Taylor Swift: Difference between revisions

Taylor Swift
Swift performing during the Australian leg of her Speak Now Tour in 2012
Background information
Birth name	Taylor Alison Swift
Born	(1989-12-13) December 13, 1989 (age 34) Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.[1]
Genres	Country pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, actress
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, ganjo, piano,[2] ukulele[3]
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Big Machine
Website	TaylorSwift.com Taylor Swift's logo signature

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed to independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In 2006, she released her self-titled debut album. Swift co-wrote eight of the album's songs with Liz Rose, including the singles "Tim McGraw", "Picture to Burn" and "Teardrops on My Guitar", and wrote three songs alone, including the singles "Our Song" and "Should've Said No". As part of the album's promotion, Swift opened on tour for Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.

In 2008, Swift released her second album, Fearless. Seven of the record's songs were written by Swift alone, including the singles "Love Story", "Fifteen", "You're Not Sorry" and "Change", and six songs, including the singles "Fearless", "White Horse", "You Belong with Me" and "Breathe", were co-written with songwriters such as Liz Rose, Colbie Caillat, Hillary Lindsey and John Rich. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. Swift conducted a 105-date Fearless world tour in support of the album. Billboard named her Artist of the Year in 2009.

In 2010, Swift released her third album Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. Written entirely by Swift, the record spawned six singles - "Mine", "Back to December", "Mean", "The Story of Us", "Sparks Fly" and "Ours". "Mean" was awarded Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards. The 94-date Speak Now world tour was attended by over 1.7 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. In 2011, Billboard named her Woman of the Year.

Swift has won 107 music awards, including six Grammy Awards, ten AMAs, seven CMAs, six ACMs and 13 BMI Awards. She has sold over 19 million albums and 41.8 million digital tracks worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Swift has endorsement deals with Target, CoverGirl, Sony, Elizabeth Arden, Walmart and American Greetings. She is considered by Forbes to be one of the wealthiest recording artists working today. In addition to her music career, Swift has appeared as an actress in the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2009), the romantic comedy Valentine's Day (2010) and the animated film The Lorax (2012).

Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania,^[1] the daughter of Scott Kingsley Swift, a Merrill Lynch financial adviser,^[4] and Andrea Gardner, a homemaker who previously worked in finance.^[1] Swift was given a gender-neutral name because her mother believed this would help her forge a successful business career.^[5] Her only sibling, a younger brother named Austin, is currently a student at Vanderbilt University.^[6] She spent the early years of her life in Shillington, Pennsylvania and was educated at the fee-paying Wyndcroft School.^[7] When Swift was nine, her family moved to a 10-acre Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,^[8][9] where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.^[10] Swift spent her summers at her parent's vacation home in Stone Harbor, New Jersey^[11] and has described it as the place "where most of my childhood memories were formed".^[9]

At the age of nine, Swift developed an interest in theatre and performed in Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions of Grease, Annie, Bye Bye Birdie and The Sound of Music.^[12][7] She travelled regularly to Broadway, New York for vocal and acting lessons. However, "after a few years of auditioning in New York and not getting anything”, Swift turned her attention to country music.^[13] When she was in fourth grade, Swift won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem, "Monster in My Closet".^[7][14] At the age of eleven, Swift entered a competition to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels at a Strausstown amphitheater. Swift won, singing a rendition of LeAnn Rimes’s “Big Deal”.^[12] Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg Fair.^[15] She recorded a demo of karaoke covers, and travelled with her family to Nashville, Tennessee for spring break, leaving a copy of the demo with record labels along Music Row. Swift received no feedback about the demo and realised that "I needed to know how to do something more than just sing a song".^[12]

Swift began performing the national anthem at many sport events in an attempt to create record label interest. On one occasion, an 11-year-old Swift high-fived Jay-Z after singing the national anthem at a 76ers game in Philadelphia.^[16] A family friend showed Swift how to play three chords on a guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You".^[17] She then recorded a second demo of original songs.^[12] In 2003, Swift and her family began working with music manager Dan Dymtrow, and Swift's second demo caught the attention of RCA Records, who offered the eight-grader a artist development deal. In 2004, Swift modelled for Abercrombie and Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign and had an original song included in a Maybelline Cosmetics compilation CD.^[18]

