Overview (4)
Mini Bio (1)
Taylor Swift is a multi-Grammy award-winning American
singer/songwriter who, in 2010 and 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. Additionally Swift
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. She has English, German, Irish, Scottish,
and 1/16th Italian, ancestry.
Taylor was named after
James Taylor,
and her mother believed that if she had a gender neutral 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
Taylor was nine years old, the family moved to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,
where she attended West Reading Elementary Center and Wyomissing Area
Junior/Senior High School. Taylor spent her summers at her parent's
vacation home at the Jersey Shore. Swift's 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, Taylor 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 Broadway, New York 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 the age of
eleven, after many attempts Taylor won a local talent competition by
singing a rendition of LeAnn Rimes's "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 the age of twelve, Swift 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. Taylor moved to Nashville
at the age of fourteen, having secured an artist development deal with
RCA Records. Taylor left RCA Records when she was fifteen, the company
wanted her to record the work of other songwriters and wait until she
was eighteen 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 Swift the
youngest sole writer and singer of a number one country song. The album
sold 39,000 copies during its first week. In 2008 Taylor 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 number four 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 number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The album
debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. It was the
top-selling album of 2009 and brought Swift much crossover success.
In
September 2009, Swift 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 Kanye West, 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
became the youngest ever artist, and one of only six women, to be named
Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. Taylor
released her third studio album in October 2010 "Speak Now" and she
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
thirteen-month, 111 date world tour, Swift played seven shows in Asia,
twelve shows in Europe, 80 shows in North America and twelve shows in
Australasia. Three dates on the US tour were rescheduled after Swift
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, T.I., 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 22 October
2012.She wrote nine of the album's sixteen 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
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" which 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 rockstar" 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, Good Morning America, The View, the Late Show
with David Letterman, Nightline and 20/20: All Access Nashville with
Katie Couric. She performed at Los Angeles's 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 Covergirl, 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 number one 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.
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 5th album, titled 1989, on October
27th, 2014. This album is when she finally made the complete transition
from country to pop. She says that she will jot be going to any Country
Music Award shows. The album is named after the year she was born, and
is and is a sort of 80's sounding album, in the sense that it's more
electronic.
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