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Taylor Alison Swift (born December
13, 1989) is an American country-pop singer-songwriter, and actress.
In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled
debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America. In November 2008, Swift
released her second album, Fearless. Fearless and Taylor Swift finished
2008 at number-three and number-six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and
1.5 million. Fearless has topped the Billboard 200 in 11 non-consecutive
weeks; no album has spent more time at No. 1 since 2000. Swift was named
Artist of the Year by Billboard Magazine in 2009. Fearless won the Grammy
Award for Album of the Year in 2010.
In 2008, her albums sold a combined four million copies, making her the
best-selling musician of the year in the United States, according to
Nielsen SoundScan. Forbes ranked Swift 2009's 69th-most powerful celebrity
with earnings of $18 million. In January 2010 Nielsen SoundScan lists
Swift as the top-selling digital artist in music history with over 24.3
million digital tracks sold. To date, she has sold over ten million albums
worldwide.
Swift was born in the borough of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the
daughter of Scott Swift, a stock broker, and his wife Andrea, a homemaker.
She has a younger brother, Austin. When she was in fourth grade, Swift won
a national poetry contest with a three-page poem titled "Monster In My
Closet".
At ten years old, Swift began writing songs and singing at karaoke
contests, festivals, and fairs around her hometown. One summer, she
devoted herself to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished.
Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg
Fair.
Swift began learning to play guitar from a computer repairman who showed
her how to play three chords. After learning those three chords, 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.
Other kids would react badly to her so she wrote songs about them.
Swift's greatest musical influence is Shania Twain. Her other influences
include LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, and Swift's grandmother.
Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer, Taylor's tastes
always ran more toward country and she developed a love for Patsy Cline
and Dolly Parton at an early age. She also credits the Dixie Chicks and
Shania Twain for demonstrating how much impact can be made by "stretching
boundaries".
At 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. Swift was rejected by record
labels and her peers.
After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S.
Open tennis tournament; her rendition of the national anthem received a
lot of 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 suburb.
When Swift was 15, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to
keep her on a development deal. Swift then performed at Nashville's
songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, catching the attention of Scott
Borchetta who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine
Records. At age 14, she also became the youngest staff songwriter ever
hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.
Swift released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, reaching
number 6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs chart. Her self-titled
debut album was later released on October 24, 2006. Swift wrote or
co-wrote all of the songs on the album, which debuted at number 19 on the
Billboard 200 and sold 39,000 copies during its first week. It later
peaked at number one at Billboard Top Country Albums and number five on
the Billboard 200. It also spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the
Top Country Albums charts and 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.
As of November 2008, Taylor Swift has sold over three million copies and
7.5 million single downloads.
Swift has surpassed the 200 million mark for music streams on MySpace. She
is currently ranked in the Top 10 for the most MySpace visits for all
genres of music, and is MySpace's current top-ranking Country artist.
Swift is the most searched musical artist on MySpace in 2008. The music
video for "Tim McGraw" set a record by appearing for 30 consecutive weeks
on GAC's fan-voted weekly Top 20 music countdown show, and reached number
one on CMT's video charts. The video also 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 2006
on the country music channel. On May 15, 2007, Swift performed "Tim
McGraw" at the Academy of Country Music Awards. She sang the song to Tim
McGraw in the audience, and introduced herself for the first time to him.
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 well.
On August 21, 2007, Swift performed live on the season finale of America's
Got Talent. The second single from the Taylor Swift album, "Teardrops on
My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. The song originally made its
peak positions in mid-2007, peaking at #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs
chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released to the
Hot 100 and Pop 100 in late 2007 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's songwriting peers at the Nashville Songwriters Association
International honored her with their Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award,
making her the youngest artist ever to win the award.