When Swift was 14, her father transferred to the Nashville office of Merrill Lynch and the family relocated to a lake-side house in Hendersonville, Tennessee.^[1] In Tennessee, Swift attended Hendersonville High School for her freshman and sophomore year.^[19] She then transferred to the Aaron Academy, a private Christian school which offered homeschooling services, and earned her high school diploma in 2008.^[20]

At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town,^[21] but was rejected.^[22] After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the US Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention.^[23]

When Swift was 15, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to keep her on an artist development deal.^[24] After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta,^[25] who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. At age 14, she became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.^[26]

Swift's musical influences this stage in her career were Shania Twain.^[27] Her other influences included LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline^[28] and her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), who was an opera singer.^[29][7] She also credits the Dixie Chicks with demonstrating the impact that one can have by "stretching boundaries".^[30]

Swift released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, reaching No.6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs chart.^[31] Her self-titled debut album was later released on October 24, 2006.^[32] Debuting high on the Billboard 200, the album sold 39,000 copies during its first week.^[33] It peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and No.5 on the Billboard 200.^[34] Her debut album spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts^[35] and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks.^[36] The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood.^[37] The music video for "Tim McGraw" won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards.^[38] Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006.^[39] On May 15, 2007, Swift performed "Tim McGraw" at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as well.^[40]

The second single from the Taylor Swift album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. In mid-2007, the song peaked at No.2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and No.33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released with a pop remix that brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to No.13 on the Hot 100 and No.11 on the Pop 100. In October 2007, Swift was awarded Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Assn. Intl., making her the youngest artist ever to win the award.^[41] Her third song off her debut album, "Our Song" spent six weeks at No.1 on the Country charts, peaked at No.16 on the Billboard Hot 100, and rose to No.24 on the Billboard Pop 100. Swift recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, which was released exclusively at Target in late 2007. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's successful single, "Picture to Burn", was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted and soon peaked at No.3 on the Billboard Country chart in spring 2008. "Should've Said No" became Swift's second No.1 single. In Summer 2008, Swift released Beautiful Eyes, an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.^[42] In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at No.1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and No.9 on the Billboard 200. With her self-titled debut album sitting at No.2 during the same week, Swift became the first artist since 1997 to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart.^[43] In October 2008, Swift performed a duet with best selling rock band Def Leppard in a taped show in Nashville, Tennessee, and their collaboration was up for both Performance of the Year and Wide Open Country Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards in 2009.^[44]

Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released in the United States on November 11, 2008.^[45] The album debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artist in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay.^[46] Its lead single "Love Story" became a hit on both the country and pop charts. During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift's sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history.^[47] It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004.^[48] Through its eighth week of release, Fearless has sold more than 338,467 downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place is Swift's debut Taylor Swift with sales of 236,046 downloads as of April 18, 2009.^[49] In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Miley Cyrus for the most by a female artist in a single week. With "White Horse" charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100.^[48] "Change", a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA's efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[50] The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics.

The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released on September 12, 2008. The Fearless album includes the "Love Story" music video which is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached No.2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of the list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart.^[51] The second single from Fearless, "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009. Though it missed the No.1 spot on Billboard's Hot Country Songs as of the week April 11, 2009, "White Horse" claimed the No.1 spot atop the USA Today/Country Aircheck chart (powered by Mediabase) in that week.^[52] "Forever & Always", another song from the album, was based on Swift's relationship with singer Joe Jonas.^[53][54] She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart.^[55] It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at No.1 on The Billboard 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs.^[56] Swift is Billboard's Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music's best-selling artist of 2008.^[57] Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada's top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. Fearless and Taylor Swift took the No.1 and No.2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart.^[58] Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008.

