Celebrity biographies

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13.12.14 11:43

The appearance of a forest elf, the fragility and airiness of this singer’s appearance in no way fit with her strong character and determination (thanks to them, the girl had already won more than a hundred awards by the age of 25, among them 10 Grammys). She managed to win the hearts of Hollywood star Jake Gyllenhaal and her namesake, famous for his role as Jacob in the “Twilight Saga,” Lautner. And in 2011, she entered the list of the sexiest women in the world.

Biography of Taylor Swift

Granddaughter of an opera singer

Taylor, born on December 13, 1989, knew what luxury was from childhood. Her father Scott was a successful stock exchange employee, and her mother Andrea had no need to work, she looked after two kids - a daughter and son Austin. The future singer was born in Wyomissing (Pennsylvania).

The girl most likely inherited her abilities from her grandmother, who was an opera singer. She was an idol for Taylor - along with Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes.

When the girl was 10 years old, she began writing songs and won a poetry competition. In her small town, Taylor was already considered a celebrity, because her singing delighted her fellow countrymen at festivals, local holidays and competitions. The fragile girl managed to master the guitar, and since then she has practically never parted with her favorite instrument. Already at 11, this musical prodigy went to Nashville - Swift wanted to record her own disc. She sang the US anthem at the opening of the Philadelphia Games, and the girl’s singing touched the audience.

The meteoric rise of a "country prodigy"

So that Taylor could realize her dreams, the family moved to the suburbs of Nashville. The 14-year-old singer earned extra money by performing her own songs on one of the city’s busy streets. There she was noticed by music business veteran Steve Borchett, who began helping the aspiring performer.

Taylor's first single was released in the summer of 2006, and the album was released in October. The debut was not very successful.

But the second disc, released in 2008, “Fearless,” turned out to be a real breakthrough. It became the top seller in the US in 2009 and won 4 Grammys at once. Taylor Swift managed to break all records - before her, such young performers had not received this prestigious award for the best album of the year.

New records

The third album sold out instantly - a million copies “disappeared” in the first week of sales. This disc, "Speak Now", was at the top of the Billboard 200. Well, the single “Mean” was awarded two Grammys. Swift presented the album during an impressive thirteen-month world tour that attracted more than 1.6 million fans of the young star. During her performances, she earned more than $123 million.

The fame of the young singer was gaining momentum. She and Carrie Underwood (the only ones performing songs in the country style) were included in the top “Queens of Pop” according to Rolling Stone.

The album “Red”, released at the end of October 2012, set another sales record (1.2 million copies per week). In the spring of 2013, Swift went on another tour.

At the end of 2014, the disc “1989” was released, and it became eight times platinum worldwide. Taylor Swift's income in 2016 was $170 million, making her the highest paid star.

Personal life of Taylor Swift

Boyfriends - a whole list!

Taylor writes compositions for films and appears in television shows. Concert activities and interviews take a lot of energy. The star’s busy schedule leaves very little time for his personal life. But still, Taylor Swift has an impressive list of boyfriends.

At the age of 18, Taylor began an affair with John Jonas, a musician from the Jonas Brothers group. They dated until October 2008.

The end of 2009 was marked for the singer by her relationship with Taylor Lautner. Together with him, the girl starred in the romantic film “Valentine’s Day.” But soon the couple broke up.

They say that another relationship broke up due to the age difference. Although some 8 years that separate Taylor and Jake Gyllenhaal are mere trifles, the stars were probably hampered by their heavy workload.

There was a short-term affair with the handsome Connor, the grandson of Robert Kennedy. The guy was 4 years younger than the singer, and they had been dating for exactly 4 months.

In October 2012, it became known about the performer’s new hobby. But Harry Styles (the young man is also younger than Taylor - almost 5 years) was the girl’s boyfriend for only about 3 months. Taylor has been dating DJ Calvin Harrison since 2015. Rumors about the couple’s engagement have surfaced more than once in the media, but there has been no official confirmation. And then they broke up. In 2016, Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston began a summer romance, which ended in September of the same year. What kind of frivolity is this?

When the Russian singer Olga Buzova released her first English-language song, Not Enough For Me, a post appeared on her personal Instagram page in which the girl proudly admitted to her subscribers that one of the American publications compared her work with the career of the American singer Taylor Swift. Well, let’s leave the question of how correct it was to compare her performances with the work of the ten-time Grammy Award winner and the youngest lady on the Forbes list. Simply - in fairness - we’ll tell the story of Swift’s 15-year ascent to the Musical Olympus and show why this young woman has long been not only the heroine of youth publications and the idol of teenage girls, but also an example of a good business strategist, gifted with remarkable talent. musician.

American (and what’s more, world) publications love Taylor Swift’s story. A classic: An outsider at school and invisible in the classroom, little Taylor, inspired by her grandmother's successful opera career, writes poetry about her experiences, learns a few guitar chords, and gradually becomes a star on the country and then the pop stage. At the global level. And if we put aside the irony, then this girl really has something to brag about: her live performances leave no doubt about the exclusivity of her vocal abilities, dedication while working on videos does not give anyone the right to accuse the singer of negligence, and one can only admire her hard work during tours .

And yet, in the story of Miss Swift there is an element of a beautiful fairy tale, the romantic flair of which the world press is somehow surprisingly not yet ready to dispel.

