Taylor Swift just keeps making history.
2023 saw the record-breaking artist set out on her Eras Tour, celebrating the lengthy and hugely successful legacy of an artist barely into her 30s. It quickly became one of the highest-grossing musical tours of all time, and currently stands as the highest-grossing tour by a female artist. It spanned five continents, pulled in a truly massive amount of money, and continues breaking records as fresh information rolls in. It’s not even over yet, and the Wall Street Journal projects that it could become the biggest tour in history, grossing more than $1 billion overall.
That’s on top of the cinematic version of the tour, which was released to theaters in mid-October. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became an instant sensation, rose to the top of box office charts around the globe, and quickly claimed the title of the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
With all of this, and plenty more, in mind, it would have been criminal for Time to name anyone but Swift as 2023’s official Person of the Year. 2023 was TayTay’s year, after all, and her new status as Person of the Year is just the cherry on top of a new, dazzlingly successful, era for Taylor Swift.
Is Taylor Swift the first female Person of the Year?
Sorry to disappoint, Swifties, but being the first female Person of the Year isn’t among Taylor Swift’s laundry list of accomplishments. A number of women have been awarded the honor in the past, though many came before Time shifted its title from “Man of the Year” and “Woman of the Year” to simply “Person of the Year.”
That change didn’t come about until 1999, and in the years that followed, several women were awarded the title. Previous female winners include Kamala Harris, alongside Joe Biden and Greta Thunberg, who won the award in 2020 and 2019, respectively, alongside other impacting figures like the “Whistleblowers,” Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley, and Sherron Watkins.
Swift does make history with her 2023 Person of the Year title, however — just not the history many people thought. She’s not the first woman to earn the title, but she is the first woman to earn it twice. Swift was also named Person of the Year — alongside several other prominent “Silence Breakers” — back in 2017, and her return to the cover in 2023 makes her the first woman in the franchise’s history to earn the privilege twice.
