Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift
Information
Full name	Taylor Alison Swift
Born	December 13, 1989 (age 28)
Resides	Nashville, New York, Rhode Island
Nicknames	Swifty, Shifty, T Swizzle
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, actress
Labels	Big Machine Records
Website	www.taylorswift.com [1]

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is a Grammy Award winning American singer, songwriter and actress.

She dated Harry Styles for two months in 2012. They split in early January 2013. She collaborated with Zayn Malik on the single "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", released in December 2016.

Background

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, to bankers Scott and Andrea Swift in Reading Hospital, Pennsylvania.

At 14, Taylor convinced her parents to move to Nashville, Tennessee, so she could pursue her dreams of becoming a country singer. Taylor's first record label wanted her to wait until she was 18 to begin writing and releasing her own material. She instead signed with upcoming independent label Big Machine Records, as it was being founded, and remains with them today.

Swift originally established herself as a country artist, but gradually transitioned into pop music. Her fourth album, Red, featured a mixture of country and pop songs, while her fifth album, 1989, marked her complete crossover into pop. 1989 was one of the biggest selling albums of all time. Her sixth album reputation was made Swift the best selling artist of 2017 in the US, despite being released in November.

Swift is one of the best selling artists of all time and has won ten Grammy Awards. In 2016, she became the first female artist to win the Album Of The Year Grammy twice.

Relationships

Swift dated pop singer Joe Jonas from July to October 2008 and famously publicized his 20-second break-up with her over the phone. Swift then dated actor Taylor Lautner from October to December 2009, after they starred in the film Valentine's Day together. She dated musician John Mayer from late 2009 until early 2010, and spoke about their borderline abusive relationship in her song 'Dear John'. Mayer denied the song was factual and released 'Paper Doll' as a response. She dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal from October to December 2010. It is alleged her songs "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "All Too Well" were about Gyllenhaal. Following their break-up, the two were seen together again in early 2011. Swift dated political heir Conor Kennedy from July to September 2012, then dated Harry Styles from October 2012 to January 2013.

Swift did not date anyone in 2013 or 2014, citing an unwillingness to deal with the additional media attention, which increased considerably throughout 2012. "I have this feeling like if I were to open myself up to love, that would be a career weakness." Swift spoke against her reputation as a man-eater in promotional interviews for her fifth album 1989, claiming it was largely sexist commentary, and further deconstructed the image placed upon her by the media in her 2014 hit single 'Blank Space'.

From March 2015 to June 2016, Swift dated Scottish DJ Calvin Harris. In June 2015, they were ranked as the highest-paid celebrity couple of the year by Forbes, with combined earnings of over $146 million. On June 1, 2016, People Magazine announced the couple had split after a year and a half together. Harris eventually spoke about the split, stating "For both of us it was the wrong situation. The aftermath of the relationship was way more heavily publicised than the relationship itself. We were very careful for it not to be a media circus. She respected my feelings in that sense. I'm not good at being a celebrity. [But] when it ended, all hell broke loose."

Two weeks after her split from Harris, photographs of Taylor kissing UK actor Tom Hiddleston in Rhode Island were published by The Sun. Swift and Hiddleston had been previously filmed dancing together at the Met Gala afterparty in May 2016. Through July 2016, "Hiddleswift" conducted a whirlwind series of public dates, starting in Rhode Island for Swift's annual Fourth of July party, then heading to Nashville to meet her parents, followed by London to meet his, then Rome and Australia's Gold Coast (where Hiddleston began filming Thor 3) before returning to the United States by the end of the month. On September 6, 2016 it was confirmed the couple had split after three months together. On February 14, 2017 Hiddleston addressed the relationship in a GQ interview, stating: "I only know the woman I met. She’s incredible. But, man, all those cameras. A relationship always takes work. A relationship in the limelight takes work. And it’s not just the limelight. It’s everything else. We wanted a regular relationship, so we decided to go out for dinner, we decided to travel.” Swift referenced her relationship with Hiddleston in her 2017 music video for "Look What You Made Me Do" by having her back-up dancers wear "I Heart T.S" shirts, like one Hiddleston wore during their 2016 Fourth of July party. She sold t-shirts bearing the slogan as official merchandise. The song "Getaway Car", featured on her sixth album reputation, details her relationship with Hiddleston.

Swift has been dating British actor Joe Alwyn since October 2016. Several songs on reputation detail their relationship including "...Ready For It?", "Call It What You Want", "King Of My Heart", "New Year's Day", "Dress" and "Dancing With Our Hands Tied". Swift and Alwyn kept their relationship completely hidden for nine months, and are very occasionally seen in public together.