In January 2009, Swift announced her North American Fearless Tour planned for 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months.^[59] The tour kicked off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana. In the same month, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live.^[60][61] On February 8, 2009, Swift performed her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards. As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "Love Story" became the country song with the most paid downloads in history.^[62][63] Since the release of Fearless, she released one new song "Crazier" for the soundtrack of the feature film Hannah Montana: The Movie. At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for Fearless. Swift is the youngest artist in history to win the ACM Album of the Year award. The Academy lauded her for career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other artist in any genre of music, the breakthrough success of her debut album, and the worldwide crossover success of her No.1 single "Love Story". The Academy also cited Swift's contribution to helping country music attract a younger audience.^[64] As of late April 2009, Swift has sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile Ringtones.^[65] On April 28, 2009, Swift gave a free, private concert to students at Bishop Ireton High School, a small Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia after the school won a national "TXT 2 WIN" contest from Verizon Wireless.^[66] The students sent over 19,000 text messages to Verizon during a roughly one month long contest. Swift played for about an hour during the school's field day, an annual day-long recess with games and activities. On October 8, 2009 Swift's official website announced that her sold-out Fearless Tour would return to North America for 37 additional dates in 2010.

Scheduled to perform on September 13, 2009, Swift attended the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. This was her first VMA performance, where she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award.^[67] During the show, as Swift was on stage accepting the award for Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me", singer/rapper Kanye West came on stage and took the microphone from Swift, saying that Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated for the same award, was "one of the best videos of all time," an action that caused the many audience members to boo West.^[68][69] He handed the microphone back to a stunned and reportedly upset Swift, who did not finish her acceptance speech.^[68][70] When Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech.^[68][71] Following the awards show, West apologized for his verbal outburst in a blog entry (which was subsequently removed).^[68] He was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst,^{[69][72][73][74][75]} and even by President Barack Obama who called West a "jackass" in an "off the record" comment.^[76][77][78] He later posted a second apology on his blog and made his first public apology one day after the incident on the debut episode of The Jay Leno Show.^[69] On September 15, 2009, Swift talked about the matter on The View, where she said she was at first excited to see West on stage and then disappointed once he acted out.^[79][80] She said West had not spoken to her following the incident.^[80] Following her appearance on The View, West contacted her to apologize personally; Swift said she accepted his apology.^[67][80] However, on November 8, 2010, in an interview with a Minnesota radio station, West seemed to recant a bit of his past apologies by attempting to describe the act at the 2009 awards show as "selfless" and downplay the perception of disrespect it created.^[81][82] Swift would later perform a song at the 2010 VMA called "Innocent" which is about the incident and in the song she absolves West of his actions.^[83]

On November 11, 2009, Swift became the youngest artist ever to win the Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the year, and is one of only six women to win the Country Music Association's highest honor.^[84] On the chart week of November 14, 2009, Swift set a record for the most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a female artist at the same time with eight singles from the re-release of her 2008 album Fearless namely five debut new songs in the top 30: "Jump Then Fall" at #10, "Untouchable" at #19, "The Other Side of the Door" at #22, "Superstar" at No.27 and "Come in With the Rain" at No.30 and three already-charted songs that were released as singles—"You Belong with Me" (#14), "Forever & Always" which re-entered the chart at #34, and "Fifteen" (#46).^[85] In addition, the song "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls which features Swift, debuted at No.80 in the same issue. This gives Swift six debuts in one week, the biggest number of debuts by any female artist of all time. It also lifts the number of her simultaneously-charting songs to nine, setting another record for the biggest number of charting songs by the same female artist in the same week.^[86] When "Fifteen" reached No.38 on the chart week of November 21, 2009, Swift became the female artist with the most Top 40 singles this decade, surpassing Beyoncé. "Fifteen" became Swift's twentieth Top 40 single overall.^[87] "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls and John Mayer's "Half of My Heart" both featured Swift, peaking at No.40 and No.25 respectively. The two songs are her 21st and 22nd Top 40 singles. Fearless was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US with more than 3.2 millions copies sold in that year. Swift claimed both the No.1 and No.2 positions atop Nielsen's BDS Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all genres), with "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story", respectively. She also topped the all format 2009 Top 10 Artist Airplay chart with over 1.29 million song detections, and the Top 10 Artist Internet Streams chart with more than 46 million song plays.^[88]