Legend Taylor

“I hope I can help people whose voices also need to be heard. Therefore, I will donate money to various organizations that help victims of sexual violence,” American singer Taylor Swift made this statement in August 2017, when she won a sensational case of harassment against her by Colorado DJ David Mueller, which allegedly took place in 2013. The singer won little from the poor fellow: just one dollar - symbolic compensation for inspiring thousands of victims of sexual violence around the world with her example. Here, Taylor felt, justice was more valuable to her.

The star of the world pop scene received an unfortunate dollar and millions of sympathetic and admiring reviews for not being afraid to admit that many years ago she was groped on the buttock. True, to her credit, it must be said that at first the offended star did not want to bring everything to the public court - as her mother would later tell in tears under oath, Swift’s family was afraid of unnecessary publicity in the press. Therefore, then the performer, who wanted to defend her dignity, decided to close the issue quietly and peacefully: she simply called the radio station where Muller worked and demanded to fire the DJ, whose hands were far from being on the mixing console.

And then the incident would have been forgotten if the enraged and unemployed Mueller had not himself gone to court, accusing Swift of libel. The singer had to get out of the situation: in 2015, Taylor filed a retaliatory and very noble claim (after all, even for an unemployed person, one dollar of compensation is a quite feasible amount) for harassment. And finally, two years later, she won it. Because good always wins—at least in Swift's universe.

More than a dozen people stand guard over the excellent reputation of 29-year-old Taylor. For example, the company TAS Rights Management (named after the singer's name in capital letters - Taylor Alison Swift) is vigilant in ensuring that the girl's name is mentioned only in the most favorable contexts. The company doesn’t even ignore the once popular Periscope network, where fans posted fragments of their favorite’s concert performances. This is how Taylor Swift manages to maintain record sales of her records from year to year - her “dogs” do everything not to miss a single illegal distribution of the performer’s products. Swift herself is also no slouch: there are almost no songs of hers on streaming platforms. They appear only when there is a strategic benefit. For example, the last triumphant return of all Taylor’s compositions to one of the most popular services Spotify occurred in early June 2017 - just before the release of Katy Perry’s new album, with whom the girl has reportedly not been getting along very well lately.

But TAS Rights Management has more serious tasks than catching copyright violators - to monitor compliance with Taylor’s “legend”. Every day, pop idol gendarmes sniff the entire Internet for unauthorized use of her name, but not everyone ends up on the chopping block, only those who discredit the singer’s reputation. Two years ago, for example, the so-called TAS members stumbled upon the website of guitarist Ronnie Kremer, who positioned himself as Taylor’s first guitar teacher (the name of the site is ITaughtTaylorSwift.com). In those years, he worked part-time as an ordinary computer technician, and, according to his version, it was he who then taught the girl how to select accompaniment for her songs.

By the way, Taylor herself never denied that it was a certain “computer wizard” who inspired her to pick up a guitar. But according to her (read – general) legend, it was a demonstration of just a few chords. The young talent mastered everything else on his own.

But Ronnie says otherwise. Taylor's father invited him to give lessons to his daughter for six hours a week - and specifically on playing techniques for country music. They studied long and painstakingly. But the story that the future pop idol was trained by a “36-year-old balding fat man,” according to the guitarist, is not selling well. And no, he is not offended by the Swift family for being left in the shadows. He just wants justice. But fairness in the understanding of TAS Rights Management is somewhat different: now it is impossible to get to the ITaughtTaylorSwift.com website.

Mr and Mrs Swift

Although Ronnie Kremer, unlike his student, never made it into show business, he understands the rules of the game quite sensibly. Of course, the story about a girl who told all her innermost thoughts to the pages of her diary and the strings of a guitar will bring her a Grammy many times faster than the story about how she was prepared for the big stage from childhood. Yes, Taylor undoubtedly grew up as a talented child, but talent in our time is only half the battle. The second half is competent management. And perhaps it was a good thing that Mr. and Mrs. Swift understood this well.

“I had a magical childhood,” Taylor Swift recalls in an interview with Rolling Stone, “I could go wherever I wanted.” She really had a place to roam: in the early years of Taylor and her brother Austin, the Swift family lived on a spruce farm in Pennsylvania. You couldn't imagine a better background for a country singer: after all, it was American farms that once raised the best voices in the industry for the world.

Taylor was no exception. It just wasn't meant to be.

Her parents, Scott and Andrea, knew very well what success was and how it was built. Successful financiers (Taylor's mother soon quit her job as a broker and devoted herself to children), they envisioned a dizzying career on Wall Street for their children. The androgynous name Taylor is proof of this: at one time, parents made a point that their daughter’s gender would interfere as little as possible with conquering financial heights. The performer herself confirms this: “My mother thought it would be cool if “Taylor” was written on my passes and other corporate documents, and people would guess whether I was a man or a woman. Yes, she wanted me to do business.”

But the world of finance did not tempt Taylor for long. She wanted to become a star - first of all, to take revenge on her classmates who considered her, as she herself said more than once, an outsider. A decent amount of material has accumulated for poems and songs - unhappy love, ridicule of peers, teenage experiences. Surprisingly, Taylor is now 29 years old, and although she and her songs have already grown up, the singer still continues to work mainly for a teenage audience.

