Any man would be rendered helpless in the presence of global icon singer – songwriter Taylor Swift standing tall at 5 feet 10 inches, making her towering over many singers in the music industry.

Riding on a high with the launch of her latest album released last year, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, her eleventh studio album, Swift is at the pinnacle of stardom and waiting to take in the success once again.

Her Look

Swift radiates large doses of charm, grace and unbelievable sexiness. After all she is one of the highest paid singing stars in the world today. When she smiles, her luminous blue eyes with that tint of black, sparkle, with her figure standing out, but neatly tucked in clothes that don’t really reveal her true statistics. The same cannot be said for other female music stars who are known more for what they reveal, than their singing. With Swift it’s the other way round. It was this reason that I wrote about her and decided she was our cover girl and cover story in The Teenager magazine in September 2009. The Teenager magazine always looks for the inner beauty of a person, rather than outside beauty. Taylor Swift fit the profile perfectly then and even 15 years on.

Saddled with long blonde hair, a curvaceous figure that would make heads turn, she is sought after by magazines the world over. What really makes her the eye candy of social media, newspapers and magazines around the world to serenade her all the time?

Her Lyrics

As America’s sweetheart Taylor Swift cannot be missed on the country circuit that she began with, moving on to a more pop – rock edge as the albums rolled out. She has been around for some time and has carved a niche for herself after her self titled debut album skyrocketed her to superstardom. Since the age of fourteen Swift has had a full song-writer’s publishing deal, most often in collaboration with many others who helped her music grow.

Now as a 35 year year-old (13^th December 1989), Swift has been praised for her maturity right from her second album onwards where she sang about boys and heartbreak, fun, sneaking out windows at night to see boys, while gently playing the guitar and self penning all the 16 songs on her album giving her clear leeway to speak her heart out. Many have praised the singer for her lyrical maturity which is vibrant and intriguing, unlike other teenage stars whose material is written by established adult songwriters. Infact her very first self titled album had love ditties in the song Tears on my Guitar which spoke about her experience with a classmate whom she had a crush on. Unfortunately the classmate was in love with someone else. 

One of her albums ‘RED’ (her fourth) has songs that list out her personal life like I Knew You Were Trouble, a song that’s slightly loud, fast paced with a heavy chorus. Originally a country artist, she first dipped her toe into pop with this very album. She collaborated with Max Martin, a highly respected producer and songwriter who is known for his work with Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys. 

Her album ‘1989’ (2014) was another topper where she junked the countryside and made an all out pop album. Fast forward 6 years and you had two albums released in one year namely evermore and folklore (2020) making another switch this time full on into the indie folk space. But long time Swifties as Swift fans are known across the world, didn’t move on and get agitated, instead they accepted the music as it was.

Her Vocals:

Swift’s honey toned voice is unforgettable which makes sure she has the goods for a long career. She was once country's newest superstar singing girly songs for teens. She's put her heart in her music, not trying to be someone she isn’t, and especially not trying to be one of those ‘teen’ stars around. She has a long vocal range seen on many songs in her repertoire. Hear her songs like Enchanted, Dear John (from ‘Speak Now’) to We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble (from ‘RED’) and Look What You Made Me Do (from ‘Reputation’) and you’ll know her vocal range.

The Business Woman

Being successful in the music industry isn’t just about the music, it’s about business sense too, how you project yourself, how you connect with your fans and lastly how you go out and do live performances which in turn add all up to making what you really are. Besides that, it’s also the artist’s personality, social media and branding that plays a major role.

As for Taylor Swift and nowadays social media. Swift has loads of it to offer. From creating a brand for herself to her being in the spotlight all the time, she has proven to be both a successful artist and businesswoman.  

This can easily be seen from her 3 hour plus spectacle film in support of her Eras Tour. The film of her Eras Tour had phenomenal results. The movie that went to the theatres in October 2023, raked in the “highest grossing concert film” earning $92.8 million in its opening weekend. Swift probably already had a pre concaved notion that her fans would want to see her on the big screen if they missed seeing her in a live concert. That’s what happened in India, when the film was released.

Swift’s social media marketing on Instagram and Thread throws up areas that fans love and makes them latch on her like glue. Believe it or not, she was on social media right from the very beginning, thus creating a movement from different age groups tagging onto her in no time.

Another business move she did was to re-record and re-release four albums ‘Fearless’ (2008), ‘Speak Now’ (2010), ‘RED’ (2012) and ‘1989’ (2014) between 2021 – 2023 as Taylor’s Version. This move came due to the dispute Swift had with her previous record company, Big Machine, and its owner, Scooter Braun. It was reported that in the year 2020, Braun sold the master rights to Taylor Swift’s recordings, and in an unprecedented retaliatory move, Swift re-recorded her albums thereby gaining personal control over the master rights to the new records. So even if you had her earlier albums, you could now own a whole new set of albums as Taylor’s Version. By doing this, she not only showcased herself as a woman of immense control and power, but an independent woman determined not to let herself be a victim to the men who control the recording industry. But this move by Swift got record labels to create a clause in all their contracts, forbidding artists from re-recording their records for a set period of time after the end of the contract. Swift literally created a new world for the music industry to wake up and give a fair deal to artists in the future.

Personal Life:

Her domination of the headlines is for the music and her personal life. By that we mean her list of boyfriends is large and one of the more famous names is singer Joey Lawrence whom she dated in 1996. Other than that, her relationship with Joe Alwyn was the longest (7 years) and add to that 12 publicly known young men who we will decide not to name. This personal touch to her personal life created ripples for fans who wanted to know her personal life. The best part of it all is her dating celebrities and then writing songs about them in her albums makes for good lyrics too. So come to think of it, without Swift’s numerous exploits about her romantic life and exes, we wouldn’t have some of her best lyrical work—including her new album that has a piece of her love life too.  Her latest man on the line since July 2023 is NFL star Travis Kelce.

Is she the GOAT?

With so much said, does she come under the category as the GOAT - “Greatest of All Time”?  She surely does, for she is one of the “Greatest of All Time” singers and on the same lines as artists like the Beatles, a band that created Beatlemania in the 1960s, Michael Jackson, Queen and course Elvis Presley. As for the younger lot, she is way ahead of Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, among many others.

The Phenomena 

The title fits well, from her widely popular Eras Tour, topping the Billboard charts, billion-dollar fortune, twelve Grammy Awards, loads of other awards, reclamation of her previous albums, there is no denying Swift’s monumental fame and success will always remain now and forever.  

The Richest Female Musician

Taylor Swift has reached another career peak and has become the world's richest female musician with an estimated net worth of 1.6 billion dollars, reported Forbes. Swift has surpassed Rihanna, who has a net worth of $1.4 billion. This has come as no surprise as most part of the earnings from her blockbuster Eras tour and the value of her music catalogue. She holds the record for the largest tour gross ever. As the first to become a billionaire for 2023, the record is primarily based on her songs and performances.

By Verus Ferreira