On December 2, 2009, Swift received eight Grammy nominations; Album of the Year, Best Country Album, Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song for "White Horse", Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "You Belong With Me", and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for "Breathe".^[89] On January 31, 2010, she won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, Best Country Album, Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song at the 52nd Grammy Awards.^[90]

Swift released the track "Today Was a Fairytale" as a digital download on iTunes on January 19, 2010. The song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Valentine's Day, in which she made her feature-film acting debut. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 2,^[91] becoming her sixth Top 10 and 23rd Top 40 single on that chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, with sales of "Today Was a Fairytale" more than 325,000 in its first week, Swift has broken the record for first-week download sales by a female artist.^[92] The song also debuted at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, making it Swift's first number one hit in Canada. In February 2010, Swift brought her Fearless Tour to 5 cities in Australia. Opening acts included Gloriana.^[93] In mid-July 2010, Billboard revealed that Swift's new album was called Speak Now. It was released on October 25, 2010.^[94] She wrote the album completely by herself in Arkansas, New York, Boston and Nashville with Nathan Chapman serving as co-producer.

On Wednesday, August 4, 2010, the lead single from the album, "Mine", was leaked onto the internet. Big Machine Records decided to rush the release of the song to counteract the leak. Swift appeared at the 44th Annual Country Music Awards on November 10, 2010.^[95] In 2011, Swift visited Singapore as the first stop of the Asian leg of her first world tour.^[96] After the last stop of the Speak Now World Tour in Hong Kong, Swift began the European and American leg.^[97] Swift's first live album, Speak Now World Tour: Live, featuring all seventeen performances from the North American leg of her concert tour, was released on November 21, 2011.^[98] Many dates on the Speak Now World Tour were cancelled due to Swift suffering from bronchitis.^[99] Swift sold approximately 4,470,000 albums in the US in 2010 (more than any other artist) and sold 9.9 million digital tracks.^[100] She was ranked second on Rolling Stone's lists of Top 16 "Queen Of Pops" of the decade.^[101] Swift appeared on the Hamish & Andy show where she performed a new song called "Chaperone Dads", which is dedicated to a select group of her fans.^[102] The week following the release of her "Sparks Fly" video Swift jumped from nineteen to ten on the Billboard's Social 50.^[103] On December 23, 2011, Swift announced via Twitter, "Something I've been VERY excited about for a VERY long time is going to be happening VERY soon." ^[104] Several hours later, Swift announced that she is featured on The Hunger Games Official Movie Soundtrack. Her song, titled "Safe & Sound", was the first track released from the album. The song was co-written by The Civil Wars, who also co-recorded the song with Swift. Swift also recorded another song for The Hunger Games soundtrack (The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond), called "Eyes Open". The soundtrack is set to be released on March 20, 2012. On January 8, 2012, Swift was elected the fifth top artist (fourth female top artist) of all-time with the best-selling digital music tracks. Swift has sold 41,821,000 digital tracks as of the end of 2011 according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[105]

On February 12, 2012, her song "Mean" received the Grammy Award for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards. Speak Now was also nominated for Best Country Album but lost to Lady Antebellum's Own the Night.^[106] Swift was nominated for several Academy of Country Music Awards, including "Entertainer of the Year", "Female Vocalist" and "Video of the Year" for "Mean". On April 1, 2012, she won the award for "Entertainer of the Year" for the second time running.