Seeing that their daughter had no other interests other than music (it was impossible not to notice: Taylor constantly strove to grab the microphone and sing something wherever she was), the parents almost immediately realized that their daughter was not the wolf of Wall Street. will become (“disappointing,” by the way, also the youngest son Austin, who today is trying to realize himself in photography and cinema). I had to urgently rewrite my business plan - fortunately Taylor really had excellent musical talent. So the family said goodbye to their beloved spruce farm and moved to the country Mecca of all America - the city of Nashville, where there is a record company on almost every street.

At that time, Taylor was 14. She had moved on to high school, and, as her overly talkative acquaintances say, she did not walk to classes, but rode in a Lexus convertible - almost the same one driven by the popular beauty rival of the main character from the video Taylor You Belong With Me.

On the other hand, having moved to Nashville, Taylor was no longer worried about her success or failure in school. She had a goal - to become a singer, and the girl began to fulfill her dream: she sang on the streets, in bars, at karaoke competitions, and at sports competitions. All - in order to catch the eye of some producer who would believe in her talent. But the parents did not just follow the lead of their ambitious daughter, moving from their beloved farm in Pennsylvania to stuffy Tennessee. My father transferred to the local office of the largest American bank, Merrill Lynch (here he worked as a financial consultant), and at the same time bought 3% of the capital of the newly created independent record company Big Machine Records, the head of which offered young Taylor her first contract.

The fact that Swift's father actually controls some of the company's shares is no secret. However, the legend says: the purchase took place after the young singer was “noticed” in one of the bars (allegedly the father simply tried to protect the interests of his daughter). And, alas, this is the very case where changing the places of the terms changes a lot.

Teen Queen

One way or another, young Taylor began to take her first successful steps in the world of country music. The image of a young girl in short dresses, with angelic curls and with a guitar at the ready immediately fell in love with the general public - largely due to the fact that Swift differed favorably from typical representatives of the genre. It was a great triumph - and most importantly, to maintain it, the young performer needed very little: to compose songs, sing and maintain the image of a kind of girl-next-door.

If you believe the revelations of Ronnie Kremer, then while the father was involved in the girl’s finances, her mother Andrea took care of her daughter’s image. Taylor’s ex-teacher recalls how her mother did not allow the singer to have high-calorie foods for breakfast (unlike, by the way, her brother), arguing that “the world does not need fat stars.”

On the other hand, whether it was true or not, Taylor herself did not need to be told twice how to behave. After all, her rise to stardom came precisely at a time when one bad party or loss of self-control could instantly wipe out all past successes. Before her eyes, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, and Britney Spears lost popular recognition because of their love for drunken brawls. So, without thinking twice, the girl immediately inserted herself into the generation of new healthy American youth who jog in the morning and drink vegetable smoothies instead of coffee. No alcohol - the singer still never tires of emphasizing that she tried alcohol for the first time at her legal age of 21. No dubious parties. No inappropriate contacts.

Taylor's former young people are unusually silent: they almost do not communicate with the press on the topic of affairs with the performer (the exception, however, was Calvin Harris, who once said that he felt deceived by his ex-lover). This is very atypical behavior for Hollywood heroes, largely thanks to which Miss Swift comes out of all this leapfrog with boyfriends relatively dry, continuing to declare in her not quite thirty that she falls in love every time, like the first.

And most often they really believe her - perhaps because she herself is convinced of the sincerity of her words. It is difficult to catch Taylor in hypocrisy: her behavior during the incident with Kanye West in 2009 and after is a very eloquent example of the performer’s strategy in any awkward situations that she sometimes finds herself in (the same is proven by the case of the DJ’s harassment). Naivety, sacrifice and nobility play into Swift’s hands time after time, making millions of hearts around the world fall in love with her (even Barack Obama supported the singer in her quarrel with Kanye West). And, perhaps, this is the case when a celebrity is not a hostage to his image, but happily remains his most devoted fan (

Taylor Swift- the most popular of the young generation of American singers. Her album sales exceed 40 million copies, and her singles sales exceed 130 million. No other singer who began her musical career in the 21st century can boast of such indicators of commercial success. Taylor Swift became the youngest artist in history to win a Grammy Award in the most prestigious category, Album of the Year (the singer won this award at the age of 19). She is the only artist in the world whose three consecutive albums sold more than a million copies in the first week of release. The number of views of her videos on Youtube exceeds 3 billion.

Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in the American town of Wyomissing (Pennsylvania). Since childhood, Taylor has loved music. An example of a successful musical career for Taylor was her grandmother, an opera singer. However, Taylor was inspired not by opera music, but by American folk country music, and her idol was the Canadian singer. Taylor was a local celebrity in her hometown, regularly performing at fairs, festivals and karaoke competitions. She was once invited to sing the anthem at the opening of the US Open tennis championship in New York. At the age of 10, she first picked up a guitar and began composing her own songs.
In their hometown there was no opportunity to record their songs in a professional studio, so the family, believing in their daughter’s success, moved to the suburbs of the capital of Tennessee, Nashville. While performing in a Nashville cafe, Taylor caught the eye of one of the music industry veterans, Scott Borchetta, who had recently created the independent record label Big Machine Records and, having signed a contract with her, he released her debut single "Tim McGraw" in August 2006, dedicated to American country singer Tim McGraw. To date, this single has sold more than one and a half million copies and has been certified platinum.

Taylor Swift - Tim McGraw

On October 24, 2006, 16-year-old Taylor's first album, simply titled "Taylor Swift", was released. All songs on the album were written by the singer herself. The album sold over 5.5 million copies and spent a total of 5 years on the top 200 best-selling albums chart in the United States.