Personal Life

Taylor relocated permanently from Nashville to New York City in 2014. She currently lives there with her two cats, Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey, named after main characters from US TV shows Law and Order and Grey's Anatomy. Swift also has homes in Rhode Island and Los Angeles. Taylor is close friends with Ed Sheeran. They collaborated on "Everything Has Changed" from her 2012 album, RED and "End Game" from her 2017 album "reputation". She is also friends with many female celebrities including Selena Gomez, Cara Delevingne, Lena Dunham, Camila Cabello, Lorde, Karlie Kloss and Gigi Hadid. 

Relationship with One Direction

Swift met One Direction at the 2012 Kids Choice Awards on March 31, 2012. In October 2012, after Swift's relationship with Conor Kennedy had officially ended, reports of Swift dating Harry surfaced. In November 2012, both were photographed wearing matching paper airplane necklaces. In early December 2012, Taylor and Harry were photographed together in New York. Swift attended the afterparty for One Direction's sold-out Madison Square Garden concert, along with mutual friend Ed Sheeran. During the party, Taylor reenacted the "swan leap" from Dirty Dancing with Harry. Harry was later seen entering and leaving Taylor's hotel over the following weeks, and the pair headed to Harry's hometown of Cheshire in mid December. Before heading back to New York City to celebrate New Years Eve, Harry met Taylor's parents in Nashville. Fans speculated a split when Harry did not attend a New York City NYE concert of Taylor's, arriving late and instead attending a Coldplay show. However, the two shared a midnight kiss surrounded by fans in Times Square. In early January 2013, Swift and Styles appeared to split during a vacation, as Taylor flew home alone and tweeted "Til you put me down"; a lyric from her 2012 single "I Knew You Were Trouble". Harry returned to the United Kingdom on January 7, 2013 and their split was confirmed. Neither made public statements about their relationship until almost two years later.

Harry and Taylor posed for a picture together with Ed Sheeran at the 2013 MTV VMAs. Taylor revealed in October 2014 that songs from her fifth album, 1989, would detail her relationship with Harry, specifically Style and Out Of The Woods. When asked, Harry said he did not mind being written about, as it is to be expected of singers and songwriters. Harry would go on to write Perfect with Louis Tomlinson in 2015, featuring the lyric "If you're looking for someone to write your break-up songs about", which many took to be a reference to Swift.

On December 8, 2016 Taylor surprise released a duet with former One Direction member Zayn Malik, titled "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. The single was a worldwide hit, peaking at #2 in the US and #5 in the UK. In 2017, Zayn and Taylor won the MTV VMA Award for Best Collaboration and the song was nominated for a Grammy Award.

On 18 April 2017, in a Rolling Stone interview, Harry addressed his relationship with Swift for the first time ever. When asked to comment, Styles stated: "When I see photos from [their December 2012 dates], I think...relationships are hard, at any age. Adding in that you don't really understand exactly how it works when you're 18, trying to navigate all that stuff didn't make it easier. I mean, you're a little bit awkward to begin with. You're on a date with someone you really like. It should be that simple, right? It was a learning experience for sure. But at the heart of it, I just wanted it to be a normal date. I don't know if [Style and Out Of The Woods] are about me or not, but the issue is, she's so good, they're bloody everywhere. I write from my experiences; everyone does that. I'm lucky if everything [we went through] helped create those songs. That's what hits your heart. That's the stuff that's hardest to say, and it's the stuff I talk least about. That's the part that's about the two people. I'm never going to tell anybody everything. She doesn't need me to tell her the [songs] are great. They're great songs. It's the most amazing unspoken dialogue ever. Certain things don't work out. There's a lot of things that can be right, and it's still wrong. In writing songs about stuff like that, I like tipping a hat to the time together. You're celebrating the fact it was powerful and made you feel something, rather than 'this didn't work out, and that's bad.' And if you run into that person, maybe it's awkward, maybe you have to get drunk ... but you shared something. Meeting someone new, sharing those experiences, it's the best shit ever. So thank you."

Harry and Taylor at an NYC zoo with Lux. December 2012.

Walking in New York, December 2012

Taylor accompanies Harry as he gets his ship tattoo, Dec 18th 2012.

Harry and Taylor reenact Dirty Dancing at One Direction MSG afterparty. December 2012.

Harry and Taylor in Times Square on NYE 2012

Harry with Taylor and Ed at the 2013 VMAs

Harry and Taylor cross paths in NYC. January 2015

Taylor with Louis, Niall, Ed Sheeran, Calvin Harris and brother Austin in May 2015

Zayn and Taylor's single cover for "I Don't Wanna Live Forever"

Awards and Achievements

Swift has received many awards and honors, including 10 Grammy Awards, 19 American Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, 8 Academy of Country Music Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards, 1 Brit Award and 1 Emmy . Swift is also the most awarded artist at the Teen Choice Awards, with 25 awards. As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016, the Broadcast Music Inc Awards gave her the first ever Taylor Swift Award, based primarily around songwriting.