On November 7, 2007, Swift won the 2007 CMA Horizon Award and also
performed "Our Song," the third single from her album, which would go on
to become her first #1 song the week of December 22, 2007, where it leaped
up from the #6 spot. This was the biggest jump to Number One since January
1998, when Tim McGraw's "Just to See You Smile", also jumped from #6 to
#1. "Our Song" spent six weeks at #1 on the Country charts and also peaked
at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Billboard Pop 100. Swift
also recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift
Holiday Collection, which was released October 16, 2007, exclusively
available at Target stores. The album, which was not as successful as her
self-titled debut, featured both holiday classics such as "Last Christmas"
and original songs written by Swift. 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 early in 2008 and peaked at #3 on the
Billboard Country Chart in the spring of 2008.
Big Machine Records announced the release of "Should've Said No" on
Monday, May 19. The song is the fifth and final single from Swift's debut
album. She performed it on the 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music
Awards. The performance started off with her dressed in a hooded
sweatshirt and jeans, but soon after a short black halter dress was
revealed. In the last minute of the song, she went backstage to perform
the final verse under a cascading waterfall. Swift had wanted to do that
performance on stage with the water and the change of clothes since she
was ten years old.
"Should've Said No" became her second Number One single for the chart
dated August 23, 2008. In June 2008, at the CMA Music Festival held in
Nashville, Swift signed autographs for nearly eight straight hours. It was
the longest autograph-signing session since Garth Brooks' 23-hour marathon
in 1996. In Summer 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 at #2 the same
week, Swift became the first artist to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top
Country Albums chart since LeAnn Rimes did so in 1997. Swift plays a
custom-made Taylor acoustic guitar made of koa wood.
Swift'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 history. It
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 paid 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, 2009.
In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on
Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Hannah Montana 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. The song was also featured as part of
the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics.
She also released the lead single from the album, "Love Story", on
September 12, 2008. The song is accompanied by a music video that is based
on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached number 2 on iTunes Store Top
Downloaded Songs and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It is also
called as Taylor Swift's signature song. 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 list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40
Chart.
The 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 Jonas.
She 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 songs.
Swift 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.
In January 2009, Swift announced her North American Fearless Tour planned
for 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the
span of 6 months. The tour kicked off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana.
On January 10, 2009, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on
Saturday Night Live, making her the youngest country singer to appear as a
musical guest on the show in its 33-year run. On February 8, 2009, Swift
performed her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards.
As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "Love Story" became
the country song with most paid downloads in history and the first country
song to top the Mainstream Top 40 chart. Swift then subsequently went onto
replicate the feat, reaching number 1 again on the Mainstream Top 40 in
September 2009 with "You Belong with Me", making it just the second
country song in the chart's history to reach the top.
Since the release of Swift's second album, Fearless, she has released one
new song "Crazier" for the soundtrack of the feature film Hannah Montana:
The Movie. At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift
picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for
Fearless.
Swift is the youngest artist in history to win Album of the Year award.
Swift was also awarded the Academy's Crystal Milestone Award, given for
Outstanding Achievement in Country Music. The Academy lauded her for
career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other
artist in any genre of music, the breakthrough success of her debut album
(which spawned five Top 10 hits, more than any in history for a female
artist's debut CD), and the worldwide crossover success of her #1 single
"Love Story". The Academy also cited Swift's contribution to helping
country music attract a younger audience. As of late April 2009, Swift has
sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile
Ringtones.
Taylor won two awards for Female Video of the Year and Video of the Year
at the CMT Music Awards.
On April 28, 2009, Swift gave a free, private concert to students at
Bishop Ireton High School, a small Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia
after the school won a national "TXT 2 WIN" contest from Verizon Wireless.
The students sent over 19,000 text messages to Verizon during a roughly
one month long contest. Swift played for about an hour during the school's
field day, an annual day-long recess with games and activities. On October
8, 2009 Swift's official website announced that her sold-out Fearless Tour
would return to North America for 37 additional dates in 2010.