Swift is currently working on her fourth album,^[107] which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2012.^[108] 25 songs have already been completed^[108] but Swift intends to keep writing and recording throughout 2012 "because I'm having so much fun".^[109] The album will detail an "absolute crash-and-burn heartbreak"; there has been media speculation that it will focus on Swift's relationship with actor Jake Gyllenhaal.^[110] She has described the album's mood as "sad, if I'm being honest."^[111] After writing her third album alone, Swift is now collaborating with people "from all different places in music",^[109] including songwriter Lori McKenna.^[112][113]

It has also been confirmed that Swift will appear on a song called "Both of Us" from B.o.B's upcoming album Strange Clouds, due out May 1, 2012.^[114]

Swift's lyrics are highly autobiographical; she has said that "If you listen to my albums, it’s like reading my diary."^[115] For example, the song "Forever & Always" was inspired by her relationship with Joe Jonas,^[53][54] while the song "Hey Stephen" was written about a boy whom she toured with in the past.^[115] "Fifteen" was written about her freshman year of high school. It has been said that her lyrics "can be tinged with acid: the quiet loner girl getting one over on the cheerleaders, or a caustic payback for the boy who dumped her."^[116] She has also indicated that she tries to write so her fans can relate to the lyrics, saying "My goal is to never write songs that my fans can't relate to."^[117] She parodied her confrontational style of songwriting during her appearance on Saturday Night Live; during her opening monologue, she performed an original song that featured lines such as "You might think I'd bring up Joe, that guy who broke up with me on the phone/ Hey, Joe, I'm doing real well, tonight I'm hosting 'SNL'" referring to her highly publicized relationship with Joe Jonas.^[118]

The intensely personal nature of the songs has drawn her attention in the music industry. Swift once said, "I thought people might find them hard to relate to, but it turned out that the more personal my songs were, the more closely people could relate to them."^[119] Due to the autobiographical nature of her songs, some fans have researched the songs' origins. Swift once said, "Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans."^[120] The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".^[121]

Swift made her primetime television acting debut in 2009 in an episode of CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers.^[122] Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest for the November 7, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live.^[123] In 2010, Swift made her feature film acting debut in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day and won the Teen Choice Award for Movie Female Breakout.^[124] In 2012, she voiced the character of Audrey in the animated film The Lorax.^[125]

On September 21, 2007, Swift helped launch a campaign to protect children from online predators.^[126] She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes.^[126] The year-long campaign, in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state.^[126] In early 2008, Swift donated the pink Chevy pick-up truck given to her by her record label to the children’s charity, the Victory Junction Gang; in June 2008, Swift donated all the proceeds from her merchandise sales at the 2008 Country Music Festival to Red Cross, the Nashville Area Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and the National American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.^[127]

Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help the victims of the Iowa flood of 2008.^[128] Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening "responsibly".^[129] Swift supports @15, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund. Swift's song, "Fifteen", is featured in this campaign.^[130] Swift lent her support to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney's Sound Relief concert,^[131] reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist playing at Sound Relief to the Australian Red Cross.^[132] Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200 for charity, to DonateMyDress.org.^[133] On November 20, 2009 after a live performance on BBC's Children in Need night Swift announced to Sir Terry Wogan she would donate £13,000 of her own money to the cause.^[134]

On December 13, Swift's own birthday, she donated $250,000 to various schools around the country which she had either attended or been involved with.^[135] Swift has donated a pair of her shoes – a gently-worn pair of black Betsey Johnson heels with her autograph on the sole – to the Wish Upon a Hero Foundation's Hero in Heels fundraiser for auction to raise money to benefit women with cancer. In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated $500,000 during a flood relief telethon hosted by WSMV, a Nashville television station.^[136] On May 23, 2011, Swift transformed what was to have been the final dress rehearsal for the North American leg of her Speak Now tour into a benefit concert for victims of recent tornadoes in the United States southeast region. The concert in Nashville drew more than 13,000 people and raised more than $750,000 from proceeds from ticket sales, merchandise and other facets of the show.^[137] The benefit concert for tornado relief was subsequently honored at the 2011 Do Something Awards.^[138] In July 2011, Swift further aided the cause by donating $250,000 to Alabama football coach Nick Saban's charity Nick's Kids to aid in the tornado relief efforts of West Alabama.^[139]

