Taylor Swift
American singer-songwriter
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Also known as: Taylor Alison Swift
Written by
Michael Ray
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Jan 18, 2024 • Article History
Taylor Swift
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Category: Arts & Culture
In full:
Taylor Alison Swift
Born:
December 13, 1989, West Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. (age 34)
Awards And Honors:
Grammy Award (2021)
Grammy Award (2011)
Grammy Award (2009)
Emmy Award (2015): Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media -
Original Interactive Program
Grammy Award (2021): Album of the Year
Grammy Award (2016): Album of the Year
Grammy Award (2016): Best Pop Vocal Album
Grammy Award (2016): Best Music Video
Grammy Award (2013): Best Song Written for Visual Media
Grammy Award (2012): Best Country Solo Performance
Grammy Award (2012): Best Country Song
Grammy Award (2010): Album of the Year
Grammy Award (2010): Best Female Country Vocal Performance
Grammy Award (2010): Best Country Song
Grammy Award (2010): Best Country Album
(Show more)
Notable Works:
“1989”
“Evermore”
“Fearless”
“Folklore”
“Lover”
“Midnights”
“Red”
“Tim McGraw”
Notable Family Members:
daughter of Scott Swift
daughter of Andrea Swift
sister of Austin Swift
See all related content →
Recent News
Jan. 18, 2024, 12:52 PM ET (AP)
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Top Questions
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Taylor Swift (born December 13, 1989, West Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.)
American pop and country music singer-songwriter whose tales of young
heartache achieved widespread success in the early 21st century.
Early life
Swift showed an interest in music at an early age, and she progressed quickly
from roles in children’s theater to her first appearance before a crowd of
thousands. She was age 11 when she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before
a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game, and the following year she picked up the
guitar and began to write songs. Taking her inspiration from country music
artists such as Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks (now the Chicks), Swift
crafted original material that reflected her experiences of tween alienation.
When she was 13, Swift’s parents sold their farm in Pennsylvania to move to
Hendersonville, Tennessee, so she could devote more of her time to courting
country labels in nearby Nashville.
Britannica Quiz
2010s Music Quiz
A development deal with RCA Records allowed Swift to make the
acquaintance of recording-industry veterans, and in 2004, at age 14, she
signed with Sony/ATV as a songwriter. At venues in the Nashville area, she
performed many of the songs she had written, and it was at one such
performance that she was noticed by record executive Scott Borchetta.
Borchetta signed Swift to his fledgling Big Machine label, and her first single,
“Tim McGraw” (inspired by and prominently referencing a song by Swift’s
favorite country artist), was released in the summer of 2006.
Debut album and Fearless
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift, 2009, posing for promotional content. That year Kanye West would interrupt her
acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.(more)
The song was an immediate success, spending eight months on
the Billboard country singles chart. Now age 16, Swift followed with a self-
titled debut album, and she went on tour, opening for Rascal Flatts. Taylor
Swift was certified platinum in 2007, having sold more than one million
copies in the United States, and Swift continued a rigorous touring schedule,
opening for artists such as George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw,
and Faith Hill. That November Swift received the Horizon Award for best new
artist from the Country Music Association (CMA), capping the year in which
she emerged as country music’s most-visible young star.
On Swift’s second album, Fearless (2008), she demonstrated a refined pop
sensibility, managing to court the mainstream pop audience without losing
sight of her country roots. With sales of more than half a million copies in its
first week, Fearless opened at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It
ultimately spent more time atop that chart than any other album released that
decade. Singles such as “You Belong with Me” and “Love Story” were popular
in the digital market as well, the latter accounting for more than four million
paid downloads.
Kanye West incident at the VMAs, Red, and 1989
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift attending Time's “100 Most Influential People in the World” gala, May 4, 2010.(more)
In 2009 Swift embarked on her first tour as a headliner, playing to sold-out
venues across North America. That year also saw Swift dominate the industry
award circuit. Fearless was recognized as album of the year by the Academy of
Country Music in April, and she topped the best female video category for
“You Belong with Me” at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in September.
During her VMA acceptance speech, Swift was interrupted by rapper Kanye
West, who protested that the award should have gone to Beyoncé for what he
called “one of the best videos of all time.” Later in the program, when Beyoncé
was accepting the award for video of the year, she invited Swift onstage to
conclude her speech, a move that drew a standing ovation for both performers.
At the CMA Awards that November, Swift won all four categories in which she
was nominated. Her recognition as CMA entertainer of the year made her the
youngest-ever winner of that award, as well as the first female solo artist to
win since 1999. She began 2010 with an impressive showing at the Grammy
Awards, where she collected four honors, including best country song, best
country album, and the top prize of album of the year.
