From a country singer to a force of nature that cannot be stopped, Taylor Swift has gone through a truly remarkable journey in the past two decades.
There was a time when Taylor, an up-and-coming starry-eyed teenager, visited record labels in Nashville in the hope of landing her first major contract. Now, she is an inspiration to tens of millions of Swifties worldwide, and can influence the entire music industry — and indeed, the economy at large — by the flick of a finger.
As a Swiftie, you probably already know everything we can tell you about Taylor Swift, but reviewing these interesting facts about Miss Americana and the impact she has left on the world of arts is always a delight.
10. Taylor Swift writes most of her songs; She wrote the entire Speak Now album by herself
Unlike many contemporary artists, Taylor Swift has the mind of a writer. She usually writes most of the songs in her albums, and her musings during the Fearless tour in 2009 and 2010 turned out the Speak Now album in full. Swifties often joke that they need to have a Dictionary handy whenever Taylor releases a new album, and if the name Tortured Poets Department doesn’t tip you off as to where her heart of heart lies, we don’t know what will.
9. Taylor wrote a novel as a teen and her parents still possess a copy
In an alternate reality, where music didn’t quite work out for Taylor for one reason or another, she probably turned into a novelist and wrote many best-sellers. Swift has a talent for wordsmithing, which is probably why she was also inspired to write a novel in her early years. Mama Swift still has a copy of the manuscript, so it’s still possible that we might see it one day.
8. Taylor gets her name from James Taylor, who is a favorite artist of her parents’
Andrea and Scott Swift chose Taylor, a gender-neutral name, due to their love for musician James Taylor. The stars couldn’t have aligned more perfectly for the T-Swizzle if she wished it. Some things are just meant to be; like Taylor becoming the most successful songwriter and record-breaking musician of all time.
7. The song “Marjorie” on evermore is dedicated to Taylor’s maternal grandmother and famous opera singer, Marjorie Finlay
Marjorie Finlay was a television personality and opera singer in the ’60s–’70s. She gave birth to Andrea Gardner Finlay in 1958, who went on to marry Scott Swift and have two children of her own, Taylor Swift and Austin Swift. Taylor credits her grandmother Marjorie for inspiring her music career. She also served as an inspiration for “Majorie” in evermore, “Timeless” in Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and the “Wildest Dream” music video in 2015.
6. After performing for crowds of thousands in her concerts, Taylor sometimes likes to go home and binge-watch Friends to unwind
We know Friends is Taylor’s favorite television show, but did you know Taylor actually puts the show on to unwind after her long concerts? What better way to simmer down than to see what random shenanigans Joey and Chandler are getting themselves into this time? I don’t know about you, but the thought of Taylor going to her hotel room after the Eras Tour and putting on Friends is both cool and highly amusing.
5. She is the highest-grossing music act, as well as a record Grammy, MTV, and IFPI award winner
Taylor Swift has sold more than 200 million records, turning her into one of the best-selling artists in the world, but that’s not even her greatest achievement. With The Eras Tour in 2023 (and now in Europe through 2024) Taylor is the record holder for the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. What’s more, Taylor has won a record four Album of the Year Grammys, four MTV Music Video of the Year trophies, and four IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year awards, turning her into the first female artist to do so. She is the first artist in history to win four Grammys for Album of the Year.
4. Taylor Swift learned how to play guitar at 12 thanks to a repairman who was there to fix her computer
We all know Taylor started her music career early, but learning the guitar came as something of an accident. When a computer repairman and guitar teacher called Ronnie Cremer visited the Swift household when she was 12, he saw a guitar in the corner of the room and asked Taylor if she played. She answered no, whereupon he taught her some of the chords. The rest, as they say, is history.
3. Taylor’s family up and moved to Nashville when she was 14 to give her shot at the country music scene
Taylor is one of the most hardworking people in the music industry, but we can’t overstate how much we owe her career to Andrea and Scott Swift, who decided to relocate to Nashville in 2003 to support their daughter’s dream. This led to Taylor performing in The Blue Bird Café, a famous venue in Nashville, a performance that impressed DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta. Scott founded Big Machine Records and offered one of his first contracts to Taylor.
2. Taylor Swift has co-written many songs for other artists, and one of them was under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg
From Little Big Town’s “Better Man” to “Babe” by Sugarland and Miley Cyrus’ “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home,” Swift has collaborated with several artists across the years, but her most cheeky partnership was with Calvin Harris on “This is What You Came For,” wherein she used the name Nils Sjöberg for the writing credits.
1. Taylor’s most heartbreaking song, “Ronan,” was inspired by a blog post from Maya Thompson about her three-year-old Ronan, who died of cancer in 2011
Taylor was so moved by the blog post that she wrote the charity single “Ronan” and used it to raise awareness about the fight against cancer. The proceeds also went to numerous charitable foundations. She performed the song live for a SU2C event in 2012.
