Photo Credit: Newscom
Taylor Swift
Photo Credit: Bauer Griffin
Has Been Spotted Wearing these Sunglasses
- Prada - PR21IS
- Ray-Ban - Wayfarers
Biography
Taylor Alison Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on December 13th, 1989. Her talents for poetry and song writing were evident early on; in the fourth grade, she won a national poetry contest and at the age of ten, she began writing songs and performing in local festivals and karaoke contests. She also regularly performed with an area kid's comedy sketch group called TheatreKids Live! By age twelve, Taylor had put together her first demo tape, and was taking regular trips to Nashville, Tennessee in the hopes of landing a country music recording contract. When she was fourteen years old, her family moved to Hendersonville, Tenn. to be closer to Nashville. She began working as the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by Sony/ATV Tree Publishing.
Taylor launched her music career in 2006 with her debut single "Tim McGraw," titled after her favorite country artist. This first effort alone would garner her the 2007 CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year. In October of that same year she released her self-titled first album, Taylor Swift. The songs "Tim McGraw", "Our Song," "Picture to Burn," "Our Song" and "Teardrops on My Guitar" became huge Country and Top 100 Billboard successes. In October of 2007, she was the youngest artist ever to receive the Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award from Nashville Songwriter's Association International.
Taylor released her second album, Fearless in the last quarter of 2008. It debuted at the top of the charts with the highest sales of any country artist that year. A total of seven songs off the album climbed the charts almost simultaneously. She kicked off 2009 with a long list of tour dates, including a performance at the Grammy Awards alongside Miley Cyrus.
Swift found herself at the center of controversy at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when rapper Kanye West stormed the stage and pulled the microphone from her hands during her acceptance speech for Best Female Video. Swift did not get to finish her speech until later, after West was removed from the premises for his outburst. Despite this embarrassment, she kept her head held high and thanked the audience for their support of her work. When West called her to apologize for the outburst, she gracefully accepted, showing great dignity and maturity for such a young artist. She continues to tour, write songs and act as an unofficial country music ambassador to young people all over the country.
Trivia
- Grandmother was an opera singer
- Favorite food is cheesecake
- Grew up on a Christmas tree farm and had the job of removing praying mantis pods from the trees
- Favorite footwear is cowboy boots
- Was the youngest singer to win the Entertainer of the Year award from the Country Music Association (2009)
Quotes
- "I would love to continue in music, with writing...but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don't need to be blonde when I'm 60!"
- "Fans are my favorite thing in the world. I've never been the type of artist who has that line drawn between their friends and their fans. The line's always been really blurred for me. I'll hang out with them after the show. I'll hang out with them before the show. If I see them in the mall, I'll stand there and talk to them for 10 minutes. I don't care. I'm just a senior in high school who has a better job. Who am I to think I'm better than talking to people?"
- "I write blatantly obvious songs with blatantly obvious details, and then I'm like NO! when they find out. I dunno what's wrong with me. I have issues."
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