By the beginning of 2016, Swift had sold more than 40 million albums, 130 million single downloads and was one of the top five music artists with the highest worldwide digital sales. Each of Swift's studio albums had sold at least four million units in the U.S. Taylor Swift (5.5 million), Fearless (7.0 million), Speak Now (4.5 million), Red (4.1 million), and 1989 (5.7 million). By 9 June 2017, 1989 had sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and Swift had sold over 100 million singles in the United States. In 2017, Swift became the only artist to have four albums sell over a million copies in first week after releasing her sixth studio album, reputation. The album was 2017's best selling album in the United States. Swift was nominated for two 2018 Grammys, Best Country Song for writing Big Little Town's "Better Man" and Best Song Written For Visual Media for "I Don't Wanna Live Forever".

Trivia

• She has a younger brother, Austin.
• She was raised on a Christmas tree farm.
• She attended her first concert, LeAnn Rimes, when she was eight years old.
• After seeing Faith Hill talk about moving to Nashville on television one day, Swift begged her parents every day nonstop “We need to go to Nashville. Can we please go to Nashville?” They eventually moved to Nashville when she was 11, where Taylor immediately began courting record labels to try landing a deal.
• She helped pass a law to help keep children safe from online predators.
• She initially refused to allow her 1989 album to be streamed through Apple Music as they were not going to pay artists during the first three months of the service going online. Swift felt this was unfair to independent artists who were not financially secure yet. She penned an open letter to Apple, posting it on all her official social media platforms. Within 24 hours, Apple agreed to change their policy based on her stance, and would pay artists their royalties as soon as the streaming service began. Swift announced she would distribute her music with Apple shortly after. Her move was widely considered one of the biggest displays of power and influence from an artist in the entertainment industry.
• During an interview with David Letterman, she stated she learns some phrases in every language of every nation she visits, then demonstrated her impressive ability to speak Japanese.
• Many believe she dissed Harry during the 2013 Grammys, singing "I still love you" in a British accent during a performance of We Are Never Getting Back Together.
• Fans also believe she dissed Harry at the 2013 MTV VMA Awards. During her acceptance speech, she said "I wanna thank the person who inspired this song, who knows exactly who he is". However, Swift was accepting an award for I Knew You Were Trouble, which was written before she began dating Harry and the music video was released while they were still dating.
• She can be briefly seen holding Harry's paper plane necklace in the beginning and end of the music video for Style.
• Swift has been involved in a feud with pop singer Katy Perry since approximately 2013, after Katy rehired several back up dancers still working for Swift's world tour at the time. Swift has since stated she never knew if they were really friends or not, while Perry referred to Swift as "the Regina George in sheep's clothing". Swift wrote her 2015 single "Bad Blood" in reference to the feud and Perry wrote her 2017 single "Swish Swish" in response.
• She wrote Calvin Harris's 2016 hit single "This Is What You Came For" under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg. Her vocals briefly appear on the track, alongside main vocalist Rihanna. This information was revealed in July 2016, with confirmation from Swift's representatives, and Harris on his official Twitter.
• In February 2016, American rapper Kanye West released a single titled "Famous" from his album The Life Of Pablo. One particular lyric crudely references Swift, stating: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous". Initially, Swift released a statement claiming she had not previewed the lyrics prior to release, and that she had warned West against releasing a song with a misogynistic message. West responded saying Taylor had full knowledge and permitted the song's release. Days later, Swift called out West for the lyric during her historic second Album of the Year win at the 2016 Grammy Awards, addressing "people who try to take credit for your fame". West's wife, American reality TV star Kim Kardashian, then claimed she had audio recordings proving Swift had permitted the lyric. She further explained on her television series, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, that she did not want her husband to be subjected to more media scrutiny because of Swift, after the global derision he received from interrupting Taylor at the 2009 MTV VMAs. Kardashian released the recordings to her official Snapchat in July 2016. Swift can be heard permitting the lyric, thanking Kanye for seeking her advanced approval, and planning to tell the media at the Grammy Awards that she was "in on the joke". Kardashian noted it was National Snake Day in America in reference to Swift lying, and Swift's social media was subsequently spammed with millions of snake emojis. Swift released a final statement saying she had not heard the lyric "that bitch" and claimed "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative". The statement was publicly derided. Swift references this feud in the music video for her 2017 single "Look What You Made Me Do" appearing as various media "versions" of herself. One is "2009 VMAs Taylor" from when West interrupted her. She announces "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative" and the other "Taylor"'s simultaneously yell "Oh, shut up!" in response. The video also features Swift surrounded by snakes, one of which serves her tea. A common slang phrase for gossiping is "spilling the tea". Her official merchandise for 2017 included snake themed jewellery. Swift details her and West's second falling out on "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" from her sixth album, reputation.

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External Links

• @taylorswift13 - Official Twitter
• @taylorswift - Official Instagram
• Official Tumblr