Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American
country pop singer-songwriter and
actress.
In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. In November 2008, Swift released her second album, Fearless. Fearless and Taylor Swift finished 2008 at number-three and number-six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million.[5] Fearless has topped the Billboard 200 in 11 non-consecutive weeks;[6] no album has spent more time at No. 1 since 2000. Swift was named Artist of the Year by Billboard Magazine in 2009.[7] Fearless won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2010.
In 2008, her albums sold a combined four million copies, making her the best-selling musician of the year in the United States, according to
Nielsen SoundScan.
Forbes ranked Swift 2009's 69th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $18 million.
[8] In January 2010
Nielsen SoundScan lists Swift as the top-selling digital artist in music history with over 24.3 million digital tracks sold.
[9] To date, she has sold over ten million albums worldwide.
Early life
Swift was born in the borough of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Scott Swift, a stock broker, and his wife Andrea, a homemaker. She has a younger brother, Austin.[11] When she was in fourth grade, Swift won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem titled "Monster In My Closet".[12][13]
At ten years old, Swift began writing songs and singing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs around her hometown. One summer, she devoted herself to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished.[14] Her first major show was a well-received performance at the Bloomsburg Fair.[15]
Songwriting interest
Swift began learning to play guitar from a computer repairman who showed her how to play three chords. After learning those three chords, she wrote her first song, "Lucky You".[16] She began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. Other kids would react badly to her so she wrote songs about them.[17]
Early work
Swift's greatest musical influence is Shania Twain.[18] Her other influences include LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, and Swift's grandmother. Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer,[19] Taylor's tastes always ran more toward country and she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton at an early age.[20] She also credits the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain for demonstrating how much impact can be made by "stretching boundaries".[21]
At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town.[22] Swift was rejected by record labels and her peers.[23]
After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament; her rendition of the national anthem received a lot of attention.[24] Swift started writing songs and playing 12-string guitar when she was 12. Swift began to regularly visit Nashville and wrote songs with local songwriters. By the time she was 14, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb.[25]
When Swift was 15, she rejected RCA Records because the company wanted to keep her on a development deal.[26] Swift then performed at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, catching the attention of Scott Borchetta[27] who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. At age 14, she also became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.[28].
Music career
2006–2008: Taylor Swift
Swift performing at a café with a
koa wood guitar in June 2006.
Swift released her debut single, "Tim McGraw", in mid-2006, reaching number 6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs chart.[29] Her self-titled debut album was later released on October 24, 2006.[30] Swift wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, which debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200 and sold 39,000 copies during its first week.[31] It later peaked at number one at Billboard Top Country Albums and number five on the Billboard 200.[32] It also spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts[33] and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks.[34] The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood.[35] As of November 2008, Taylor Swift has sold over three million copies and 7.5 million single downloads.[36]
The music video for "Tim McGraw" won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards.[37] Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006 on the country music channel.[38] On May 15, 2007, Swift performed "Tim McGraw" at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as well.[39]
The second single from the Taylor Swift album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. The song originally made its peak positions in mid-2007, peaking at #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released to the Hot 100 and Pop 100 in late 2007 with a pop remix that brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100. In October 2007, Swift was awarded Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award by the Nashville Songwriters Association International, making her the youngest artist ever to win the award.[40]
Swift won the 2007 CMA Horizon Award. Her third song off her debut album, "Our Song" spent six weeks at #1 on the Country charts and peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Billboard Pop 100. Swift also recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, which was released October 16, 2007, exclusively available at Target stores. Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's successful single, "Picture to Burn" was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted early in 2008 and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country Chart in the spring of 2008.
Swift performing at
Yahoo HQ in 2007.
Big Machine Records announced the release of "Should've Said No" on Monday, May 19. The song is the fifth and final single from Swift's debut album.
"Should've Said No" became her second Number One single for the chart dated August 23, 2008. In Summer 2008, Swift released Beautiful Eyes, an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.[41] In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and #9 on the Billboard 200. With her self-titled debut album at #2 the same week, Swift became the first artist to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart since LeAnn Rimes did so in 1997.[42] Swift plays a custom-made Taylor acoustic guitar made of koa wood.[43]
2008–2010: Fearless
Swift's latest studio album, Fearless, was released in the United States on November 11, 2008.[44] The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artist in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay.[45] Its lead single "Love Story" became a hit on both the country and pop charts. During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift's sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history.[46] It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004.[47] Through its eighth week of release, Fearless has sold more than 338,467 paid downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place is Swift's debut Taylor Swift with sales of 236,046 downloads as of April 18, 2009.[48]
Swift performing live in 2007.
In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Hannah Montana for the most by a female artist in a single week. With "White Horse" charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100.[47] "Change", a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA's efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics.[42] The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics.
