Contents* 1 Early life
* 2 Music career
o 2.1 2000–05: Musical beginnings
o 2.2 2006–08: Taylor Swift
o 2.3 2008–09: Fearless and MTV VMA incident
o 2.4 2010–present: Speak Now
* 3 Songwriting style
* 4 Other work
o 4.1 Acting
o 4.2 Cover model and recognition
o 4.3 Merchandise
o 4.4 Philanthropy
* 5 Personal life
* 6 Filmography
* 7 Discography
* 8 Awards and Nominations
* 9 References
* 10 External links Early lifeSwift was born and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania to Andrea (née Finlay), a homemaker, and Scott Swift, a stockbroker. Her maternal grandmother, Majorie Finlay, was an opera singer Swift has a younger brother, AustinWhen she was in fourth grade, she won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem entitled "Monster In My Closet" At the age of 10, a computer repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar, sparking her interest in learning the instrument. Afterwards, she wrote her first song, "Lucky You" She began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. She was a victim of bullying, and often wrote songs to express her emotions Swift also started performing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs around her hometown. When she was 12, she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished.Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg Fair Swift attended Hendersonville High School but was subsequently homeschooled for her junior and senior years. In 2008, she earned her high-school diplomaSwift's greatest musical influence is Shania Twain Her other influences include LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, and her grandmother. Although her grandmother was a professional opera singerSwift's tastes always leaned more toward country music. In her younger years, she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton also credits the Dixie Chicks for demonstrating the impact you can make by "stretching boundaries"Music career 2000–05: Musical beginningsAt age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town but was rejectedAfter Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention Swift started writing songs and playing 12-string guitar when she was 12. Swift began to regularly visit Nashville and wrote songs with local songwriters. By the time she was 14, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburbWhen Swift was 15, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to keep her on an artist development deal After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. At age 14, she became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing hous2006–08: Taylor SwiftSwift performing at a café with a koa wood guitar in June 2006. Swift still performs with custom-made Taylor guitars to this daySwift released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, reaching #6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs chart Her self-titled debut album was later released on October 24, 2006Debuting high on the Billboard 200, the album sold 39,000 copies during its first week It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and #5 on the Billboard 200Her debut album spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums chartand remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood
The music video for "Tim McGraw" won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006On May 15, 2007, Swift performed "Tim McGraw" at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as wellThe second single from the Taylor Swift album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. In mid-2007, the song peaked at #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released with a pop remix that brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100. In October 2007, Swift was awarded Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Assn. Intl., making her the youngest artist ever to win the awardHer third song off her debut album, "Our Song" spent six weeks at #1 on the Country charts, peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100, and rose to #24 on the Billboard Pop 100. Swift recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, which was released exclusively at Target in late 2007. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's successful single, "Picture to Burn", was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted and soon peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country chart in spring 2008.Swift performing at Yahoo HQ in 2007"Should've Said No" became Swift's second #1 single. InSummer 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 #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and #9 on the Billboard 200. With her self-titled debut album sitting at #2 during the same week, Swift became the first artist since 1997 to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums char In October 2008, Swift performed a duet with best selling rock band Def Leppard in a taped show in Nashville, Tennessee, and their collaboration was up for both Performance of the Year and Wide Open Country Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards in 20092008–09: Fearless and MTV VMA incidentSwift's latest studio album, Fearless, was released in the United States on November 11, 2008. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artist in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay Its lead single "Love Story" became a hit on both the country and pop charts. During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift's sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in historyIt also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004 Through its eighth week of release, Fearless has sold more than 338,467 downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place is Swift's debut Taylor Swift with sales of 236,046 downloads as of April 18, 2009In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Miley Cyrus for the most by a female artist in a single week. With "White Horse" charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100 "Change", a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA's efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics.The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released on September 12, 2008. The Fearless album includes the "Love Story" music video which is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached #2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of the list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 ChartThe second single from Fearless, "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009. Though it missed the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot Country Songs as of the week April 11, 2009, "White Horse" claimed the #1 spot atop the USA Today/Country Aircheck chart (powered by Mediabase) in that week. "Forever & Always", another song from the album, was based on Swift's relationship with singer Joe JonasShe was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at #1 on The Billboard 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songsSwift is Billboard's Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music's best-selling artist of 2008 Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada's top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. Fearless and Taylor Swift took the #1 and #2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008.
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swifttaylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
taylor swift