On the chart week of November 14, 2009, Swift set a record for the most
songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a female artist at the same time with
eight singles from the re-release of her 2008 album Fearless namely five
debut new songs in the top 30: "Jump Then Fall" at #10, "Untouchable" at
#19, "The Other Side of the Door" at #22, "Superstar" at #27 and "Come in
With the Rain" at #30 and three already-charted songs that were released
as singles — "You Belong with Me" (#14), "Forever & Always" which
re-entered the chart at #34, and "Fifteen" (#46). In addition, the song
"Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls which features Swift, debuted
at #80 in the same issue. This gives Swift six debuts in one week, the
biggest number of debuts by any female artist of all time. It also lifts
the number of her simultaneously-charting songs to nine, setting another
record for the biggest number of charting songs by the same female artist
in the same week. When "Fifteen" reached #38 on the chart week of November
21, 2009, Swift became the female artist with most Top 40 singles this
decade, surpassing Beyoncé Knowles, who currently has 19 Top 40 singles.
"Fifteen" became Swift's thirteenth Top 40 single from Fearless and her
twentieth overall. Taylor's historical moves continued as the December 5
issue of the Hot 100 was announced; "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like
Girls progressed to #40, and John Mayer's "Half of My Heart" debuted at
#25 where both of these songs featured Swift. This gives Swift her 21st
and 22nd Top 40 singles.
On November 11, 2009, Swift won four CMA Awards: Album of the Year for
"Fearless", Music Video of the Year for "Love Story" Female Vocalist of
the Year, and Entertainer of the Year.
Swift also won five 2009 American Music Awards: Artist of The Year,
Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Country Female Artist, Favorite
Country Album for "Fearless", and Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist. On
December 2, 2009, she received Grammy Award nominations for: Record of the
Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "You
Belong with Me", Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Best Country Song
for "White Horse", Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for "Breathe", and
Album of the Year and Best Country Album for "Fearless".
At the end of 2009, the Associated Press named Swift "Entertainer of the
Year". "Fearless" was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US with more
than 3.2 millions copies sold in that year. Swift claimed both the #1 and
#2 positions atop Nielsen's BDS Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all
genres), with "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story," respectively. She
also topped the all format 2009 Top 10 Artist Airplay chart with over 1.29
million song detections, and the Top 10 Artist Internet Streams chart with
more than 46 million song plays.
On July 14, 2009, it was confirmed Swift would perform at the 2009 MTV
Video Music Awards. "I'm so excited that MTV and the VMAs have invited me
to perform, because I think this year's show will be unlike anything
they've ever done!" stated Swift. "I love incorporating theatrics into my
performances, and the VMAs have always allowed artists to run with that,"
she said. "MTV has been so good to me, and I could not be more excited
about this year's VMAs." This was Swift's first performance on the VMAs,
where she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music
Award. The show aired September 13 on MTV, with British comedian Russell
Brand hosting for the second year in a row.
During the awards show, singer/rapper Kanye West came on stage and took
the microphone from Swift during her acceptance speech for winning Best
Female Video for "You Belong with Me", saying that Beyoncé's video for
"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated for the same award, was "one
of the best videos of all time". This caused the audience in the venue to
respond negatively. He handed the microphone back to a stunned and
reportedly upset Swift, who did not finish her acceptance speech. West was
removed from the remainder of the show for his actions. When Beyoncé later
won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on
It)", she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance
speech.
Following the awards show, West apologized for his verbal outburst in a
blog entry (which was subsequently removed). He was criticized by various
celebrities for the outburst, and even by President Barack Obama in an
"off the record" comment. He later posted a second apology on his blog and
appeared on The Jay Leno Show one day after the incident, apologizing
publicly.
On September 15, 2009, Swift talked about the matter on The View. Asked
what she was thinking the moment it happened, she stated:
Well, I think my overall thought process was something like, 'Wow, I can't
believe I won, this is awesome, don't trip and fall, I'm gonna get to
thank the fans, this is so cool. Oh, Kanye West is here. Cool haircut.
What are you doing there?' And then, 'Ouch.' And then, 'I guess I'm not
gonna get to thank the fans.'
Swift said West had not spoken to her following the incident. Following
her appearance on The View, West contacted her to apologize personally;
Swift said she accepted his apology.
