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Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1989.
The American country and pop singer began her career as a teenager. At the age of 10, Taylor began performing at musical events such as karaoke contests and festivals. She started writing her own song lyrics.
Her debut single, Tim McGraw, was released in the summer of 2006, and her first self-titled album was released on October 24, 2006. It sold more than 61,000 copies in its first week. The album reached #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and #5 on the Billboard 200.
The second single from Taylor’s self-titled album is Teardrops On My Guitar. It was released on February 24, 2007. The song was inspired by a true story that happened to Taylor when she was in high school. Then she had a crush on a young man named Drew, who only saw her as a friend. The singles Our Song, Picture to Burn and Should’ve Said No followed, which enjoyed great success.
In 2008, Taylor received a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist, but the award went to Amy Winehouse.
Taylor’s second studio album is called Fearless and was released on November 11, 2008. The music video for the song Love Story was released on September 12, 2008. The video is based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. The song reached #2 on the iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2009, Taylor embarked on her first tour in support of her second studio album, Fearless. It consists of 105 concerts – 90 in North America, 6 in Europe, 8 in Australia and 1 in Asia. The tour also features special guests including John Mayer, Faith Hill and Katy Perry. Opening acts are Justin Bieber, Kelly Pickler and Gloriana.
Taylor became the first country artist to win an MTV Video Music Award when she took home the award for Best Female Video for the video for You Belong With Me.
Fearless won Album of the Year and Best Country Album, and White Horse won Best Country Song and Best Vocal Performance by a Country Female Singer. Swift is the youngest artist to win Album of the Year.
On October 25, 2010, Taylor’s third studio album – Speak Now – was released. The singer wrote all the songs on the album herself and produced it together with Nathan Chapman. 6 singles were released from the album – Mine, Back to December, Mean, The Story of Us, Sparks Fly and Ours. The album was a major success, selling 1,047,000 copies in its first week and topping the Billboard 200 chart. The album has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
He made his acting debut in 2010 in the movie “Valentine’s Day”. In 2011–2012, Swift embarked on a 110-concert world tour in support of the Speak Now album. The tour drew more than 1.6 million viewers and grossed $123 million. Swift’s first live album Speak Now World Tour: Live was released in November 2011.
Her fifth album, 1989, was released in 2014. It sold more copies in its first week than any other album in the last 12 years. After the release of this album, Taylor Swift became the first artist with 3 consecutive albums to sell 1 million copies in their first week. The singles Shake It Off, Blank Space and Bad Blood all topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Taylor Swift has won 225 awards, including 13 Grammy Awards and 16 American Music Awards, 11 CMAs, 8 ACMs, 34 Billboard Music Awards and one Brit Award.
By early 2015, Taylor Swift had sold over 40 million albums. Her songs have been downloaded 130 million times. Each of Taylor’s albums has sold at least 4 million copies in America: Fearless (7.0 million), Taylor Swift (5.5 million), Speak Now (4.5 million), Red (4.1 million) and 1989 (5.4 million).
