Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter from West Reading, United States, born in 1989. Her work covers country, country pop, alternative pop, americana, chamber pop and contemporary country, and she is also associated with pop and acoustic music. She is known for narrative songwriting that often draws on her personal life and has attracted extensive media attention and critical praise.

Career

Swift first reaches mainstream prominence with her second studio album, Fearless (2008), a country pop release with crossover success. The album includes the top-five singles “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me” and is certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America. Her third album, Speak Now (2010), combines country pop with rock elements and includes the top-ten singles “Mine” and “Back to December”.

On Red (2012), Swift begins moving beyond her country roots by drawing on pop, rock and electronic influences. She then shifts fully into pop on 1989 (2014), and continues with electropop on reputation (2017) and Lover (2019), which also draw on urban and retro styles. These albums produce a run of international top-five singles including “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, “I Knew You Were Trouble”, “Shake It Off”, “Blank Space”, “Bad Blood”, “Look What You Made Me Do”, “ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco)”, “You Need to Calm Down” and “Lover”.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift releases folklore and evermore in 2020, albums that explore folk and alternative rock. Their lead singles, “cardigan” and “willow”, both top charts internationally. That year she also releases the documentaries Miss Americana and Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.

Midnights (2022) marks a return to pop after the two folk-oriented albums. It sets Spotify records for the biggest first day and first week, sells more than 1.5 million copies in its first week in the United States, and becomes her biggest opening week to date. The album includes “Anti-Hero” and “Lavender Haze”, and makes Swift the first artist to occupy the entire top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with songs from one album.

Re-recordings and film work

Swift begins re-recording her back catalogue in November 2020 following a dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine over the masters of her earlier recordings. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) follows in 2021 and debuts at number one in the United States. Red (Taylor’s Version) arrives later in 2021 as a 30-track reissue of the 2012 album; it also reaches number one in the United States and includes “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”, which also tops the charts. The release of Red (Taylor’s Version) is accompanied by All Too Well: The Short Film, Swift’s filmmaking debut, a 15-minute romantic drama based on the song “All Too Well” and starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. She later announces a feature directorial debut with Searchlight Pictures.

While on The Eras Tour, a retrospective tour covering her discography, Swift releases Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in 2023. The former gives her the record for the most number-one albums by a woman on the Billboard 200, while the latter becomes her sixth album to sell one million copies in a single week in the United States. Its lead single, “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version)”, reaches number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Soundtrack and standalone songs

Swift writes two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack, “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” and “Crazier”. She contributes “Today Was a Fairytale” and another song to the Valentine’s Day soundtrack; “Today Was a Fairytale” becomes her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100 and peaks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. For The Hunger Games soundtrack album, she contributes “Safe & Sound”, recorded with The Civil Wars and T Bone Burnett, and “Eyes Open”. “Safe & Sound” wins the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and is nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

In 2013 she records “Sweeter than Fiction”, which she writes and produces with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance soundtrack and which receives a Golden Globe nomination. She also releases “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” with Zayn Malik for Fifty Shades Darker (2017), writes “Beautiful Ghosts” with Andrew Lloyd Webber for Cats (2019), contributes “Only the Young” to Miss Americana, and releases “Carolina” for Where the Crawdads Sing (2022), inspired by the novel by Delia Owens.

Awards and recognition

Swift has sales of more than 200 million records worldwide. Her honours include 14 Grammy Awards, with four Album of the Year wins; two Brit Awards, including a Global Icon award; an Emmy Award; 28 Guinness World Records; 32 American Music Awards; and 23 Billboard Music Awards. She ranks eighth on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Artists Chart and appears on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. She is included on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, 2015 and 2019, is first on Forbes Celebrity 100 in 2016 and 2019, and is named Woman of the Decade by Billboard, Artist of the Decade by the American Music Awards, and Person of the Year by Time in 2023.

Associated names and labels

Her associated names include Jack Leopards & The Dolphin Club. Her labels include 13 Management, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift Productions, Inc., TAS Rights Management, LLC, TASRM Publishing, Taylor Swift Music, RCA, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Big Machine Records, Universal Music Group and Universal Music Publishing Group.