During the 2009 CMA Awards, the incident with Kanye West was lampooned on
stage by Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens, with Dickens stealing the
microphone during Paisley's speech to say Swift's video was better.
Swift won the 2010 People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Artist. In
February 2010, she is set to bring her Fearless Tour to 5 cities in
Australia. Opening acts will include Gloriana.
Swift is currently recording songs for her third album. She has the theme
planned out already. The album is due to be released in late 2010.
Swift released the track "Today Was a Fairytale" as a digital download on
iTunes on January 19, 2010. The song was featured on the soundtrack for
the film Valentine's Day, in which she made her feature-film acting debut.
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No.2 and is also Swift's
sixth Top 10 singles and her 23rd Top 40 singles on the Hot 100. In
January of 2010, Taylor Swift set a new download record with the song
"Today Was a Fairytale" with 325,000 downloads of the song. The song also
debuted at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, making it Swift's first
number one hit in Canada.
At the 52nd Grammy Awards Swift won Best Female Country Vocal Performance
and Best Country Song for "White Horse", and Album of the Year and Best
Country Album for "Fearless". While attempting to pose with all four of
her Grammy trophies backstage, Swift accidentally dropped one and
shattered it. At the awards ceremony, she performed a duet with Stevie
Nicks.
In February, Swift was awarded "Most Digital Song Certifications - Female
Solo Artist" by RIAA for 25 songs achieving gold or multi- platinum status
Swift's lyrics are highly autobiographical; she has said that "If you
listen to my albums, it’s like reading my diary." For instance the song
"Forever & Always" was inspired by her relationship with Joe Jonas, while
the song "Hey Stephen" was written about a guy who opened some shows for
her. "Fifteen" was written about her freshman year of high school. It has
been said that her lyrics "can be tinged with acid: the quiet loner girl
getting one over on the cheerleaders, or a caustic payback for the boy who
dumped her." She's also indicated that she tries to write so her fans can
relate to the lyrics, saying "My goal is to never write songs that my fans
can't relate to."
The intently personal nature of the songs has drawn her the most
attention. Swift once said, "I thought people might find them hard to
relate to, but it turned out that the more personal my songs were, the
more closely people could relate to them."
The fact that her songs are so clearly autobiographical has led to her
fans researching them. Swift once said, "Every single one of the guys that
I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans." The
New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters,
country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than
most adults".
In 2008, Swift made her acting debut in Brad Paisley's music video
"Online". In that same year Swift filmed a documentary for MTV entitled
MTV's Once Upon a Prom and a documentary with Def Leppard for CMT entitled
CMT Crossroads, which was premiered on November 7, 2008, drew more than
4.5 million viewers for its four initial airings. Swift collaborated with
the Jonas Brothers in their 3D Concert Film, Jonas Brothers: The 3D
Concert Experience. The film was released on February 27, 2009 in North
America. The concert film brought in $12,700,000 on its opening weekend.
Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene
Investigation Turn, Turn, Turn on March 5, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada.
The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers. Swift made a cameo
appearance in Kellie Pickler's music video "Best Days of Your Life". Swift
also appeared in Hannah Montana: The Movie as "woman singing in the barn".
The film was released on April 10, 2009 in North America. The television
show Dateline NBC showcased an hour to Swift on May 31, 2009. The episode
titled Dateline NBC: On Tour With Taylor Swift included scenes from her
tour bus, concert footage, and rehearsals. She was also interviewed for
the show and some of her exclusive video diaries were shown. Taylor both
hosted and performed as the musical guest for the November 7, 2009 episode
of Saturday Night Live.
In 2010, Swift made her feature film acting debut as Felicia in the film
Valentine's Day.