She also released the lead single from the album, "Love Story", on September 12, 2008. The song is accompanied by a music video that is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached number 2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It is also called as Taylor Swift's signature song. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart.[49]
The second single from Fearless, "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009. Though it missed the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot Country Songs as of the week April 11, 2009, "White Horse" claimed the #1 spot atop the USA Today/Country Aircheck chart (powered by Mediabase) in that week.[50] "Forever & Always", another song from the album, was based on Swift's relationship with singer Joe Jonas.[51]
She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart.[5] It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at #1 on The Billboard 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs.[52]
Swift is Billboard's Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music's best-selling artist of 2008.[53] Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada's top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. Fearless and Taylor Swift took the #1 and #2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart.[54] Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008.
In January 2009, Swift announced her North American Fearless Tour planned for 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months. [55] The tour kicked off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana.
On January 10, 2009, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, making her the youngest country singer to appear as a musical guest on the show in its 33-year run.[56][57] On February 8, 2009, Swift performed her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards.
As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "Love Story" became the country song with most paid downloads in history and the first country song to top the Mainstream Top 40 chart.[58][59] Swift then subsequently went onto replicate the feat, reaching number 1 again on the Mainstream Top 40 in September 2009 with "You Belong with Me", making it just the second country song in the chart's history to reach the top.
Swift performing during her
Fearless tour in August, 2009.
Since the release of Swift's second album, Fearless, she has released one new song "Crazier" for the soundtrack of the feature film Hannah Montana: The Movie. At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for Fearless.
Swift is the youngest artist in history to win Album of the Year award. Swift was also awarded the Academy's Crystal Milestone Award, given for Outstanding Achievement in Country Music. The Academy lauded her for career achievements including selling more albums in 2008 than any other artist in any genre of music, 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.[60] As of late April 2009, Swift has sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile Ringtones.[61]
Taylor won two awards for Female Video of the Year and Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards.[62]
On April 28, 2009, Swift gave a free, private concert to students at Bishop Ireton High School, a small Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia after the school won a national "TXT 2 WIN" contest from Verizon Wireless.[63] The students sent over 19,000 text messages to Verizon during a roughly one month long contest. Swift played for about an hour during the school's field day, an annual day-long recess with games and activities. On October 8, 2009 Swift's official website announced that her sold-out Fearless Tour would return to North America for 37 additional dates in 2010.
On the chart week of November 14, 2009, Swift set a record for the most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a female artist at the same time with eight singles from the re-release of her 2008 album Fearless namely five debut new songs in the top 30: "Jump Then Fall" at #10, "Untouchable" at #19, "The Other Side of the Door" at #22, "Superstar" at #27 and "Come in With the Rain" at #30 and three already-charted songs that were released as singles — "You Belong with Me" (#14), "Forever & Always" which re-entered the chart at #34, and "Fifteen" (#46).[64] In addition, the song "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls which features Swift, debuted at #80 in the same issue. This gives Swift six debuts in one week, the biggest number of debuts by any female artist of all time. It also lifts the number of her simultaneously-charting songs to nine, setting another record for the biggest number of charting songs by the same female artist in the same week.[65] When "Fifteen" reached #38 on the chart week of November 21, 2009, Swift became the female artist with most Top 40 singles this decade, surpassing Beyoncé Knowles, who currently has 19 Top 40 singles. "Fifteen" became Swift's thirteenth Top 40 single from Fearless and her twentieth overall.[66] Taylor's historical moves continued as the December 5 issue of the Hot 100 was announced; "Two Is Better Than One" by Boys Like Girls progressed to #40, and John Mayer's "Half of My Heart" debuted at #25 where both of these songs featured Swift. This gives Swift her 21st and 22nd Top 40 singles.
