Taylor Swift
Early Life
Taylor Alison Swift was born December 13th, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. She is the daughter of Scott, a stockbroker, and Andrea Swift, a homemaker and has one younger brother, Austin. At the age of ten, Swift began writing songs and singing at karaoke contests, festivals, and county fairs around her hometown. By the age of twelve she was writing her own songs and her parents brought her first guitar. Taylor’s family made regular trips to Nashville and at fourteen she became the youngest songwriter signed up to a publishing deal with Sony/ATV. After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing the national anthem at the U.S. Open tennis tournament. At this point Taylor’s family moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee. During a showcase at the local Bluebird Cafe, Taylor caught the attention of Scott Borchetta a former bassist with various country acts before devoting himself full time to the industry side of the music business. At the time he was planning to launch a new label and subsequently Swift was one of the first artists to sign to his, “Big Machine Records”.
Career Highlights
Her self titled debut album Taylor Swift was released on October 24th, 2006 and debuted at # 19 on the Billboard 200 selling 39,000 copies during its first week. The album later peaked at #1 on the country albums charts, ultimately spending 23 (non-consecutive) weeks there, and #5 on the Billboard 200. Swift's first single, "Tim McGraw", was released to radio in October 2006 and reached # 6 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart during the week of January 27th, 2007. The second single from the Taylor Swift album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. The song originally peaked 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 the song to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100. Three more singles, "Our Song", "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No" were released from the album all charting in Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart top 5. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. As of March 2009, Taylor Swift has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.
Swift also recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, that was released exclusively to Target stores. The album, which was not as successful as her self-titled debut, featured both holiday classics such as "Last Christmas" and "Santa Baby" as well as original songs written by Swift. 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 in 1997.
Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released in the U.S. on November 11th, 2008. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 was the highest debut of any country artists in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist. Swift released the lead single from the album, "Love Story", on September 12, 2008. The song peaked at # 2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and # 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. She also became the first country singer to have a top 10 hit in the UK since, Shania Twain's "Party for Two" in 2004, when it peaked at # 2. The second single from Fearless, "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. "White Horse" peaked at #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs for the week of April 11th, 2009. The same month "You Belong with Me" was officially released to radio, debuting at #32 on the Hot Country Songs charts on the chart week of May 2nd."Change", was also released as a download only single and was selected as part of the soundtrack supporting Team USA's efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Taylor Swift Discography
Albums
2006 Taylor Swift | 2008 Fearless
Singles
2006 "Tim McGraw" | 2007 "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song" | 2008 "Picture to Burn", "Should've Said No", "Love Story", "White Horse" | 2009 "You Belong with Me"
Trivia
- When she was in fourth grade, Swift won a national poetry contest with a three-page long poem entitled "Monster In My Closet".
- When Swift was fifteen, she rejected a development deal with RCA Records because the company refused to allow her to record her own songs.
- The music video for her debut single, "Tim McGraw", has been viewed more than 25 million times on YouTube.
- 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.
- In June 2008, at the CMA Music Festival held in Nashville, Swift signed autographs for nearly eight straight hours.
- Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200 for charity, to DonateMyDress.org.
Taylor Swift Links
Bestzilla | Celebhoo | Celebrity Link | Chickipedia | Famous Hookups | Famous Why | Free Ones | Perfect People | SoundUnwound |