On September 21, 2007, Swift launched a campaign to protect children from
online predators. She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen
to combat internet sex crimes. The year-long campaign, launched in
partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will
distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and
students across the state. In early 2008, Swift donated the pink Chevy
pick-up truck given to her by her record label to children’s charity, the
Victory Junction Gang; in June, 2008, Swift donated all the proceeds she
got from her merchandise sales at the 2008 Country Music Festival to Red
Cross, the Nashville Area Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and the National
American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Swift donated $10,000, funded by
CMT ONE COUNTRY, to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital by winning the
"Video of the Year" and "Female Video of the Year" awards at the 2008 CMT
Music Awards. In 2009, Swift won "Video of the Year and "Female Video of
the Year" awards at the 2009 CMT Music Awards. She donated $5,000, funded
by CMT, to American Red Cross.
Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help the
victims of the Iowa flood of 2008. Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters
to make listeners aware of listening "responsibly". Swift supports @15, a
teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens
opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the
newly-created @15 Fund. Swift's song, "Fifteen", is featured in this
campaign. Swift has lent her support to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by
joining the lineup at Sydney's Sound Relief concert, reportedly making the
biggest contribution of any artist playing at Sound Relief to the
Australian Red Cross. Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200
for charity, to DonateMyDress.org. On November 20, 2009 after a live
performance on BBC's Children in Need night Swift announced to Sir Terry
Wogan she would donate £13,000 of her own money to the cause.
On December 13th, Swift's own birthday, she donated $250,000 to various
schools around the country which she either has attended or been involved
with.
Swift has been featured on the cover of a number of magazines. In 2008,
the list includes Blender, Seventeen, Billboard, Girls' Life, Women's
Health and CosmoGirl. In 2009, Swift graced the cover of Teen Vogue, Self
Magazine, Rolling Stone, Allure, Glamour, and Bliss. She has been a cover
girl for Blender, for which she was one of two country artists during the
magazine’s fifteen year run to be a cover subject. Additionally, she was
named number fifty-seven on Maxim's sexiest women of 2008. CosmoGirl voted
Swift as the "2008 Girl of the Year". Swift was named by Rolling Stone
magazine as one of "The RS 100: Agents of Change". She was nominated as a
candidate for TIME's "2009 The Time 100 Finalists" list, which is
determined by online voting. PEOPLE magazine named Swift one of 25 Most
Intriguing People of 2009.
Jakks Pacific released a celebrity doll of Swift in late 2008. Taylor
Swift is the face of L.E.I. Jeans (Life Energy Intelligence) since 2008.
Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on
Swift's style of dressing. It will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming
months. However, Swift said she does not want to be called a designer.
Instead, she says she will inspire the clothing company's dress line based
on her own style. "I don't look at it like I'm branching out as a
designer... It's not the Taylor Swift designer line." In 2009, Swift
became the National Hockey League's newest celebrity spokesperson. She
appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.
In 2008, Swift was in a high-profile relationship with pop singer Joe
Jonas. On November 11, 2008, in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
Swift claimed that Jonas broke up with her in a 27-second phone call. In
explanation, Jonas wrote on his MySpace blog (in a post that has since
been removed): "I called to discuss feelings with the other person, and
obviously these feelings were not well received. I did not end the phone
call. Someone else ended it for me. Phone calls only last as long as the
person on the other end is willing to talk." Furthermore, Jonas says that
he has tried to call her since the breakup, in an attempt at
reconciliation, but received no response. During the same interview with
Ellen DeGeneres, Swift revealed that the heartbreak song "Forever &
Always" on her album Fearless, recorded in late September/early October
2008, was inspired by Jonas.
Swift's best friend has been Abigail Anderson, whom she has known since
ninth grade. During a discussion of Shakespeare in an English class they
learned what they had in common. "We were the ones in the back of the
class saying negative things about Romeo and Juliet because we were so
bitter toward that emotion at the time," said Anderson. "We just really
connected ... and ever since then we have been inseparable." Anderson also
appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to surprise Swift. Anderson was
mentioned in Swift's single "Fifteen."
Swift is also close friends with Kellie Pickler, with whom she co-wrote
Pickler's second single "Best Days of Your Life" from her self-titled
album Kellie Pickler. In July 2008, Swift graduated from the Aaron
Academy, a Christian school in Hendersonville, Tennessee, which offers a
home-schooling program. Prior to this, she attended Hendersonville High
School. |