On November 11, 2009, Swift won four CMA Awards: Album of the Year for "Fearless", Music Video of the Year for "Love Story" Female Vocalist of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year.[67]
Swift also won five 2009 American Music Awards: Artist of The Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Country Female Artist, Favorite Country Album for "Fearless", and Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist.[68] On December 2, 2009, she received Grammy Award nominations for: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "You Belong with Me", Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Best Country Song for "White Horse", Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for "Breathe", and Album of the Year and Best Country Album for "Fearless".[69]
At the end of 2009, the Associated Press named Swift "Entertainer of the Year".[70] "Fearless" was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US with more than 3.2 millions copies sold in that year. Swift claimed both the #1 and #2 positions atop Nielsen's BDS Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all genres), with "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story," respectively. She also topped the all format 2009 Top 10 Artist Airplay chart with over 1.29 million song detections, and the Top 10 Artist Internet Streams chart with more than 46 million song plays.[71]
MTV VMA incident
West taking the microphone from Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
On July 14, 2009, it was confirmed Swift would perform at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. "I'm so excited that MTV and the VMAs have invited me to perform, because I think this year's show will be unlike anything they've ever done!" stated Swift. "I love incorporating theatrics into my performances, and the VMAs have always allowed artists to run with that," she said. "MTV has been so good to me, and I could not be more excited about this year's VMAs." This was Swift's first performance on the VMAs, where she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award.[72] The show aired September 13 on MTV, with British comedian Russell Brand hosting for the second year in a row.[73]
During the awards show, singer/rapper Kanye West came on stage and took the microphone from Swift during her acceptance speech for winning Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me", saying that Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated for the same award, was "one of the best videos of all time". This caused the audience in the venue to respond negatively.[74][75] He handed the microphone back to a stunned and reportedly upset Swift, who did not finish her acceptance speech.[74][76] West was removed from the remainder of the show for his actions.[74] When Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech.[74][77]
Following the awards show, West apologized for his verbal outburst in a blog entry (which was subsequently removed).[74] He was criticized by various celebrities for the outburst,[75][78][79][80][81] and even by President Barack Obama in an "off the record" comment.[82][83][84][85] He later posted a second apology on his blog and, during a planned appearance on the debut episode of The Jay Leno Show one day after the incident (with Jay-Z and Rihanna to perform "Run This Town"), first appeared apologizing publicly for the incident.[75]
Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with her award.
On September 15, 2009, Swift talked about the matter on The View. Asked what she was thinking the moment it happened, she stated:
Well, I think my overall thought process was something like, 'Wow, I can't believe I won, this is awesome, don't trip and fall, I'm gonna get to thank the fans, this is so cool. Oh, Kanye West is here. Cool haircut. What are you doing there?' And then, 'Ouch.' And then, 'I guess I'm not gonna get to thank the fans.'[86][87]
Swift said West had not spoken to her following the incident.[87] Following her appearance on The View, West contacted her to apologize personally; Swift said she accepted his apology.[87][72]
During the 2009 CMA Awards, the incident with Kanye West was lampooned on stage by Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens, with Dickens stealing the microphone during Paisley's speech to say Swift's video was better.
2010 onwards: Upcoming third album and other work
Swift won the 2010 People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Artist.[88] In February 2010, she is set to bring her Fearless Tour to 5 cities in Australia. Opening acts will include Gloriana.[89]
Swift is currently recording songs for her third album. She has the theme planned out already. The album is due to be released in late 2010.[90]
Swift released the track "Today Was a Fairytale" as a digital download on iTunes on January 19, 2010. The song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Valentine's Day, in which she made her feature-film acting debut. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No.2[91], becoming her sixth Top 10 and 23rd Top 40 single on that chart. In January of 2010, Taylor Swift set a new download record with the song "Today Was a Fairytale" with 325,000 downloads of the song.[92] The song also debuted at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, making it Swift's first number one hit in Canada.
At the 52nd Grammy Awards Swift won Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song for "White Horse", and Album of the Year and Best Country Album for "Fearless".[93] While attempting to pose with all four of her Grammy trophies backstage, Swift accidentally dropped one and shattered it.[94] At the awards ceremony, she performed a duet with Stevie Nicks.[95]
In February, Swift was awarded "Most Digital Song Certifications - Female Solo Artist" by RIAA for 25 songs achieving gold or multi- platinum status.[96]
Songwriting style
Swift's lyrics are highly autobiographical; she has said that "If you listen to my albums, it’s like reading my diary."[97] For instance the song "Forever & Always" was inspired by her relationship with Joe Jonas,[98] while the song "Hey Stephen" was written about a guy who opened some shows for her.[97] "Fifteen" was written about her freshman year of high school. It has been said that her lyrics "can be tinged with acid: the quiet loner girl getting one over on the cheerleaders, or a caustic payback for the boy who dumped her."[99] She's also indicated that she tries to write so her fans can relate to the lyrics, saying "My goal is to never write songs that my fans can't relate to."[100]
The intently personal nature of the songs has drawn her the most attention. Swift once said, "I thought people might find them hard to relate to, but it turned out that the more personal my songs were, the more closely people could relate to them."[101]
The fact that her songs are so clearly autobiographical has led to her fans researching them. Swift once said, "Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans."[102] The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".[103]
Acting career
She started her acting career as a teen, playing a small role in Larry Schwarz's Thumb Wrestling Federation as Pei Pei The Purple Panda, but didn't get payed too much, she still plays in the show, but hasn't been heard often. In 2008, Swift made her acting debut in Brad Paisley's music video "Online". In that same year Swift filmed a documentary for MTV entitled MTV's Once Upon a Prom and a documentary with Def Leppard for CMT entitled CMT Crossroads, which was premiered on November 7, 2008, drew more than 4.5 million viewers for its four initial airings.[104] Swift collaborated with the Jonas Brothers in their 3D Concert Film, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience. The film was released on February 27, 2009 in North America. The concert film brought in $12,700,000 on its opening weekend.[105] Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Turn, Turn, Turn on March 5, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada. The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers.[106] Swift made a cameo appearance in Kellie Pickler's music video "Best Days of Your Life". Swift also appeared in Hannah Montana: The Movie as "woman singing in the barn". The film was released on April 10, 2009 in North America.[107] The television show Dateline NBC showcased an hour to Swift on May 31, 2009. The episode titled Dateline NBC: On Tour With Taylor Swift included scenes from her tour bus, concert footage, and rehearsals. She was also interviewed for the show and some of her exclusive video diaries were shown.[108] Taylor both hosted and performed as the musical guest for the November 7, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live.[109]
In 2010, Swift made her feature film acting debut as Felicia in the film Valentine's Day.
