklore and Evermore. Both collections were recorded in self-isolation and announced a few hours before the release.

In 2022, the singer’s discography was expanded with the album Midnights. One of the tracks in the collection, Snow On The Beach, was recorded in collaboration with Lana Del Rey, who became the only guest artist participating in the creation of Swift’s new disc.

This year, the singer’s collection of awards was replenished with the MTV Video Music Awards for the video clip All Too Well. At the 2022 American Music Awards, Taylor was also among the winners along with BTS, Elton John and others. And in February 2023, Swift received a Grammy Award for All Too Well.

The year 2023 was marked for the star with a large-scale world tour, The Eras Tour, organized in support of her albums, including her 10th studio album Midnights. By the way, the artist’s concert film of the same name became the leader in the North American box office. And it even beat the previous leader in this genre – the 2011 film Never Say Never with Justin Bieber.

And this is far from the only indicator of Taylor’s incredible popularity and the love of her fans. At the annual MTV Video Music Awards, the celebrity won in four categories. Thus, she took home awards for best song, video and album of the year, and was also recognized as “Artist of the Year.”

Movies:

Taylor first appeared on the silver screen in 2009 – she starred as herself in the popular comedy Hannah Montana: The Movie. At the same time, the artist was invited to play a small role in such a rated project as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

In 2019, the actress, along with Jennifer Hudson and Judi Dench, entered the cast of the film adaptation of the musical “Cats” by Tom Hooper. The film received poor critical reviews and 9 Golden Raspberry nominations, of which it won six anti-awards. The $100 million budget was not met at the box office; the box office gross was only $75.5 million.

It’s interesting that Swift got her role without an audition, since she had previously auditioned for Hooper’s “Les Miserables” cast. While the artist’s colleagues on the project received negative reviews, there were no complaints about Taylor’s performance; the audience especially appreciated the song Beautiful Ghosts. The singer, along with the author of the composition Andrew Lloyd Webber, was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Grammy.

Scandals and conflicts:

Kanye West’s scandalous performance at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards marked the beginning of a feud between the rapper and Taylor. The video for Swift’s “You Belong With Me” won in the “Best Female Video” category. As the artist gave her acceptance speech, Kanye took the stage and, taking the microphone from her, declared that Beyoncé’s Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) was “one of the best videos of all time.”

West was escorted from the hall, and he even apologized to Swift online and on TV. For his action, the rapper was criticized not only by the singer’s fans, but also by public figures, including singer Lady Gaga and even former US President Barack Obama.

The conflict between the stars reached a new level in 2015, when Kanye personally asked Swift to present him with an award at the MTV Video Music Awards, but already at the ceremony he publicly told the media that the organizers had invited Taylor for ratings. In 2016, Swift condemned the use of her nude wax replica in Kanye’s video for the song Famous. By exposing snippets of recordings of conversations between West and Taylor, the rapper’s now ex-wife Kim Kardashian tried to convince the public that the singer gave her consent to this. Taylor became the target of online harassment and accusations of lying. The artist gave her answer in the form of the album Reputation and was able to turn public opinion in her favor.

No less interesting for show business circles was the conflict between Taylor and Katy Perry, which started in 2013. Katy poached three dancers from Swift during the tour.

The singer quarreled with her best friend Karlie Kloss after the model, while visiting Taylor’s house, threw a party without informing the hostess.

Personal life:

A popular performer with a model appearance (Taylor’s height is 180 cm, weight is 55 kg) attracts the attention of men. From information confirmed by the singer, she briefly dated Jonas Brothers vocalist Joe Jonas and actor Taylor Lautner, with whom she participated in the filming of the movie “Valentine’s Day.”

For three months, the celebrity built her personal life with actor Jake Gyllenhaal. The singer also had fleeting affairs with Connor Kennedy, the grandson of the famous president, and with Harry Styles, a member of the One Direction group.

In 2015, Taylor Swift began dating DJ Calvin Harris. The musicians appeared together at social events and, according to eyewitnesses, did not leave each other for a minute, but fans never received an official announcement about the wedding. In May 2016, Taylor and Calvin separated.

At the annual Met Gala Costume Institute, the singer met British actor Tom Hiddleston. In June, the stars vacationed together in Rhode Island, and in September the media reported that Swift and Hiddleston had already broken up. Later, British actor Joe Alwyn became her chosen one. After five years of relationship, the couple got engaged in 2022 – information about the secret engagement was reported to the media by an insider.

And in the spring of 2023, information appeared in the media about the separation of celebrities. They wrote that the relationship between Joe and Taylor had exhausted itself. Almost immediately after this, they began to write about Swift’s new romance with Matthew Hilly, frontman of the group The 1975. However, the relationship did not last long, and, as the tabloids reported, the couple broke up a month later. But the loneliness of the star there was no threat. A month later, she began to be suspected of having a romantic relationship with Joe Keery. And in October, the singer came out with football player Travis Kelsey. The lovers appeared together at the premiere of the artist’s concert film The Ers Tour. At that time, celebrities had already been spotted by the paparazzi more than once. Moreover, Swift met the parents of her potential groom.

In February 2024, they started talking about the romance between Taylor and Travis with renewed vigor. The fact is that the athlete played in the Super Bowl for the Kansas City Chiefs. And so that Swift could watch the game, he bought the entire section of the VIP grandstand for $1 million.

Taylor’s personal life consists of more than just romantic relationships. On her Instagram page (the social network is banned in the Russian Federation, it belongs to the Meta corporation, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation), the artist posts photos from events and from her home archive.

Taylor Swift now:

Now Taylor continues to delight fans with new works. In October 2023, Taylor officially became a billionaire. According to experts, the world tour helped her with this. It was argued that the singer’s tour even contributed to the growth of US GDP, since in the cities where she performed, passenger traffic and hotel occupancy increased sharply.

Time magazine named Swift Person of the Year in December. She beat out Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Barbie and other contenders.

And already in February 2024, Taylor received a Grammy award for the album Midnights. Swift became the first ever winner of four statuettes for “Best Album of the Year.” At the ceremony, she announced her next full-length release. It was called The Tortured Poets Department and was supposed to be released in April.

Discography:

2006 – Taylor Swift
2008 – Fearless
2010 – Speak Now
2012 – Red
2014 – 1989
2017 – Reputation
2019 – Love
2020 – Folklore
2020 – Evermore
2022 – Midnights

Filmography:

2009 — “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
2009 — “Hannah Montana: The Movie”
2010 — “Valentine’s Day”
2012 — “The Lorax”
2013 — “New Girl”
2014 — “Dedicated”
2019 — “Cats”
2022 — “Amsterdam”

Interesting Facts:

In 2015, the singer was among the most influential women according to Forbes magazine. In the ranking of 100 Most Powerful Women, Taylor took 64th place. The artist became the youngest woman to be included on this list. In the same year, she was in 1st place in the list of the sexiest women according to the men’s magazine MAXIM.
In 2022, the artist received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from New York University.