taylor swift biography wikipedia

Taylor Swift

• Born December 13 , 1989 · Reading, Pennsylvania, USA
• Birth name Taylor Alison Swift
• Dr Taylor Alison Swift
• Height 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
• Taylor Alison Swift is a multi-Grammy award-winning American singer/songwriter who, in 2010 at the age of 20, became the youngest artist in history to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2011 Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year. She also has been named the American Music Awards Artist of the Year, as well as the Entertainer of the Year for both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, among many other accolades. As of this writing, she is also the top-selling digital artist in music history. Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Andrea (Finlay), a one-time marketing executive, and Scott Kingsley Swift, a financial adviser. Her ancestry includes German and English, as well as some Scottish, Irish, Welsh and 1/16th Italian. She was named after James Taylor , and her mother believed that if she had a gender neutral name it would help her forge a business career. Taylor spent most of her childhood on an 11-acre Christmas tree farm in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. When she was nine years old the family moved to Wyomissing, PA, where she attended West Reading Elementary Center and Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. Taylor spent her summers at her parents' vacation home at the Jersey shore. Her first hobby was English horse riding. Her mother put her in a saddle when she was nine months old and Swift later competed in horse shows. At the age of nine she turned her attention to musical theatre and performed in Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions of "Grease", "Annie", "Bye Bye Birdie" and "The Sound of Music". She traveled regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons. However, after a few years of auditioning in New York and not getting anything, she became interested in country music. At age 11, after many attempts, Taylor won a local talent competition by singing a rendition of LeAnn Rimes ' "Big Deal", and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels at a Strausstown amphitheater. This interest in country music isolated Swift from her middle school peers. At age 12 she was shown by a computer repairman how to play three chords on a guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You". She had previously won a national poetry contest with a poem entitled "Monster in My Closet", but now began to focus on songwriting. She moved to Nashville at age 14, having secured an artist development deal with RCA Records. She left RCA Records when she was 15--the label wanted her to record the work of other songwriters and wait until she was 18 to release an album, but she felt ready to launch her career with her own material. At an industry showcase at Nashville's The Bluebird Café in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta , a Dreamworks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label, Big Machine Records. Taylor was one of the new label's first signings. Taylor released her debut album, "Taylor Swift", in October of 2006 and received generally positive reviews from music critics. The New York Times described it as "a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift's firm, pleading voice". Her single "Our Song" made her the youngest solo writer and singer of a #1 country song. The album sold 39,000 copies during its first week. In 2008 she released her second studio album, "Fearless". The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released in September 2008 and became the second best-selling country single of all time, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Four more singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. It was the top-selling album of 2009 and brought Swift much crossover success. In September 2009 she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award when "You Belong with Me" was named Best Female Video. Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Ye , who had been involved in a number of other award show incidents. West declared Beyoncé 's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated in the same category, to be "one of the best videos of all time". When Beyoncé later won the award for Video of the Year, she invited Taylor onstage to finish her speech. In November 2009 Taylor Swift became the youngest ever artist, and one of only six women, to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. She released her third studio album in October 2010, "Speak Now", and wrote all the songs herself. She originally intended to call the album "Enchanted" but Scott Borchetta, her record label's CEO, felt the title did not reflect the album's more adult themes. Swift toured throughout 2011 and early 2012 in support of "Speak Now". As part of the 13-month, 111-date world tour, Swift played seven shows in Asia, 12 in Europe, 80 in North America and 12 in Australasia (three dates on the US tour were rescheduled after she fell ill with bronchitis). The stage show was inspired by Broadway musical theatre, with choreographed routines, elaborate set-pieces, pyrotechnics and numerous costume changes. Swift invited many musicians to join her for one-off duets during the North American tour. Appearances were made by James Taylor, Jason Mraz , Shawn Colvin , Johnny Rzeznik , Andy Grammer , Tal Bachman , Justin Bieber , Selena Gomez , Nicki Minaj , Nelly , B.o.B. , Usher , Flo Rida , Tip 'T.I.' Harris , Jon Foreman , Jim Adkins , Hayley Williams , Hot Chelle Rae , Ronnie Dunn , Darius Rucker , Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney . In May 2012 Taylor featured in B.o.B's song "Both of Us". Swift's fourth studio album, "Red", was released on October 22, 2012. She wrote nine of the album's 16 songs alone; the remaining seven were co-written with Max Martin , Liz Rose , Dan Wilson , Ed Sheeran and Gary Lightbody . Nathan Chapman served as the album's lead producer but Jeff Bhasker , Butch Walker , Jacknife Lee , Dann Huff and Shellback (aka Shellback) also produced individual tracks. Chapman has said he encouraged Swift "to branch out and to test herself in other situations". She has described the collaborative process as "an apprenticeship" that taught her to "paint with different colors". "Red" examines Swift's attraction to drama-filled relationships; she believes that, since writing the record, such relationships no longer appeal to her. Musically, while there is some experimentation with "slick, electronic beats", the pop sheen is limited to a handful of tracks sprinkled among more recognizably Swiftian fare. "Rolling Stone" enjoyed "watching Swift find her pony-footing on Great Songwriter Mountain. She often succeeds in joining the Joni/ Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping . . . Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop." The Guardian described Swift as a "Brünnhilde of a rock star" and characterized "Red" as "another chapter in one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed". "USA Today" felt that the "engaging" record saw Swift "write ever-more convincingly--and wittily and painfully--about the messy emotions of a young twenty something nearing the end of her transition from girl to woman". The "Los Angeles Times" noted the exploration of "more nuanced relationship issues" on "an unapologetically big pop record that opens new sonic vistas for her". As part of the "Red" promotional campaign, representatives from 72 worldwide radio stations were flown to Nashville during release week for individual interviews with Swift. She made television appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003) , Good Morning America (1975) , The View (1997) , Late Show with David Letterman (1993) , ABC News Nightline (1980) and All Access Nashville with Katie Couric (2012) . She performed at Los Angeles' MTV VMAs and London's Teen Awards, and will also perform at Nashville's CMA Awards, Frankfurt's MTV Europe Music Awards, Los Angeles' AMA Awards and Sydney's ARIA Music Awards. Swift offered exclusive album promotions through Target, Papa John's and Walgreens. She became a spokesmodel for Keds sneakers, released her sophomore Elizabeth Arden fragrance and continued her partnerships with Cover Girl, Sony Electronics and American Greetings, as well as her unofficial brand tie-ins with Ralph Lauren and Shellys. The album's lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", was released in August 2012. The song became Swift's first #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, recording the highest ever one-week sales figures for a female artist. Two further singles have since been released: "Begin Again" (country radio) and "I Knew You Were Trouble" (pop and international radio).In her career, as of May 2012, Swift has sold over 23 million albums and 54.5 million digital tracks worldwide. Taylor Swift is only beginning to emerge as an acting talent, having voiced the role of Audrey in the animated feature The Lorax (2012) . She also made appearances in the theatrical release Valentine's Day (2010) and in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000) . She contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games (2012) soundtrack: "Safe & Sound featuring The Civil Wars" and "Eyes Open". Taylor released her fifth album, titled "1989", on October 27, 2014. This album is when she finally made the complete transition from country to pop. She says that she will not be going to any Country Music Award shows. The album is named after the year she was born, and is a sort of '80s-sounding album, in the sense that it's more electronic. In March 2015 she began dating Scottish Disc Jockey Calvin Harris after having met at the Brit Awards in February. They were together for thirteen months. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous and Aman Jaitly (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
• Children No Children
• Parents Scott Swift Andrea Swift
• Relatives Austin Swift (Sibling)
• Writing songs about her exes
• Frequent use of the number 13
• She often goes barefoot
• Red lipstick
• Literary references in song lyrics
• For songs that are owned by herself and for which she gets full revenues, she always adds "Taylor's Version" as a subtitle (for example, "Breathe (Taylor's Version)").
• Named Person of the Year by Time magazine in 2023, becoming the first entertainer to be named as an individual. She was also named among 2017's Persons of the Year, "The Silence Breakers", as people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment.
• She loves being barefoot, and is frequently seen without shoes in her music videos and photo shoots.
• Has three cats: Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson, and Benjamin Button.
• Was home-schooled around the time she was 14.
• [on the Britney Spears perfume she wore] The coolest girl in school wore Britney Spears' Fantasy, and I had to copy her.
• People haven't always been there for me, but music always has.
• I never want to change so much that people can't recognize me.
• When I was a little girl I used to read fairy tales. In fairy tales you meet Prince Charming and he's everything you ever wanted. In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is. Then you grow up and you realize that Prince Charming is not as easy to find as you thought. You realize the bad guy is not wearing a black cape and he's not easy to spot; he's really funny, and he makes you laugh, and he has perfect hair.
• There's more to life than dating the boy on the football team.

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LIFE AND CAREER

    Taylor Alison Swift is a singer-songwriter born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Her father, Scott Swift, is a stockbroker; her mother, Andrea Swift, is a homemaker who previously worked as a fund marketing executive; and her brother, Austin, is an actor. Swift spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm with her parents.    At age 9, Swift started taking vocal and acting lessons in New York City and later decided to shift her focus toward country music, inspired by Shania Twain and Faith Hill.    When the rising star was around 12 years old, a computer repairman named Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar and helped with her first efforts as a songwriter, leading Taylor to write "Lucky You", her first song ever.     In 2003, with the help of a family friend manager, she modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch and had an original song included on the show's compilation CD. With it, came the opportunity to attend meetings with major record labels.     To help Taylor's break into country music, her father transferred his job to an office in Nashville when she was 14, and the family relocated to a lakefront house in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where Taylor attended high school. Two years later, she transferred to Aaron Academy to better accommodate her touring schedule through homeschooling. She graduated high school a year early because of that.

Career Beginnings

  In Nashville, Taylor started working with songwriter Liz Rose during two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school. Later, she became the youngest artist signed by Sony/ATV publishing house, but left the group at age 14. She believed she was running out of time because she wanted to capture the early years of her life on an album while it still represented what she was going through.     At a showcase in Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a record executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records. She became one of Big Machine's first signings, with her father purchasing a three percent share of the company.     Taylor then started working on her debut album and persuaded Big Machine to hire Nathan Chapman to produce her songs. Her first lead single “Tim McGraw” was released in June 2006, and Taylor Swift’s self titled album was released later that year, on October 24, 2006. It peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard 200, where it spent 275 weeks. Swift was also the opening act for Brad Paisley’s 2007 tour to promote her album and spent 2006 and 2007 doing promotion on radios, television, and being the opening act for country artists in the US. Throughout 2007 and 2008, Taylor released four more singles from her debut album and all of them appeared on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.    Swift released her first two EPs "The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection" and "Beautiful Eyes" in October 2007 and July 2008, respectively, winning accolades for all of her first three projects.     She became the youngest person to be honored with the BMI Songwriter of the Year title in 2007. She won awards at the CMAs, ACMs and AMAs while also securing a nomination for Best New Artist at the 50th Grammy Awards.

  Swift's sophomore album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008. Five singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009, with "Love Story", the lead single, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100  chart and number 1 in Australia. The second single, "You Belong With Me", peaked at number 2 in the US. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the top selling album of 2009 in the US.     The Fearless Tour – Swift's first headlining concert tour – grossed over $63 million, with Taylor releasing a documentary of the tour that was aired on television and released on DVD. Throughout 2009 and 2010, Swift won multiple awards with her LP at prestigious award shows such as the CMAs and the ACMs, including Artist of the Year at the AMAs and her first Album of the Year statue at the 52nd Grammys, where Swift also bagged another 3 wins. She was named 'Female Artist of the Year' by Billboard back in 2009 as well.     Taylor also co-wrote songs with artists such as John Mayer, Boys Like Girls, and Kellie Pickler, and wrote 2 tracks for Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana – "Crazier" and "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" – which were featured on the movie’s soundtrack.     During Fearless era, Taylor also wrote “Today Was A Fairytale” for the Valentine's Day movie Soundtrack, which peaked at number 2 in the US.

   In August 2010, Swift released "Mine”, the lead single from her third studio album, Speak Now. It debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number three. Following criticism claiming Taylor’s songwriting was good because she worked with co-writers, Swift wrote all 17 tracks on her third record by herself as well as co-produced every song.     The album was released on October 25, 2010, debuting at number 1 on Billboard 200, with 1 million copies sold in its first week.     At the 54th Grammy Awards, in 2012, Swift won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for "Mean", which she performed during the ceremony in response to her much criticized 2010 Grammy performance, serving as a testament to her abilities as a musician.    Swift won several awards for Speak Now, including Songwriter of the Year at the BMI Awards, Entertainer of the Year at the ACMs and CMAs, and was named Billboard’s Woman of the Year. The album also received general acclaim from critics, with Rolling Stone praising Taylor abilities as a rockstar.     The Speak Now World Tour was done between 2011 and 2012, grossing over $123 million. In November 2011, she released a live album, the “Speak Now World Tour Live".     Swift also contributed to The Hunger Games soundtrack with two original songs: “Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound”, recorded with The Civil Wars. The latter went on to win a Grammy award as well as a Golden Globe nomination. Taylor was featured on BoB's single "Both of Us”, released in May 2012. 