To support the album, Taylor released a second single, "Teardrops on my Guitar", which became even more successful than the first single "Tim McGraw" and sold 3 million copies.

Taylor Swift - Teardrops on my Guitar

On November 11, 2008, her second album, “Fearless,” was released. As on the first album, Swift took part in the creation of all songs. "Fearless" sold over 8.6 million copies. This album received a Grammy in two categories at once - album of the year and best country album (the album is not pure country, but belongs to the “country pop” direction). The song "White Horse" from the album "Fearless" received two Grammy nominations: Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song.

Taylor Swift has so many Grammys that they don't fit in her hands:

Taylor Swift - White Horse

Taylor Swift - Love Story

The third single from the same album, “You Belong with Me,” became 7-times platinum, and its video was watched more than 400 million times.

Taylor Swift - You Belong with Me

On February 12, 2010, the film "Valentine's Day" was released, in which Taylor played one of the roles. For this film, Taylor Swift recorded the song "Today Was a Fairytale".

Continuing the tradition of releasing an album every 2 years, Taylor released her third album, Speak Now, on October 25, 2010, which sold 5 million copies. The first single from the album was "Mine", which was certified triple platinum.

Taylor Swift - Mine

The album's second single was "Back to December", which reached double platinum status.

Taylor Swift - Back to December

Taylor Swift's fourth album "Red" was released again in the fall and again 2 years after the release of the previous one. The album "Red" sold 6 million copies. The first single to support the album, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", reached number one on the US singles chart, something Taylor Swift had never achieved before. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" sold over 7 million copies.

Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Another single from this album, "I Knew You Were Trouble", reached 6.6 million copies sold.

Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble

The fifth album, named after the singer’s year of birth, “1989,” was released on October 27, 2014. This album, where Swift moved away from her once-loved country style towards pop music, became the most successful of her career. Today its sales are approaching 9 million. "1989" became the best-selling album in the United States in 2014.

The single "Shake It Off", the first single released in support of the album, remained at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart until it was displaced from there by the second single from the same album, "Blank Space". Taylor Swift became the first singer in the history of American music to have a song knock out another song of hers from the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The single "Shake It Off" sold more than 6 million copies, "Blank Space" sold more than 5 million, and the number of video views for each song is approaching 700 million.

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

Taylor Swift - Blank Space

Characteristic features of Taylor Swift's appearance are naturally curly hair, beautiful dresses, classic bright red lipstick, and a complete absence of natural fur. The singer describes her style in three words: classic, femininity and retro. She names Jacqueline Kennedy, Françoise Hardy, Jane Birkin, and Audrey Hepburn as her idols in the field of fashion and style.

Taylor Swift's model height - 180 cm - gives additional expressiveness to her image.

Taylor Swift at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2014

Taylor Swift says about her personal life: "I feel like watching my personal life has become some kind of national pastime. And I don't want to entertain everyone like that anymore. I don't like looking at slideshows of guys I've probably dated online. I don't want to give comedians have the opportunity to make jokes about me at award shows. I don't like seeing newspaper headlines like "Watch out, bro, she's going to write a song about you": it makes my work very trivial. And what I don't like most is that all these factors come together There's so much pressure on new relationships that they collapse before they even begin. That's why I just don't go on dates. This doesn't mean that I've sworn off love. It's just that right now my life isn't particularly conducive to new people coming into it. In many ways In matters I am romantic and spontaneous like a child, but here I am a pragmatist"(from an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in November 2014).

Taylor Alison Swift Taylor Alison Swift- American singer, songwriter and actress. Taylor grew up in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania and moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 14 to pursue a music career. Taylor signed to independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by Sony/ATV Music. The release of her debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. She received a nomination for "Best New Artist" at the 50th Grammy Awards.

Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008 and became a crossover album and a huge commercial success. The recording won four Grammy Awards, with Taylor becoming the youngest winner of Album of the Year. Fearless also received Album of the Year honors and plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Taylor Swift released her third album and sold over a million copies in its first week. At last count, the Speak Now World Tour attracted more than 1.6 million fans and became one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. The singer's fourth album, entitled Red, was released in the fall of 2012. In the first weeks of sales in the United States, more than 1.2 million copies of the album were purchased, which is the highest sales figure in the last ten years. Her singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble" became hits all over the world. A tour in support of the Red album is planned for early March 2013.

In her short career, Taylor Swift has earned numerous awards, including six Grammy Awards, ten AMC Awards, seven CMAS Awards, six and 13 ACMS BMI Awards. She has sold over 20 million albums and 41.8 million digital tracks worldwide, making her one of the best-selling musicians of all time. Taylor has deal endorsements with Target, CoverGirl, Sony, Elizabeth Arden, Walmart and American Greetings. According to Forbes magazine, she is one of the richest music artists working today. In addition to her music career, Taylor Swift appeared as an actress in the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation(2009), romantic comedy St. Valentine's Day(2010) and animated film Lorax (2012).

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Early years:

Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Scott Kingsley Swift, a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch, and Andrea (née Gardner), a homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive. Taylor was named after singer James Taylor; her mother believes the gender-neutral name will help her shape a successful career in business. She has a younger brother, Austin, who attends Vanderbilt University. Taylor spent the early years of her life on a farm near Pottstown, Pennsylvania and was educated at Wyndcroft Public School. When Tay was nine years old, her family moved to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where she attended junior/senior high school. Taylor spent summers at her parents' country house in Stone Harbor, New Jersey and described it as a place "where most of my childhood memories were formed".