Jakks Pacific released a celebrity doll of Swift in late 2008.^[140] Swift has been the face of L.E.I. Jeans (Life Energy Intelligence) since 2008.^[141] Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on Swift's style of dressing, which will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming months.^[142] However, Swift said she does not want to be called a designer. Instead, she says she will inspire the clothing company's dress line based on her own style. "I don't look at it like I'm branching out as a designer... It's not the Taylor Swift designer line."^[143] In 2009, Swift became the National Hockey League's newest celebrity spokesperson. She appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.^[144]

In May 2009, Swift filed a lawsuit (kept sealed until August 2010) against numerous sellers of unauthorized counterfeit merchandise bearing her name, likeness, and trademarks, where she demanded a trial by jury, sought a judgement for compensatory damages, punitive damages, three times the actual damages sustained, and statutory damages, and sought for recovery of her attorney's fees and prejudgement interest.^[145] Nashville's U.S. District Court granted an injunction and judgment against the sellers, who had been identified at Swift's concerts in several states. The court ordered merchandise seized from the defendants to be destroyed.^{[146][147][148]} On July 15, 2011, Swift's official website announced that she had partnered with Elizabeth Arden to launch a fragrance, which is to be released in October 2011.^{[needs update]} The fragrance's name, "Wonderstruck", is a reference to the song "Enchanted" featured on her Speak Now album.^[149] Swift is also working with American Greetings, Inc.^[150] She has endorsement deals with companies including Target, CoverGirl, Sony, Elizabeth Arden, Walmart and American Greetings.^[151]

Swift has been described as a role model by public figures such as Reese Witherspoon.^[152] The singer considers it "my responsibility" to be "conscious" of her influence on young fans.^[153] However, she insists that, "I don't live by all these rigid, weird rules that make me feel all fenced in. I just like the way that I feel like, and that makes me feel very free."^[154] Swift doesn't drink alcohol because she worries that "I might come off in a way that I can't control. Maybe I should just lighten up!" "It's not like I judge people who [drink] or that I don't hang out with people who drink."^[154] She refuses to take part in overly sexualised photo-shoots: "I like trying out new styles but I don’t feel comfortable taking my clothes off."^[8] The lyrical content of Swift's songs is regarded as appropriate for young audiences; a New Yorker journalist who attended a Swift concert recounted watching "six sixteen-year-old girls holding hands and swaying, and a girl in a hijab sobbing as she sang the words. It was hard not to be a little moved, and not to feel relieved that the words being sung were, more or less, safe ... One can attend a concert by Katy Perry and listen to a stadium full of thirteen-year-olds chant along with the song “Peacock” which goes, “I want to see your peacock-cock-cock! Your peacock-cock!"^[1]

Swift's vocal abilities have received criticism.^[1] Music critic Bob Lefsetz criticized her several times stating that she "can't sing". As a result, it has been said that the song "Mean" was aimed to him. After analyzing the lyrics, Lefsetz wrote on his blog that he wasn't sure the song was about him and repeated that she can't sing. He also criticized her for not acting like an adult, asking: "Can she now be a woman singing about womanly issues?".^[155]

In an interview with The New Yorker, Swift refused to defend her singing voice: “I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across”.^[1]

The merits of Swift as a feminist have been widely discussed.^[156] She has been described by Jezebel as "a feminist's nightmare": "Her image of being good and pure plays right into how much the patriarchy fetishizes virginity, loves purity, and celebrates women who know their place as delicate flowers".^[157] However, a Village Voice music critic dismissed this criticism as "shallow and gross, in that special way that things get gross when you cram shaded and living work through an ideological sieve like you're mechanically separating chicken".^[158] He continued, "Criticisms include: She's a conformist stooge of the patriarchy (she's now had two hits about defying fathers); she idolizes chastity (she's coy about sex, but only the willful could miss the fucking in the new "Sparks Fly," which includes the line "Gimme something that'll haunt me when you're not around"); and she sells girls corrupt and shallow fairy-tale notions of romance (one of the two fairy-tale songs on Fearless mocked a guy for trying to white-knight her, and the only mention of such things on Speak Now is "I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you"—note the tense)."^[158] When asked by the New York Times in 2010 whether she considered herself a feminist, Swift replied, "I have never really thought about that".^[159]