   In August 2012, Swift released "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", the lead single from her fourth studio album, RED. It became her first number one in the US and New Zealand, and reached the top spot on iTunes digital song sales chart only 50 minutes after its release. Her third single, "I Knew You Were Trouble”, peaked in the top 5 of the most important music market countries in the world, reaching the 2nd position on Billboard Hot 100.     RED was released on October 22, 2012. For this project, Taylor worked with new producers and songwriters, such as Max Martin and Shellback – who would become two of Taylor’s biggest collaborators in the future – as well as Nathan Chapman and Liz Rose, with whom she’d been working since her earlier days. The album incorporates new genres for Swift, like heartland rock, dubstep and dance pop influences.     RED debuted at number 1 in the US, with a first week sale of 1.2 million copies, and was Swift's first number 1 album in the UK. The Red Tour ran from March 2013 to June 2014 and grossed over $150 million, becoming the highest grossing country tour when it wrapped.     Red earned Swift several accolades, including 4 Grammy nominations, a VMA trophy, multiple AMA statues and a BMI award for Songwriter of the Year. Taylor was also honored by the Country Music Academy with the Pinnacle Award.     In 2013, Taylor recorded "Sweeter than Fiction" for the One Chance movie soundtrack. It became her first project with producer Jack Antonoff, who she would continue to work with in the future. Taylor also collaborated with Tim McGraw and Keith Urban in one of the most successful country songs of that year, “Highway Don’t Care”.  

    In March of 2014, Taylor moved to New York City while she worked on her fifth studio album, 1989, which would become her most successful and longest-charting record. Influenced by 1980s synth-pop, Swift severed ties with the country sound of her previous albums, and marketed 1989 as her "first documented, official pop album". The album was released on October 27, 2014 and sold 1.28 million copies in the US during the first week of release, debuting at the top of Billboard 200 chart.    Three of its singles – “Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood”, featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar – reached number one in Australia, Canada, and in the US.     The 1989 World Tour ran from May to December 2015 and was the highest-grossing tour of the year, with $250 million in total revenue.     During this era, Taylor went up against two of the biggest steaming services in the world, Spotify and Apple Music, in an effort to oppose the way these companies payed artists. In November 2014, Swift removed her entire catalog from Spotify, arguing that the streaming company’s ad-supported free service undermined the premium service, which provides higher royalties for songwriters. In June of 2015, Taylor wrote an open letter criticizing Apple Music for not offering royalties to artists during the streaming service's three-month free trial period. The following day, Apple announced that it would pay artists during the free trial period.     Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year in 2014, and at the 2014 American Music Awards, she received the inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence. During this era, Swift also won a BRIT, several VMAs, and multiple other accolades which solidified the 1989 era as the most awarded pop era of all time.     At the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016, 1989 won in 3 categories, including Album of the Year. Swift became the first woman and fifth act overall to win Album of the Year twice as a lead artist.     Swift co-wrote "This Is What You Came For" with Calvin Harris in 2016, and early in 2017, she collaborated with Zayn Malik on “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever”, for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. The song reached number two in the US and won Best Collaboration at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.    "Better Man”, a song Taylor had written during Red era, was released on Little Big Town's seventh album, The Breaker, and earned Swift an award for Song of the Year at the 51st CMA Awards in 2017.

   After disappearing from social media and the public eye during most of 2016, Swift executed one of the most successful comebacks in history with her sixth studio album, reputation. “Look What You Made Me Do” was released as the albums’s lead single and its music video broke the record for the most views in the first 24 hours of release.    The album was released on November 10, 2017 and incorporated a heavy electropop sound, with hip hop, R&B and EDM influences. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies. With this achievement, Swift became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the US. The project spawned three other international singles, including the US top-five entry "...Ready for It?".     In support of reputation, she embarked on her reputation Stadium Tour, which ran from May to November 2018. In the US, the tour grossed $266.1 million in box office and sold over two million tickets, breaking Swift's own record for the highest-grossing US tour by a woman, which was previously held by her 1989 World Tour ($181.5 million). It also became the highest-grossing North American concert tour in history. Worldwide, the tour grossed $345.7 million. On December 31st, Swift released the reputation Stadium Tour concert film on Netflix.     Reputation was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Grammy Awards in 2019. At the 2018 AMAs, Swift won four awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. After the 2018 ceremony, Swift garnered a total of 23 awards, becoming the most awarded female musician in AMA history.

    In November 2018, Taylor signed a new multi-album deal with Universal Music Group and her subsequent releases would be promoted under the Republic Records imprint. The contract included a provision for her to maintain ownership of her masters recordings. Her seventh album would become the first studio album owned by Swift.    Lover was released on August 23, 2019 and became Taylor’s sixth consecutive album to sell over 500,000 copies in its first week in the US, making Swift the first female artist to achieve this. All 18 songs from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the same week, setting a record for the most simultaneous entries by a woman. Lover was the world's best-selling solo studio album of 2019, selling 3.2 million copies.     The album earned multiple accolades, including 3 nominations at the Grammys, 3 VMAs and 6 AMAs. Swift also became the first female artist to win Artist of the Decade at the American Music Awards.    Taylor starred as Bombalurina in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Cats. She co-wrote and recorded an original song for the movie called "Beautiful Ghosts”, which would earn her another Golden Globe nod & a Grammy nomination at the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.    The documentary 'Miss Americana', which chronicles part of her life and career over the years, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released on Netflix in January 2020. Miss Americana features the original song "Only the Young", which Swift wrote after the 2018 United States presidential elections.     During promotion for Lover in 2019, Swift became embroiled in a publicized dispute with manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine regarding the acquisition of the masters of her back catalog. She stated she had been trying to buy the masters for years, but Big Machine only allowed her to do so if she exchanged a new album for an older one under another contract, which she chose not to sign. In October 2019, Swift's masters, videos and artworks were sold to Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300 million. Swift began re-recording her back catalog in November 2020 in an effort to own and be in control of her music and life’s work.

folklore, evermore and re-recordings

     On July 23, 2020, Swift surprise-announced she would be releasing her eighth studio album, folklore, at midnight. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and became the year's longest-running no. 1, with 8 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. The album’s lead single “cardigan” also debuted at #1.     Made in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, folklore was the result of a collaboration with long-time musical partner Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, from The National, with whom Taylor had never worked before, and Bon Iver who are featured in one of the album’s tracks.    In November 2020, Swift released the self-directed “folklore: the long pond studio sessions” on Disney+, a documentary in which Taylor, Aaron and Jack perform all the songs from the record while discussing the meanings and inspirations behind the album.    Folklore earned Swift 5 nominations at the Grammys, including Album and Song of the Year. Taylor won the Album of the Year statue, becoming the first woman to win the Grammy’s highest honor three times.    On December 10, 2020, Swift once again surprised her fans with the announcement of her ninth studio album and folklore’s sister record, evermore. The album was released on the 11th and continued Taylor’s collaborations with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff and Bon Iver, as well as incorporated new artists into the “folkmore universe”, such as HAIM and The National. Both evermore and its lead single “willow” debuted atop of the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts. Having both sister albums achieve this feature, Swift became the first artist to debut at the top of both the singles and albums charts simultaneously twice.    Folklore and Evermore embrace an indie folk and alternative rock production, a departure from Swift’s previous upbeat pop releases. Both albums sold over one million units worldwide in its first week and folklore broke the record for first-day album streams by a female artist on Spotify.     Taylor began working on the re-recordings of her first 6 studio albums in November of last year. The first release from this effort to own her catalog was the re-recording of her sophomore album Fearless, now Fearless (Taylor’s Version). It was released on April 9, 2021 and included 6 never before heard songs that didn’t make it into the album originally, besides the 20 tracks that had already been released in 2008 and 2009. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 200, becoming Swift’s 9th consecutive album and the first re-recorded album in history to do so.     Taylor announced she will be releasing the re-recording of her 4th studio album, RED, on November 19, 2021.