At the age of nine, Taylor developed an interest in musical theater and performed at the Berks Youth Theater Academy in productions of Grease, Annie, Bye Bye Birdie and The Sound of Music. Taylor regularly traveled to Broadway and New York for vocal and acting lessons. However, after several years of auditions in New York, she received nothing, after which she turned her attention to country music. Tay was inspired by LeAnn Rimes' Blue and her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finley, an opera singer. When Taylor was in fourth grade, she won a national poetry competition with a three-page poem, "The Monster in the Closet." At the age of eleven, after many attempts, Tay entered a local singing talent competition where she performed LeAnn Rimes' "Big Deal" and was given the opportunity to open for Charlie Daniels at the Strausstown Amphitheater. She spent her weekends performing at local festivals, fairs, cafes, karaoke competitions, garden clubs and Boy Scout meetings. Taylor Swift made demos and went with her mother to Nashville, Tennessee for spring break, leaving copies of the demos around Music Row. She received a number of refusals and realized that "I need to know how to do more than just sing a song".

Taylor Swift began performing "The Star Spangled Banner" at many sporting events, hoping that she would be offered a recording contract. At the age of 12, a computer repairman showed Taylor Swift how to play three chords on the guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You." Taylor then recorded a second demo of original songs. In 2003, Sona and her parents began working with music manager Dan Dymtrow after he saw her sing at the US Open. Taylor Swift's second demo caught the attention of RCA Records, who offered her a deal. In 2004, Taylor modeled for Abercrombie and Fitch as part of the "Rising Stars" campaign and had original songs included on the Maybelline Cosmetics CD compilation.

When Taylor Swift was 14 years old, her father was transferred to Merrill Lynch's Nashville office and the family moved to a lakefront home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. In Tennessee, she attended high school. Later, to accommodate Taylor's touring schedule, her parents enrolled her in Aaron Academy, a private Christian school that provides homeschooling services, and she received her high school diploma in 2008.

Musical career:

2004-2008: Beginning of Taylor Swift's career

Taylor moved to Nashville at the age of 14 and signed a contract with RCA Records. Swift's musical influences include Shania Twain, Sheryl Crow, Dixie Chicks, LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill, Reba McEntire, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Garth Brooks, and Tammy Wynette. Taylor Swift studied with composers such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, and Warren Brothers, but eventually formed a strong working relationship with Liz Rose. Taylor met Rose at RCA after they began writing together. They began meeting for a two-hour writing class every Tuesday afternoon after school. Liz Rose said the lessons were "some of the easiest I've ever done. Basically, I was just its editor. She wrote about what happened at school that day. She had such a clear vision of what she was trying to say. And she came with the most incredible hooks." Swift also began recording demos with producer Nathan Chapman. After performing at BMI Songwriter's Circle and Bitter End, New York, Taylor Swift became the youngest songwriter ever hired by Sony/ATV Tree.

Swift left RCA Records when she was 15, the company wanted to record the work of other writers and waited until she was 18 to release an album, but Taylor felt she was ready to launch her career with her own material. She also split with manager Dan Dymtrow, who later filed a lawsuit against Taylor and her parents. At The Bluebird Café in Nashville in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, then a Dreamworks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label, Big Machine Records. Tey became one of the first performers to sign a contract with the new label. She also joined the talent agency CAA.

Taylor began work on her debut album shortly after signing a recording contract with Big Machine Records. After experimenting with veteran producers in Nashville, Swift convinced Big Machine Records to hire Nathan Chapman as her demo producer. It was her first studio album, but Swift felt she had the right to experiment, to experiment with chemistry. After all, Chapman produced all but one of the Taylor Swift tracks. She described the album as a "diary" of her early teens and most of the songs were written during her freshman year of high school. As a result, the songs describe adolescence, uncertainty, first love and teenage angst. She said that although "it sounds like I've had 500 boyfriends", "I was able to write songs about relationships when I was thirteen, but I wasn't in one at the time." Taylor Swift only wrote three songs on the album, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining eight tracks with songwriters Liz Rose and Robert Ellis Orrall. Musically, the album has been described as "a mixture of instrumental trad country and live rock guitars."

Taylor Swift's album was released in October 2006. Big Machine Records was still in its infancy, and Taylor and her mother helped “stuff CD singles into sleeves to send to radio.” Borchetta said his decision to sign the 16-year-old singer was made with raised eyebrows among record industry peers. However, Swift has tapped into a previously unknown market of teenage girls who listen to country music. She participated in "GAC Short Cuts," a part documentary, part music and video series designed to introduce her fans to country music. She has also performed on the television shows Good Morning America, The Megan Mullally Show, America's Got Talent, and TRL. Taylor spent most of 2006 promoting a radio tour and then stated, "The radio tour for most artists is six weeks. Mine lasted six months.” Swift, a self-described “baby of the internet,” uses MySpace to build a fan base.

Taylor Sweet released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, which peaked at No.6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs. The second single from Taylor Swift's album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released on February 24, 2007. In mid-2007, the song peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs and No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released as a pop remix, which brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to No. 13 on the Hot 100 and No. 11 on the Pop 100. Her third song from her debut album, "Our Song", spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Country music charts, peaking at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Pop 100. Taylor's successful single, "Picture to Burn", became the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted and quickly peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Country chart in the spring of 2008. "Should've Said No" was the second song to reach No.1. Debuting high on the Billboard 200, the album sold 39,000 copies in its first week. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and No. 5 on the Billboard 200. Taylor Swift's debut album spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums chart and remained at the top for 24 of its 91 weeks.

Tay toured in support of the album. She has appeared as an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts. In October 2008, Swift sang a duet with top-selling rock band Def Leppard in Nashville. The event was televised on Taylor Swift CMT and Def Leppard. She held meetings and congratulated her after the concert.

Taylor Swift received the "Songwriter/Performer of the Year" award from The Nashville Songwriters Association International in 2007. She is the youngest person to ever be awarded the title. Tay was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the Best New Artist category, but lost to Amy Winehouse. She won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award for Best New Artist. In 2008, she won a nomination for "Best New Female Vocal Performance" at the Country Music Awards. Taylor also won Favorite Female Country Artist at the 2008 AMAs. She has won seven awards at the BMI Awards.

Swift recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, which was released exclusively through Target in late 2007. In the summer of 2008, Swift released “Beautiful Eyes,” an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums and peaking at No. 9 on the Billboard 200.

2008-2010: Album release "Fearless" and the 2009 MTV VMA incident

Taylor Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released in November 2008. She wrote seven of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining six with writers Liz Rose, John Rich, Colbie Caillat and Hillary Lindsey. While Swift wrote many songs while on tour, she made a conscious effort not to include "road songs": "As a 16-year-old girl, I can never relate to these songs about playing in a different city every night. I want to write about my feelings, both love and lack of love.” She said the album's title meant "that you're afraid of a lot of things, but you move on anyway." She co-produced the album with Nathan Chapman. Musically, the record is characterized by "loud, guitars and a rousing choir", sometimes with "a little fiddle and banjo tucked in together".

Fearless received many positive reviews from music critics. The New York Times described Taylor as "one of pop's best songwriters, above all a country pragmatist with a richer inner world than most adults." The Village Voice felt that she was distinguished by "preternatural wisdom and openness", "skillfully avoiding the typical diary's pitfalls of banal vulgarity and pseudo-profound nonsense." Entertainment Weekly noted that the album would appeal mainly to young girls - "she sounds like a real teenager..." Music critic Robert Christgau described Taylor as "an unusually and incredibly strong and gifted teenage girl."

Taylor Swift carried out her first tour from April 2009 to June 2010. As part of the 105-date Fearless Tour, Swift played 90 days in North America, six days in Europe, eight days in Australia and one day in Asia. The show included several costume changes, dancers and a fairy tale set of castles. Taylor invited John Mayer, Faith Hill and Katy Perry to perform one-off duets with her on different dates on her North American tour. The tour attracted over 1.1 million fans and grossed over $63 million. Journey to the Fearless Tour, a concert film, was shown on television and later released on DVD and Blu-ray.

In September 2009, Swift became the first country music artist to win at the MTV Video Music Awards when the video for "You Belong with Me" was named Best Female Video. Her speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West, who has been involved in a number of other incidents at the awards show. West announced Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies" was nominated in the same category as "one of the best videos of all time." Many spectators booed West, prompting him to turn around with the crowd. He then handed the microphone over to Swift's speech. Backstage, Taylor was seen "crying hysterically." According to Rolling Stone, West issued a "partial apology in which he added that he still thought Beyoncé's video was excellent." West was removed from the event. When Beyoncé later won the prize for Video of the Year, she invited Taylor Swift to come on stage to finish her speech.

West's behavior has been criticized by celebrities including Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga. After much publicity in the media and beyond, West called Taylor Swift and apologized for his behavior.

Swift released a cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl" exclusively through Rhapsody in June 2009 and continued to contribute to Petty's recording of the song. Taylor Swift provided backing vocals on the song "Half Of My Heart" by John Mayer, featured on his fourth album, in November 2009. The song received many positive reviews from music critics. Taylor and Mayer performed the song live at Madison Square Garden, New York in December 2009. It was released as the third single from the album in June 2010 and peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Swift collaborated with a number of other artists in 2008 and 2009. She co-wrote and recorded the song "Best Days of Your Life" with Kelly Pickler. Also, Taylor Swift, together with Martin Johnson and Robert Ellis Orrall, wrote two songs for Hannah Montana: The Movie Soundtrack - “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” and “Crazier”. Taylor also provided vocals for Boys Like Girls' "Two Is Better Than One", written by Martin Johnson. In January 2010, Taylor Swift contributed two songs - including "Today Was a Fairytale" - to the Valentine's Day soundtrack and recorded a cover of Better Than Ezra's "Breathless" for the album Hope for Haiti Now. .

In November 2009, Swift became the youngest artist, and one of six women, to be nominated as Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. Fearless also won the Association's Album of the Year award. The album received numerous other awards and became the most awarded album in country music history. Taylor Swift became the youngest artist to win Album of the Year from the Academy of Country Music's. At the American Music Awards, Taylor Swift was awarded Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. She was awarded the Hal David Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and was named Composer/Performer of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association. Taylor has won four BMI Awards. Billboard named her 2009 Artist of the Year. Taylor Swift was included in Time's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2010.