Swift was included in People's annual "100 Most Beautiful People" 2008, 2009, and 2010 lists.^[160][161] Additionally, she was named 57th on Maxim's sexiest women of 2008, 50th on the 2009 list^[162] and 31st on the 2010 list.^[163] CosmoGirl voted Swift as the "2008 Girl of the Year".^[164] Swift was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of "The RS 100: Agents of Change".^[165] She was nominated as a candidate for TIME's "2009 The Time 100 Finalists" list, which is determined by online voting.^[166] People magazine named Swift one of 25 Most Intriguing People of 2009.^[167]

Swift's main residence is a duplex penthouse in midtown Nashville, Tennessee.^[168][1] She also owns a house in Beverly Hills, California.^[169][170]

Swift dated singer Joe Jonas from July to October 2008.^[171][172] Jonas ended the relationship by phone after meeting actress Camilla Belle, whom he then began dating.^[173][174] Swift's songs "Forever and Always", "Last Kiss" and "Better than Revenge" were inspired by her relationship with Jonas.^[175] Swift casually dated actor Taylor Lautner from October to December 2009.^[176][177] Her song "Back to December" is believed to be addressed to Lautner.^[178]

Swift was romantically linked to musician John Mayer from late 2009 until June 2010.^{[179][180][181]} They first met in 2008^[182] and recorded a duet, "Half of My Heart", in late 2009.^[183] There is speculation that Swift wrote the songs "Dear John" and "The Story of Us" about her relationship with Mayer.^[184][175] Swift dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal from October 2010 to December 2010.^[185][186] They were last photographed together in Nashville on January 19, 2011.^[187] Swift has indicated that her fourth album will be about the relationship.^[188]

After casting her vote in the 2008 US presidential election, Swift declined to inform journalists which candidate she had supported.^[189] However, following Barack Obama's inauguration, she told Rolling Stone: "I've never seen this country so happy about a political decision in my entire time of being alive. I'm so glad this was my first election."^[190] In 2009, after Swift's VMA acceptance speech was interrupted by Kanye West, President Obama described West's behaviour as "really inappropriate". "The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She’s getting her award. What is he doing up there? He’s a jackass."^[191]

In 2010, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush attended the taping of a television special to promote Swift's Speak Now record.^[192] The taping took place in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush later described Swift as "unspoiled" and "very nice".^[193]

In 2012, Swift was presented with a Kids' Choice Award in recognition of her charitable work by Michelle Obama, who praised her as someone who "has rocketed to the top of the music industry but still keeps her feet on the ground, someone who has shattered every expectation of what a 22-year old can accomplish".^[194] Swift later described the First Lady as "a role model".^[195]

Swift is an admirer of the Kennedy family and has spent time with Rory, Caroline and, particularly, Ethel Kennedy.^[196] When asked about her friendship with Swift, Ethel replied, "Oh, she is amazing! Such good company."^[197] Rory has said, "There is a mutual admiration society between my mother and Taylor Swift and I just love it! I think it says so much about Taylor - she has that ability to connect and cross generations ... She's terrific and such a great role model for young girls, as well as for all women, really. ... She's just so curious and interested".^[197] In January 2012, Swift travelled to Utah to attend the Sundance premiere of the HBO documentary Ethel.^[198]

• Taylor Swift (2006)
• Fearless (2008)
• Speak Now (2010)

• Fearless Tour (2009–10)
• Speak Now World Tour (2011–12)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taylor Swift.

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• Official website
• Taylor Swift on Twitter
• Taylor Swift at IMDb

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