Philanthropy
On September 21, 2007, Swift launched a campaign to protect children from online predators.[110] She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes.[110] The year-long campaign, launched in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state.[110] In early 2008, Swift donated the pink Chevy pick-up truck given to her by her record label to children’s charity, the Victory Junction Gang; in June, 2008, Swift donated all the proceeds she got from her merchandise sales at the 2008 Country Music Festival to Red Cross, the Nashville Area Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and the National American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.[111] Swift donated $10,000, funded by CMT ONE COUNTRY, to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital by winning the "Video of the Year" and "Female Video of the Year" awards at the 2008 CMT Music Awards.[112] In 2009, Swift won "Video of the Year and "Female Video of the Year" awards at the 2009 CMT Music Awards. She donated $5,000, funded by CMT, to American Red Cross.[113]
Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to help the victims of the Iowa flood of 2008.[114] Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening "responsibly".[115] Swift supports @15, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund. Swift's song, "Fifteen", is featured in this campaign.[116] Swift has lent her support to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney's Sound Relief concert,[117] reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist playing at Sound Relief to the Australian Red Cross.[118] Swift donated her prom dress, which raised $1,200 for charity, to DonateMyDress.org.[119] On November 20, 2009 after a live performance on BBC's Children in Need night Swift announced to Sir Terry Wogan she would donate £13,000 of her own money to the cause.[120]
On December 13th, Swift's own birthday, she donated $250,000 to various schools around the country which she either has attended or been involved with.[121] Taylor Swift has donated a pair of her shoes - a gently-worn pair of black Betsey Johnson heels with her autograph on the sole - to the Wish Upon a Hero Foundation's Hero in Heels fundraiser for auction to raise money to benefit women with cancer.
Public image and other work
Swift has been featured on the cover of a number of magazines. In 2008, the list includes Blender, Seventeen,[122] Billboard,[123] Girls' Life,[124][125] Women's Health and CosmoGirl.[126] In 2009, Swift graced the cover of Teen Vogue,[127] Self Magazine,[128] Rolling Stone,[129] Allure,[130] Glamour,[131] and Bliss.[132] She has been a cover girl for Blender, for which she was one of two country artists during the magazine’s fifteen year run to be a cover subject.[133] Additionally, she was named number fifty-seven on Maxim's sexiest women of 2008.[134] CosmoGirl voted Swift as the "2008 Girl of the Year".[135] Swift was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of "The RS 100: Agents of Change".[136] She was nominated as a candidate for TIME's "2009 The Time 100 Finalists" list, which is determined by online voting.[137] PEOPLE magazine named Swift one of 25 Most Intriguing People of 2009.[138]
Jakks Pacific released a celebrity doll of Swift in late 2008.[139] Taylor Swift is the face of L.E.I. Jeans (Life Energy Intelligence) since 2008.[140] Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on Swift's style of dressing. It will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming months.[141] However, Swift said she does not want to be called a designer. Instead, she says she will inspire the clothing company's dress line based on her own style. "I don't look at it like I'm branching out as a designer... It's not the Taylor Swift designer line."[142] In 2009, Swift became the National Hockey League's newest celebrity spokesperson. She appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.[143]
Personal life
In 2008, Swift was in a relationship with pop singer Joe Jonas which ended in November of that year.[144] Swift indicated that her heartbreak song "Forever & Always" on the album Fearless was inspired by Jonas.[98] Swift is best friends with Abigail Anderson whom she met her freshman year of highschool. Swift has mentioned Anderson in her song "fifteen".Anderson currently attends The University of Kansas on a swimming scholarship. Swift is also close friends with Kellie Pickler[145], Selena Gomez[146], Justin Bieber, Liz Rose and her backup singer Liz.[citation needed]
