Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting and artistic reinventions, Swift is a leading figure in popular culture and the subject of widespread public interest. Swift signed with Big Machine Records in 2005, starting as a country pop singer with her first two albums Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008).

Early life

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. She is named after singer-songwriter James Taylor. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, was a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch, and her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), worked as a mutual fund marketing executive briefly. Swift's younger brother, Austin, would become an actor. Their maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), was an opera singer, whose singing in church became one of Swift's earliest memories of music that shaped her career. The siblings are of Scottish, English, and German descent, with distant Italian and Irish ancestry.

At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records. She had first met Borchetta in 2004. She was one of Big Machine's first signings, and her father purchased a three-percent stake in the company for an estimated $120,000.She began working on her eponymous debut album with Nathan Chapman. Swift wrote or co-wrote all album tracks, and co-writers included Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, and Angelo Petraglia. Released in October 2006, Taylor Swift peaked at number five on the United States Billboard 200, on which it spent 157 weeks—the longest stay on the chart by any release in the US in the 2000s decade. Swift became the first female country music artist to write or co-write every track on a platinum-certified debut album.

Big Machine Records was still in its infancy during the June 2006 release of the lead single, "Tim McGraw", which Swift and her mother helped promote by packaging and sending copies of the CD single to country radio stations. She spent much of 2006 promoting Taylor Swift with a radio tour and television appearances; she opened for Rascal Flatts on select dates during their 2006 tour, as a replacement for Eric Church.[48] Borchetta said that although record industry peers initially disapproved of his signing a 15-year-old singer-songwriter, Swift tapped into a previously unknown market—teenage girls who listen to country music. Following "Tim McGraw", four more singles were released throughout 2007 and 2008: "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song", "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No". All appeared on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, with "Our Song" and "Should've Said No" reaching number one. "Our Song" made Swift the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a Hot Country Songs number-one single, and "Teardrops on My Guitar" was Swift's breakthrough single on mainstream radio and charts. Swift released two EPs, The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007 and Beautiful Eyes in July 2008.[53][54] She promoted her debut album extensively as the opening act for other country musicians' tours in 2006 and 2007, including those by George Strait, Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Swift won multiple accolades for Taylor Swift. She was one of the recipients of the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist of the Year in 2007, becoming the youngest person given the title.[58] She also won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award for Best New Artist, the Academy of Country Music Awards' Top New Female Vocalist, and the American Music Awards' Favorite Country Female Artist honor. She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2008, she opened for Rascal Flatts again[63] and briefly dated the singer Joe Jonas.

Taylor Swift in 2009

Swift at the 2009 premiere of Hannah Montana: The Movie. She had a cameo appearance in the film and wrote two songs for its soundtrack. Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released in November 2008 in North America, and in March 2009 in other markets. On the Billboard 200, Fearless spent 11 weeks at number one, becoming Swift's first chart topper and the longest-running number-one female country album. It was the bestselling album of 2009 in the US. Its lead single, "Love Story", was her first number one in Australia and the first country song to top Billboard's Pop Songs chart, and its third single, "You Belong with Me", was the first country song to top Billboard's all-genre Radio Songs chart. Three other singles were released in 2008–2010: "White Horse", "Fifteen", and "Fearless". All five singles were Hot Country Songs top-10 entries, with "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" topping the chart. In 2009, Swift toured as an opening act for Keith Urban and embarked on her first headlining tour, the Fearless Tour.

You Belong with Me" won Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Her acceptance speech was interrupted by the rapper Kanye West, an incident that became the subject of controversy and widespread media coverage. That year, Swift won five American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album.[76] Billboard named her the 2009 Artist of the Year. She won Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year for "Love Story" at the 2009 CMT Music Awards, where she made a parody video of the song with rapper T-Pain called "Thug Story". At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, Fearless was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album, and "White Horse" won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance.