Taylor Swift

EARLY LIFE 

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 to Scott, a financial adviser, and Andrea, a former mutual fund marketing executive. 

She was named after musician James Taylor. Swift's mother believed that a gender-neutral name would help forge a business career.

Swift performing on The Red Tour in March 2013. By Jana Zills

She grew up on a Christmas tree farm. Taylor told Rolling Stone her job was "picking the praying mantis pods off of the trees so the bugs wouldn't hatch inside people's houses."

Taylor Swift's maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, was a professional opera singer, and inspired Taylor to become a singer.

Taylor Swift first picked up a guitar, aged ten, when a computer repair man and local musician Ronnie Cremer showed her how to play three chords.

When Taylor was 12, she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished.

Taylor 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 spent her time writing songs to express her emotions. One of the first tunes Taylor wrote was "The Outside."

Taylor's family relocated to Nashville, Tennessee when she was 14 so that she could pursue a career in country music. She attended Hendersonville High School, but after two years transferred to the Aaron Academy, a Christian high school, which also offers a home schooling program and graduated a year early in July 2008.

MUSIC CAREER

After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, Taylor caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. She released her debut single, "Tim McGraw," on June 19, 2006. The song reached number 40 on the Hot 100.

Covet art Big Machine Records. Wikipedia

On September 1, 2006, Taylor Swift made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. Wearing a white sundress and sporting her natural curls, the 16-year-old sang "Tim McGraw" on the Opry stage.

Taylor released her self-titled debut album in 2007 at the age of 17. The record topped the country chart for 24 non-consecutive weeks. 

As a result of its success Swift became the first female solo artist to write or co-write every song on a platinum-selling debut album. 

When "Our Song" reached #1 on the country chart week ending December 22, 2007, Swift who had just turned 18, became the youngest performer ever to write and sing a chart-topping country single. 

Taylor wrote the song "The Best Day" an ode to her mom as a surprise Christmas present for her. She had to drop the song from her setlist as Andrea would burst into tears backstage every time she heard it.

Swift performing at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, California in 2007. By Brian Cantoni.

Her first number-one song on the US Billboard Hot 100 was "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", the lead single from Swift's fourth album Red.

In 2014, Taylor Swift accidentally released 8 seconds of white noise on iTunes for $1.29. It immediately reached #1 in Canada before being removed.

The music video for "Look What You Made Me Do" was viewed 43.2 million times in its first 24 hours on Vevo following its debut during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. In doing so it overtook the previous record holder, Adele's "Hello," which racked up 27 million views in its first day on the platform. The clip similarly usurped Psy's 24-hour YouTube record set by the Korean star's "Gentleman," which had 36 million views in a single day back in 2013.

Taylor Swift is the first artist in history to release six albums that sold more than one million copies in their opening week in the United States.

Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, March 5, 2009 episode "Turn, Turn, Turn" as Haley Jones. She made her movie acting debut in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, where she played Felicia. 

Among the phrases she has trademarked are "this sick beat," "party like it's 1989," and "Nice to meet you. Where you been?"

In a poll that was carried out across the US between February 8 and February 12, 2024, nearly one-fifth of Americans said they believed that Taylor Swift is part of a covert operation for the Pentagon. It followed  Fox News broadcast segment that claimed the pop star was secretly working with the government. The Pentagon denied rumours that Taylor Swift was a political “asset”, and a spokesperson said that, when it came to the theory, they were “going to shake it off.” 

Swift entered the Forbes World's Billionaires List for the first time in April 2024. 

PERSONAL LIFE 

Because she was born on December 13, 1989, Taylor has a Christmas-themed birthday party every year.

Swift at the 2010 Time 100 Gala, where she was honored. By David Shankbone

Taylor's best friend is Abigail Anderson, with whom she's been friends since their freshman year in high school. She sings about their friendship on the song "Fifteen."

Swift has two cats of the Scottish Fold breed, called Meredith and Olivia. Meredith is named after Ellen Pompeo's character on Grey's Anatomy and Olivia after Mariska Hargitay's Lieutenant, now sergeant, in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Meredith can be seen when she was a kitten in a wallpaper picture on Swift's work computer during the video for "Ours" and Olivia featured in a Diet Coke ad, which was soundtracked by Swift's song "How You Get The Girl." Swift also has a Ragdoll cat, Benjamin Button, named after the character from the movie of the same name.

A triskaidekaphobic is somebody who fears the number 13, but Taylor Swift is the opposite; she loves the numeral, so much so that she paints a '13' on her hand before every show she does. It also influences such matters as how many times she sings certain phrases.

Swift was born on December 13 and she turned 13 on Friday 13th. She moved to Nashville when she was 13 and her first album went gold in 13 weeks. In 2009 she commented that every time she'd won an award she was sat in the 13th row, seat, section, or in "Row M, which is the 13th letter "Basically," she's been known to reflect, "whenever a 13 comes up in my life, it's a good thing."

Source NME, Some of this entry was originally written by myself for Artistfacts