You only have to align a few numbers to realize the status of music icon obtained by Taylor Swift in the United States and around the world. Four Grammy awards for the best album of the year (a record which places her ahead of Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon or Stevie Wonder), a fortune estimated at 1.1 billion dollars according to Forbes (one of "the rare artists to achieving this status solely through music and stage"), a place at the top of the American charts for 68 consecutive weeks (beating Elvis Presley's record)… The list could go on for a long time.
The woman who was named Personality of the Year 2023 by the prestigious Time magazine is a unique artist in the United States, thanks to a career that owes nothing to chance.
A “very authentic” artist
From her first album, released in 2006 and simply titled Taylor Swift, the singer, barely 16 years old, rose to the rank of young American country star. The album was written in high school by Taylor Swift. Nothing surprising for the one who learned the guitar at 10 years old and who, even as a child, “was singing all the time”, as her father, a financial advisor, told UDaily. At school, as she later explained in several interviews, Taylor Swift was ostracized by her classmates and took refuge in writing songs.
The teenager, who was born in 1989 in Pennsylvania, auditioned in New York to play in Broadway musicals, but without success. At age 13, she moved with her family near Nashville, the country capital, where her parents hoped she could be successful. A successful bet since she signed her first contract as an author and composer with Sony/ATV Tree Music Publishing, becoming the youngest artist to sign on this label. Already a first record.
Her first album contains one of the recipes that will make Taylor Swift successful throughout her career: it addresses her intimate thoughts and her romantic relationships, from happiness to betrayals. A common thread that allows its fans to find themselves in these universal stories.
“Since the beginning, I have identified with the songs she writes,” explains Sandra, a fan of the artist, born the same year and the same month as Taylor Swift and therefore aged, like the singer, 34 years old. “I feel like I’ve grown and evolved with her. These words mean a lot to me. She excels at sharing her personal experience with millions of people,” says the woman who has an Instagram account dedicated to her favorite singer and began following Taylor Swift in 2009. “There is a very authentic side. Her songs are almost a diary that takes people with her,” also underlines Gaël Sanquer, deputy director of musical media for the NRJ group.
A proximity supported by the storytelling talents of Taylor Swift. “I write all my songs,” the artist confirmed on Twitter in 2022. She also composes most of them and plays many instruments (drums, piano, banjo, etc.). “When I have an idea, I record a voice memo singing the melody, or I write the lyrics in the notes on my cell phone,” she detailed in 2016 in an interview for Vogue. Enough to add to this authentic side, appreciated by his fans.
(to be continued)
