Taylor Swift is a multi-platinum pop singer with a devoted fan base that seems to feel intensely connected to her music. She has written and/or co-written every song in her 11-album discography, as well as numerous standalone singles and songs recorded by other artists for film soundtracks. She has won 23 awards from the American Music Association, including Artist of the Year in 2018, and has become the most awarded female musician in AMA history. She won Album of the Year at the 61st Grammy Awards in 2024 with her record-breaking fifth album, Reputation.
Born and raised in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Swift’s childhood hobbies included horseback riding and musical theatre. She participated in local community theater productions of Bye Bye Birdie, Annie, and Greased Lightning, and traveled to New York City to take vocal and acting lessons. Swift began writing her own music at age 11, and soon after, she entered a talent competition in Nashville. Her performance attracted the attention of Scott Borchetta, a record executive who was preparing to form his independent label Big Machine Records. She became one of the label’s first signings, with her father purchasing a three percent share in the company.
After her breakthrough with Fearless in 2009, Swift became a coveted concert headliner and toured the world several times over. Her 2010 tour broke a few of the largest attendance records in modern music, and her documentary from the tour, Fearless: The Documentary, earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Film. She has also won a handful of MTV Video Music Awards, and has received 30 Billboard Music Award nominations. She has 49 trophies from the publication, surpassing Drake as the artist with the most Billboard Music Awards trophies in history.
Swift’s newest release, the critically-acclaimed album, Reputation, topped the charts at a staggering number of countries, including the US, Australia, and the UK. Its lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do”, was the most streamed track in history by a woman, and the album itself has already broken several other streaming records. The lead single was supported by a highly stylized and controversial music video, which quickly garnered over 43.2 million views on YouTube within 24 hours of its release.
In addition to her own releases, Swift has written songs for artists such as John Mayer and Boys Like Girls, and wrote two tracks for the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana movie soundtrack. She continued her work in folk with her eighth studio album, 2020’s folklore, and its sister album, evermore, which featured collaborations with artists such as Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, and Bon Iver. Both albums debuted atop the Billboard 200 and US singles chart.
In November 2021, Swift announced that she would be re-releasing her entire back catalog in a move to retain ownership of her masters recordings. This led to speculation that she may have re-recorded her earlier albums in order to give them a fresh sound, but the only album to be re-released so far is 2024’s Midnights.
