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Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American Grammy-nominated American pop music singer-songwriter. Before transitioning to pop music, Swift was involved in the country music scene in Nashville. Throughout her career, Swift has earned multiple accolades, and awards including eleven Grammy awards: this includes two for Album of the Year; she is the first female artist to win this esteemed award twice.
Early life
Swift was born in the town of Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised in Wyomissing. Her father is Scott Swift, a stock broker, and her mother is Andrea, a homemaker. She was raised in a Christian home and went to a Christian high school. After starting her career, she became homeschooled and finished her diploma in this fashion.
Philanthropy and Charity
In 2009 Taylor Swift became the female artist with the most top-40 songs of the decade with her song Fifteen. Fifteen is a song promoting abstinence and used in Best Buy's campaign for @15, a charity which helps teenagers get involved in their communities. Taylor Swift has donated over $750,000 to the Red Cross and $250,000 to various schools around the country, some of which were Christian-based education schools. She has also donated $10,000 to St Jude's Children's Research Hospital.
Albums
She released her first album, Taylor Swift in late 2006 which became #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and #5 on the Billboard Hot 200. She released her second album, Fearless in 2008 which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 200. She was the first artist in history to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart. It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at #1 on The Billboard 200. Speak Now was released in October 2010 and was followed by Red in 2012 and in 2014 Swift's first official pop album 1989 became her best selling album and the 1989 World Tour became her best selling tour by far.
Awards and Accomplishments
Swift is the youngest artist in history to win Album of the Year award. Swift was also awarded the Country Music Academy's Crystal Milestone Award, given for Outstanding Achievement in Country Music. The Academy praised her for career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other artist in any genre of music, the first time a country artist had done that, the breakthrough success of her debut album (which spawned five Top 10 hits, more than any in history for a female artist's debut CD), and the worldwide crossover success of her #1 single "Love Story". The Academy also cited Swift's contribution to helping country music attract a younger audience and her family-friendly lyrics and performances. She has received numerous awards, and one of these was being named Billboard Magazine Artist of the Year for 2009 and received the title Artist of the Year at the Country Music Awards.
Swift became the first female artist to have two different albums sell more than one million copies in the first week.
Personal life
Swift has largely been silent on political and religious issues. She refused to endorse Hillary Clinton to the dismay of the mainstream media, and endorsed no one else. Although having a Christian upbringing, (denomination is not known) it is unknown what Swift's current religious beliefs are, if any. However, it is claimed that Swift once wrote on her old MySpace account that "Republicans do it better."
The only political view that Taylor Swift has made clear is her support for homosexual "marriage." The song "Welcome to New York" features the lyric "you can want who you want: boys and boys and girls and girls." However, unlike her contemporaries such as Katy Perry, this is the main public support she has given toward the homosexual agenda.[1]
Controversies
Swift has, in the past, been praised by many Conservative parent advocacy groups for being a positive role model for young people. However, Swift began to wear attire that some conservative parents found objectionable. While it can be considered less sultry than her contemporaries, said conservative groups and individuals tend to find it a stark contrast from her earlier image.
At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards she was awarded 2009's Best Female Video of the Year where she became the first country musician to win a VMA but before she could give her acceptance speech she was interrupted by Kanye West who took the microphone from her hand and proceeded to say that Beyonce deserved the award instead of Swift. Swift was stunned and upset but remained composed and was lauded by many for being so collected. Kanye West was criticized by many top celebrities, including Barack Hussein Obama.