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Later that year Swift made her feature-film debut in
the romantic comedy Valentine’s Day and was named the new spokesperson
for CoverGirl cosmetics. Although Swift avoided discussing her personal life in
interviews, she was surprisingly frank in her music. Her third album, Speak
Now (2010), was littered with allusions to romantic relationships with John
Mayer, Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, and Twilight series actor Taylor
Lautner. Swift reclaimed the CMA entertainer of the year award in 2011, and
the following year she won Grammys for best country solo performance and
best country song for “Mean,” a single from Speak Now.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift performing during the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee, June 6, 2013.
(more)
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift posing at the Guess Portrait Studio during the Toronto International Film Festival,
September 9, 2013. She provided her vocals for the British film One Chance.(more)
Swift continued her acting career with a voice role in the animated Dr. Seuss’
The Lorax (2012) before releasing her next collection of songs, Red (2012).
While she remained focused on the vagaries of young love, her songwriting
reflected a deepened perspective on the subject, and much of the album
embraced a bold pop-rock sound. In its first week on sale in the United
States, Red sold 1.2 million copies—the highest one-week total in 10 years. In
addition, its lead single, the gleeful “We Are Never Ever Getting Back
Together,” gave Swift her first number-one hit on the Billboard pop singles
chart.
In 2014 Swift released 1989, an album titled after the year of her birth and
reportedly inspired by the music of that era. Although Swift had already been
steadily moving away from the traditional country signifiers that marked her
early work—“I Knew You Were Trouble,” the second single from Red, even
flirted with electronic dance music—she called 1989 her first “official pop
album.” On the strength of the upbeat “Shake It Off,” the album proved to be
another blockbuster for Swift, its first-week sales surpassing those of Red. It
went on to sell more than five million copies in the United States and earned
Swift her second Grammy for album of the year. In 2014 Swift also appeared
in a supporting role in The Giver, a film adaptation of Lois Lowry’s dystopian
novel for young readers.
Michael Ray
Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Midnights, and
controversies
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift arriving at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, where she was nominated for record of
the year, song of the year, and best pop solo performance, February 8, 2015.(more)
In 2016 Swift’s feud with Kanye West resumed after he released the single
“Famous.” The song included a lyric in which Swift was referred to as a
“bitch,” and she alleged that it was misogynistic. The public spat escalated
after West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, released a recording of a phone call in
which Swift gave her approval for the line, though West made no mention of
calling her a bitch. Swift’s controversies continued as she took part in a widely
publicized civil trial in August 2017, after former radio host David Mueller
sued the singer, her mother, and a promoter, claiming that Swift had falsely
accused him of sexually groping her in 2013 during the taking of a photograph
and thus destroyed his career. She countersued, maintaining that the assault
had taken place. At the trial, Swift was removed from Mueller’s suit and the
other two defendants were found not liable as the jury found in favor of Swift’s
countersuit. Shortly thereafter Swift released the hit song “Look What You
Made Me Do,” and her album Reputation became the top-selling American LP
of 2017.
In 2018 Swift left Big Machine and signed with Republic Records and
Universal Music Group. The following year her former label, which owned the
master recordings of her six albums, was sold to Scooter Braun, a talent
manager whose clients had included Kanye West. Swift publicly spoke out
against the deal, claiming that Borchetta had rejected her attempts to acquire
the master tapes and that Braun had bullied her over the years. She
subsequently tried to negotiate a deal with Braun, but he sold her back catalog
to a private investment firm in 2020. Against this backdrop, Swift began
rerecording her early material in an effort to gain control of it—the hope being
that her remade songs and not the originals would be sought out for licensing
deals—and in 2021 Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s
Version) appeared. They were remakes of earlier albums with several
previously unreleased tracks. In July 2023 Swift released Speak Now
(Taylor’s Version), followed by 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October that same
year.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift performing at iHeartRadio's Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden, New York
City, December 13, 2019.(more)
In 2019 Swift released her seventh album, Lover, which she described as “a
love letter to love itself.” That year she also appeared in the musical Cats, a
film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hugely successful stage
production. Miss Americana (2020) is a documentary about her life and
career. With little advance notice, she released Folklore in 2020. A departure
from her previous pop-inspired work, Swift’s eighth studio album drew praise
for its introspection and restraint, and it won the Grammy for album of the
year. The “sister record,” Evermore, appeared later in 2020. Swift adopted a
synth-pop sound for the candid Midnights (2022), which she described as “the
story of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.”
March 2023 marked the start of Swift’s first concert tour since 2018, her sixth
tour overall. When sales for tickets opened on Ticketmaster in November
2022, many fans were disappointed by technical issues and waits that lasted
up to multiple days. After two rounds of presales, general sales were canceled
due to unprecedented demand. Swift expressed disappointment about the
situation but did not mention Ticketmaster in her response.
In December 2023, Swift was honored as Time magazine’s “Person of the
Year.” Finalists also included Barbie, Vladimir Putin, and Sam Altman. The
honor came shortly after the music streaming platform Spotify deemed her its
most-played artist. According to a Bloomberg analysis, Swift is now a
billionaire, with a net worth of around $1.1 billion. On a Forbes list of the most
powerful women of 2023, Swift placed fifth.
