 
Taylor Swift was born December 13, 1989 in
Pennsylvania. An interest in singing country music
came early and Taylor was already heading to
Nashville in an attempt to sell her sound by age 11.
Taylor showed a talent for not only delivering strong
vocals, but was also getting noticed for her
songwriting. At the age of 12, Taylor began writing
her own songs including her first song "The
Outside." While developing her music and getting
her music career noticed, Taylor continued to be a
straight high school student. Taylor signed with Big
Machine Records in 2006.
Taylor released her debut LP Taylor
Swift
(available for download at iTunes) which went on to top the Billboard
Country LP chart. Taylor wrote or co-wrote all the
songs on the LP.
 # 58
Singles Artist of the Year
Taylor
Swift was
certified gold.
Taylor won a CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video
of the Year ("Tim McGraw").
The single "Tim McGraw" was certified gold.
The song was Taylor's first Top 10 country hit which
she wrote while still a freshman in high school.
 Taylor
Swift was
certified platinum.
The single "Teardrops On My Guitar" was certified gold.
Taylor released the holiday EP Sounds
Of The Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection only in Target stores. The set
included Taylor's renditions of "Last
Christmas," "Christmases When You Were
Mine," "Santa Baby," "Silent
Night," "Christmas Must Be Something
More," and "White Christmas.'
Taylor was honored with the Songwriter/Artist of the
Year Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association
- the youngest artist to ever win the award.
Taylor won the Horizon Award at the Country Music
Association Awards.
Taylor was nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite
Country Female Artist.
Taylor released a revamped version of her debut LP Taylor
Swift (Deluxe Edition) (available for download at iTunes) with extra tracks and a DVD of
performances.
Taylor hit the Top 40 with "Teardrops On My Guitar" (available for download
at iTunes and Amazon-mp3).
 Taylor
Swift was
certified 2x platinum.
Taylor topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart
for 6 weeks with "Our Song."
Taylor hit the Top 40 with "Our Song" (available for download at iTunes and Amazon-mp3).
 # 8
Singles Artist of the Year
Taylor hit the Top 10 with "Teardrops On My Guitar."
The single "Our Song" was certified gold and "Teardrops On My Guitar" was certified platinum.
Taylor released the EP Live From SoHo on iTunes.
Taylor was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
The single "Our Song" was certified platinum.
Taylor won 2 CMT Music Awards for Female Video of the
Year and Video of the Year ("Our Song").
 Taylor
Swift was
certified 3x platinum.
Taylor won an Academy of Country Music Award for Top
New Female Vocalist.
The single "Picture To Burn" was certified
gold.
Taylor topped the Billboard Country LP chart with the
EP Beautiful
Eyes (Billboard peak: # 9) which was only available
at Walmart.
Taylor topped the Billboard Country Songs chart with
"Should've Said No."
Taylor hit the Top 40 with "Change."
The video for "Teardrops On My Guitar" was nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist.
Taylor hit the Top 40 with "Love Story" (available for download at iTunes).
Taylor topped the Billboard Hot Digital Tracks chart
with "You're Not Sorry."
Taylor's next LP Fearless was released.
Taylor topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart
with "Love Story."
Taylor topped the Billboard 200 LP chart, Top
Internet Albums chart, Top Digital Albums chart, and
Top Country Albums chart with Fearless selling over 592,000 copies
its first week of release in the US.
Taylor won an American Music Award for Favorite
Country Female Artist.
Taylor hit the Top 10 with "Love Story."
Taylor topped the Billboard Year-End Charts as the Top Country Artist
(singles & albums), Top Country Artist - Female
(singles & albums), Top Country Album Artist, and
Top Country Album Artist - Female.
Taylor
Swift
ended 2008 as the #3 selling LP of the year with
sales topping 2.1 million. Fearless was the #6 selling LP of the
year with sales topping 1.5 million.
Taylor performed on Saturday Night Live.
Taylor performed at the Grammy Awards.
Taylor topped the Billboard Pop 100 Airplay chart
with "Love Story."
Taylor could be heard on the Jonas Brothers live LP Music
From The 3D Concert Experience on the track "Should've
Said No."
Taylor hit #1 for a week with "Love Story."
Taylor could be heard on the Hannah
Montana: The Movie soundtrack on the track
"Crazier."
Taylor was on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Taylor won an Academy of Country Music Award for
Album of the Year (Fearless) and presented with a special
award for being the top-selling country artist of
2008.
Taylor topped the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary
Tracks chart with "Love Story."
Taylor hit the Top 40 with "You Belong With Me."
Taylor hit the Top 10 with "You Belong With Me."
Taylor topped the Billboard Country Songs chart with
"You Belong With Me."
Taylor
Swift was
certified 4x platinum.
The video for "You Belong With Me" won a MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video. Unfortunately, as Taylor was
beginning her acceptance speech, rapper Kanye West popped on stage, grabbed the
microphone from her and proclaimed that Beyoncé had the best video of the
year. After his rant, and getting booed, West
returned the microphone to Taylor who was unable to
finish her acceptance speech. The disappointment of
the event for Taylor was helped when at the end of
the show Beyoncé came up on stage to accept the
Video of the Year award and talked about how excited
she was when she was first nominated with Destiny's Child as a teenager and how big of a
moment that was for her. She then asked Taylor to
come back on stage to finish her speech and
experience that excitement, which Taylor did. Taylor
also performed at the ceremony.
Taylor hit #1 for a week with "You Belong With Me."
Fearless was certified 4x platinum.
Taylor could be heard on the Boys Like Girls LP Love
Drunk on
the track "Two Is Better Than One."
Taylor topped the Billboard Radio Songs chart and
Adult Contemporary chart with "You Belong With Me."
Taylor released the CD/DVD Fearless:
Deluxe Edition with 6 new tracks.
Taylor hit the Top 40 helping out Boys Like Girls with "Two Is Better Than One" (available for download
at iTunes and Amazon-mp3).
Taylor hosted and performed on Saturday Night
Live.
Taylor hit the Top 40 with "Fifteen."
Taylor won 4 Country Music Awards including becoming
the youngest artist to win the Entertainer of the
Year Award. Taylor also won Female Vocalist of the
Year, Music Video of the Year ("Love Story"), and Album of the Year (Fearless).
Taylor could be heard on the John Mayer LP Battle
Studies
on the track "Half Of My Heart."
Taylor was nominated for 6 American Music Awards including Artist of the Year, Favorite
Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Country Female Artist. Favorite
Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album, and Favorite
Country Album
(Fearless).
Find Taylor
Swift at:
  
| Note: Song title and position
links lead you to the song's Top 40 chart run
(from the ARC Weekly Top 40) and LP links take you to Amazon.com for that LP (often
including track listings and sound samples). |
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