The pop singer is one of the best-selling artists in history and the highest-earning female artist on Spotify. She has won multiple Grammy awards, including Album of the Year.
Born and raised in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Swift began writing songs at the age of ten. At twelve she won a national poetry contest with a poem called “Monster in My Closet”. She then started to write music, and her first single, “Shake It Off”, was released in August 2015. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned her her first Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance. She soon began touring internationally with her 1989 World Tour, which was a huge success.
In 2021, Swift released her fifth studio album, Red. The record marked a departure from her previous style, and saw her explore more nuanced relationship issues. The Los Angeles Times wrote that the album was an example of “her ability to 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 album was also more collaborative than previous releases, with Swift cowriting nine of the thirteen tracks and working with producers such as Max Martin, Dan Wilson, Ed Sheeran and Gary Lightbody.
The album was met with critical acclaim, and won multiple awards including Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys. In early 2017, she released a collaboration with Zayn Malik for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack, and later that year she won Album of the Year at the CMA Awards for her contribution to Little Big Town’s seventh album, The Breaker. The following year, she won a Grammy for her single with Calvin Harris, “This Is What You Came For”.
Throughout the rest of the decade, Swift continued to release albums at a staggering rate. She also made an impact in film and television, starring as a rebellious witch in the 2014 comedy film The Fault in Our Stars, and playing Rosemary in season two episode 25 of New Girl and Bombalurina in the Cats musical.
In 2020, Swift was embroiled in a public dispute with her manager Scooter Braun and former label Big Machine Records over their decision to release a live radio set of her from 2008 on streaming services. She responded by announcing she would be releasing her own version of the album on her own label, and in November 2020 started re-recording her back catalog in an effort to gain ownership of her masters recordings.
In 2022, Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights. It was the final album of her Red (Taylor’s Version) era, and marked the start of her Reputation era. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the fastest-selling album of her career, and was met with critical acclaim. It was her most successful album to date, and saw her crowned the highest-earning artist of the year by IFPI.