In January 2010, Swift received four Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Country Album, Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, out of a total of eight nominations. She became the youngest performer to win Album of the Year. During the ceremony, Taylor Swift sang "Rhiannon" and "You Belong with Me" with Steve Nicks. Her vocal performance received negative reviews and caused widespread discussion in the media. Her vocals have been variously described as "bad and off-key", "astoundingly bad" and "incredibly pathetic". While The New York Times wrote "it's nice to see someone so gifted make an accidental blunder" and described Taylor Swift as "the most important new pop star in years", music critic Bob Lefsetz predicted that her career would end " in one night" ("overnight"). In April 2010, Stevie Nicks wrote an article in Time defending the singer: "Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature. It is this innocence that is so special and so rare. This girl writes songs that are sung all over the world by the likes of Neil Diamond and Elton John... The female rock 'n' roll country pop songwriter is back and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business."

2010-2012: Album release "Speak Now" and a 13-month world tour

Taylor Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, in October 2010. She wrote all twelve songs alone: ​​"I got my best ideas at 3 a.m. in Arkansas and I didn't have any co-writers around." Recording of the album took place in California, Tennessee and Kentucky over a two-year period. Taylor, who co-produced the album with longtime collaborator Nathan Chapman, described the album as "a collection of confessions that I wanted to say in that moment." Taylor Swift originally wanted to call the album Enchanted, but Scott Borchetta, the CEO of her record label, felt the title didn't reflect the album's other themes: "She played me a bunch of new songs. I looked at her and I said, “Taylor, this post is not about fairy tales and high school. This is not where you were." Musically, it was said that the album "expands beyond country pop and will border on alternative rock and dirty bubblegum pop."

"Speak Now" received many positive reviews from music critics. Rolling Stone described Swift as one of the best songwriters ("pop, rock or country"). The Los Angeles Times praised her abilities as a composer as "a blow to the shared experience that makes you feel unique."

Swift conducted an extensive promotional campaign leading up to the release of "Speak Now". She appeared on various talk and morning shows, and gave free mini-concerts in unusual places, including an open-air double-decker bus on Hollywood Boulevard and the departure lounge at JFK Airport. She took part in a "guitar pull" alongside Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill and Lionel Ritchie at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, where the musicians shared the stage and took turns playing acoustic versions of their songs to raise money for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The album's lead single, "Mine", was released in August 2010, and five further singles were released in 2010 and 2011: "Back to December", "Mean", "The Story of Us", "Sparks Fly" and "Ours". " "Speak Now" is one of the major albums to achieve commercial success, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. Its sales of 1,047,000 copies made it the sixteenth album in United States history to sell a million copies in one week. As of February 2012, "Speak Now" has sold over 4,000,000 copies in the US and more 5,700,000 copies worldwide. In her career, as of May 2012, Taylor Swift has sold over 22 million albums and 50 million digital tracks worldwide.

Taylor Swift toured throughout 2011 and early 2012 in support of Speak Now. During the thirteen-month, 111-date world tour, Taylor played seven dates in Asia, twelve dates in Europe, 80 dates in North America, and twelve dates in Australia. Three US tour dates were postponed after she fell ill with bronchitis. The stage show was inspired by the Broadway musical theater, with choreography routines, elaborate staging of parts, pyrotechnics and many costume changes. Swift invited many musicians to join her for one-off duets on a North American tour. Performances were organized with 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. The tour attracted over 1.6 million fans and grossed over $123 million, becoming one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. Swift's first live concert album, Speak Now World Tour: Live, featuring performances of all seventeen performances from the North American leg of the tour, was released in November 2011.

On the North American and Australian tour, Taylor Swift wrote different lyrics on her left hand for each performance. She also performed many acoustic cover versions during her North American tour. Taylor said cover songs allowed her to be "spontaneous" in otherwise well-rehearsed shows: "I'll have a lot of people coming to more than one show, and I want them to have a different experience every time." Cover versions of songs performed by Taylor Swift on the Speak Now World Tour include such artists as: Justin Timberlake, Tori Amos, TLC, Pink, Fall Out Boy, Dave Matthews Band, Michelle Branch, Jordin Sparks, Maroon 5, Train, John Mellencamp, Kim Carnes , Avril Lavigne, The Jackson 5, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Gwen Stefani, All American Rejects, Britney Spears and Eminem.

At the 54th Grammy Awards in February 2012, Swift's song "Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Solo Performance. She also performed "Mean" during the ceremony. The song is considered a rebuttal to Bob Lefsetz, who was one of the most vocal critics of her 2010 Grammy performance. Lefsetz had previously been a supporter of the singer's career, and Taylor and Lefsetz corresponded occasionally by mail and telephone. USA Today noted that criticism in 2010 seemed to "make her a Top Composer and Live Performer."

Taylor Swift was named Nashville Songwriters Association Composer/Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2011. During the 2011 ceremony, she performed an acoustic version of "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" in honor of Alan Jackson, at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, who later thanked Swift in her speech for "the most beautiful version I've ever “I heard.” Taylor has won various awards for "Speak Now". She was named Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in 2011 and 2012 and was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association in 2011. Taylor Swift won Artist of the Year at the 2011 American Music Awards, and her album "Speak Now" was named Favorite Country Album. She was also the recipient of two BMI awards. Billboard named Swift its 2011 Woman of the Year. That same year, Billboard placed her on the Top 20 Hot 100 Songwriters 2000–2011 list at number 15; she was in second place in the women's ranking. Taylor Swift takes second place on Rolling Stone's list of Top 16 Queens of Pops of the Decade...

Taylor Swift recorded two original soundtracks for The Hunger Games in March 2012. "Safe & Sound" was co-written and recorded with The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett. John Paul White stated when working with Taylor, "She had some great ideas. We had complete freedom. It truly was a collaboration. We brought melancholy and a dark corner. Taylor contributed the melody and chords." Rolling Stone described the song as "a beautiful Swift ballad." Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars debuted a live version of the song at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in January 2012. The song was released as the album's lead single and had already sold 970,000 copies in the United States in April 2012. Taylor's second song on the album, "Eyes Open", was written solely by the singer and produced by Nathan Chapman. In May 2012, Taylor Swift contributed vocals to B.o.B's song "Both of Us" from the album Strange Clouds.

2012: Album release "Red"

Taylor Swift's fourth studio album, Red, is scheduled for release on October 22, 2012. She wrote ten of the album's sixteen songs herself. The other six were co-written by Laurie McKenna, Butch Walker, Ed Sheeran and Dan Wilson, among others. Nathan Chapman served as the album's lead producer, but others, including Butch Walker, Jeff Bhaskar and Shalbeck, produced individual tracks. Taylor said the process of making the album made her feel like a "learner" and allowed her to "paint with different colors." The first single from the new album, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", was released in August 2012. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in one week of sales. Taylor Swift is on a promotional tour ahead of the release of her Red album. She performed at the MTV VMAs as well as the iHeartRadio Festival, and will also perform at BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards, Good Morning America, and VH1 Storytellers. The singer signed a number of contracts; she launched her second fragrance with Elizabeth Arden, collaborated with Sony on two photography projects and will release a deluxe edition of Red through Target.

You can see what kind of clips there were during the years of Taylor Swift’s birth here: http://tubeclips.ru/80-e/ the site has a huge selection of clips online from the 80s.

One of the most exciting country singers of all time considers the number 13, her date of birth, to be her lucky number, often drawing it on her hands during performances. Her father Scott worked as a financial consultant, and her mother Andrea devoted most of her life to housekeeping, stopping work quite early. Taylor has a younger brother, Austin.

The Swift family had several horses, so Taylor rode horses as a child. She also took musical theater classes and often traveled to Broadway to study singing and acting. T

Taylor Swift began writing songs at age 10, learning to play the guitar and performing at fairs and festivals in Wyomissing, where she grew up.

Star Trek singer

At the age of 14, young Taylor Swift moved to Nashville with the firm intention of becoming a star and being heard. She sang and played the guitar right on the street, near a cafe, until she was noticed by the founder of the Big Machine Records music label, Scott Borchette.

Singer Tim McGraw's debut single was released in 2006 and brought her fame and an award from the Nashville Songwriters Association. At the end of the same year, the first album under the name Taylor Swift was released, which was well received by music critics. For the next two years, the performer works on two mini-albums, as a result of which she becomes a Grammy Award nominee, but ultimately loses to Amy Winehouse. The next album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008 and became a real explosion in the US music industry. It peaked at number one on the Billboard music albums chart and was certified six times platinum in the US and five times platinum in Australia.

In October 2010, Taylor Swift released the album Speak Now, which solidified her success. It again went multi-platinum in many countries, including the US, Australia and Canada. In support of it, Taylor staged a 111-date world tour.

At the beginning of 2012, the singer worked on songs for the soundtrack of the film “The Hunger Games”. The song Safe & Sound from this album was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, but lost to Adele's Skyfall, the theme to the film 007: Skyfall.

Taylor Swift's fourth full-length album was released in October 2012. The songs from the RED disc are influenced not only by country music, but also by other styles: dubstep and pop dance. People who helped the singer work on her fourth album believe that this is a big step towards pop star fame and world recognition. A world tour has been organized in support of RED.

In 2014, the album “1989” was released, which became the singer’s third album to sell millions of copies.

Three years later, Reputation continued the winning tradition. It also became the last one released in the Big Machine Records studio, since the singer’s contract with her ended.

In 2019, Taylor Swift recorded the album Lover, the song Me! from which it rose from number 100 to number 2 on the Hot 100 chart in one week.

Now the singer is suing her old label for the rights to her first six albums.

In addition, she became the highest paid star according to Forbes, earning more than $190 million in a year.

Personal life

Taylor Swift's most famous romance was her relationship with Twilight star Taylor Lautner. The namesakes starred together in the film Valentine's Day in 2010, and after breaking up, the singer dedicated the song Back to December to her boyfriend. By the way, about Taylor's habit of composing songs in honor of past There are already jokes going around guys.

Taylor's other relationships were quite short: in 2008, she spent four months with singer Joe Johnson, several months in 2009, the artist dated John Mayer, three months in 2010 with actor Jake Gyllenhaal, and quite a bit with Cory Monteith (and before that with his Glee co-star Chord Overstreet), three months in mid-2012 with Connor Kennedy, and four months in late 2012 with One Direction member Harry Styles. But these are the names of only famous guys!

One of Taylor's first singles, Tim McGraw, was dedicated to breaking up with a guy named Brandon Borello, the song Picture to Burn is about an affair with a certain Jordan Alford, Should've Said No was written after the singer was cheated on by a guy named Sam Armstrong.