Taylor Swift: Dare to Dream | FULL DOCUMENTARY | 2020

I just feel very lucky to get to take my music to the places I've gotten to take it to just geographically. I never thought I'd get to go to these places in my life and the fact that I get to go to these places and play music and play music I've written about my life and look down into the crowd and know that the fans relate to that in some way even though they live halfway across the world it's an honor. The incredible journey of Taylor Swift all began with a girl a guitar and a dream. I never would have imagined that that would be a possibility for a goal. I was hoping to be able to sell one record be able to make a record to be able to have songs that people could hear that's like the fact that that's happening now and it's all the fans and I'm just at a loss again for words. So if there's anything you feel like you want to jump in on if there's like absolutely your part that you're really good at then just sing dance just be yourself. This is a really safe space. Taylor Swift is a 10-time Grammy winner and the youngest recipient in history of the music industry's highest honor the Grammy award for album of the year. She is the only artist in history to have an album hit the 1 million first week sales figure three times. She's a household name who's insanely catchy yet deeply personal self-penned songs transcend music genres and a savvy businesswoman who has built a childhood dream into an empire. It occurs to me how lucky I am actually I get so excited about it and I wake up with a smile on my face and honestly never thought I'd get to do this stuff so being here is unbelievable. Me making an album is about telling stories making confessions and writing songs so detailed that each guy knows which song is about him. Never been presumptuous about dreams when you have crazy dreams like I wonder what it would be like to win a Grammy someday. I never actually could fathom that it might happen until I was walking up there and winning one. When I was a little kid and I would see singers on tv playing concerts or music videos and stuff I would always think to myself if I was ever lucky enough by some crazy crazy chance I could ever do that I would want to sign autographs all day every day for anybody who wanted one and I want to take pictures with everybody and you know I just I wanted to say thank you for all the stuff that they've done for me you know they've made my life really fun. One of the great virtues in country music is humility um you you you can fake humility and pretend to be humble but you can't do that for very long. You honestly do have to have humility to be a country star to be able to say look here I am I'm laying myself in front of you I hope you like me because I'm not better than you I am you you know I'm not singing about things that are alien to you I'm trying to sing things that you feel as I do um that sense of humility of I'm not better than the audience is very very deep and very very profound in the culture. One of the interesting things about Taylor is that she is both this massive star but her audience feels like she's almost their best friend. I think Taylor understands her brand better than maybe anybody else out there and she understands just how much her success relies on the people that listen to her music and and she makes a point of making them feel like they're in the game and that they are that they are contributing to her success uh you know when there's a fan voted award show and she wins she makes a point of thanking everybody she makes a point of acting the way that you would think somebody would act if they had just won some huge award and so the fans always feel like they are that they are part of her story as well as watching the story play out. I'm having a blast I'm I'm surprised that my legs aren't hurting yet I'm surprised that there's no aching going on I'm I'm really having so much fun because like we're all having a really good time today and they're all telling me really sweet stories and they've given look at all the bracelets that all the girls have given me today this is just today and um I don't know this is just this has been one of the coolest days I can remember. Taylor Swift was born on December 13th, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Swift spent the early years of her life on a Christmas tree farm. Well Taylor Swift known as America's Sweetheart really did have very much an idyllic American childhood I mean she grew up on a Christmas tree farm for heaven's sake with a very close family unit her dad's a stockbroker she has one brother Austin very close with her family Taylor has said repeatedly her mom is her best friend. Swift and her brother were raised in every summer. When Swift was nine years old the family moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. It was there where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior School. At the age of seven Swift became interested in musical theater and performed in numerous Berks Youth Theater Academy productions. Swift later turned her attention to country music with Shania Twain being one of her biggest influences. That kind of combination of pop and country music also Shania has a very glamorous look and a lot of fun with her videos and I think Taylor likes that the other thing is Shania sings a lot about real life what she's gone through herself very honest and open ballads and I think Taylor resonates with that as well. She would spend her weekends performing at local festivals, coffee houses, fairs, karaoke concerts, garden clubs, Boy Scout meetings, and sporting events. At the age of 11 after many failed attempts Swift won a local talent competition and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels at a Stroustown amphitheater. After watching a behind the music episode about Faith Hill Swift felt sure she needed to go to Nashville Tennessee to pursue a music career. At the age of 11 she traveled with her mother to Nashville to submit a demo of Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks karaoke covers with record labels along Music Row. And I remember talking to her about how she would walk down the street in Nashville it's called Music Row because all the music companies record labels publishers there's a vast array of them all along the same street so you can just go up and down the street and hit all these different companies and she would go from door to door knocking on the doors and go hi I'm Taylor I write songs would you give me a deal and you know at that point an 11 year old isn't isn't going to get much credibility but she kept at it. Nashville is the last place I believe not just in America but in the world where the craft of songwriting is nurtured and respected and loved and I by the by songwriting I don't mean baby baby that's a song in LA it is not a song in Nashville that just will not do you know you are supposed to say something when you sing in a club in Nashville. Anybody that wants to be a country singer has to come through Nashville you don't you don't have to always live in Nashville once you've become a successful country singer but it's almost impossible to do it without living here at some point. What I always like to say is that the difference between Nashville and Los Angeles and New York is that in Nashville at least they'll listen to you before they tell you no. After receiving numerous rejections she realized she had to change her style in order to be noticed. When she was 12 she was taught how to play three chords on a guitar inspiring her to write her first song Lucky You. In 2003 Swift and her parents started working with New York-based music manager Dan Dimtro. With Dimtro's help Swift modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their Rising Stars campaign, had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD, and attended meetings with major record labels. After performing original songs at an RCA record showcase the eighth grader was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother. To help Taylor break into country music her father transferred to the Nashville office of Merrill Lynch and the family relocated to a lake front house in Hendersonville, Tennessee. In Tennessee Swift attended Hendersonville High School for her freshman and sophomore years. Later to accommodate her touring schedule Swift transferred to the Aaron Academy, a private Christian school which offered homeschooling services. Swift moved to Nashville when she was 13 years old having signed an artist development deal with RCA Records. Well for me you know the long period of time occurred from when I was 10 years old to when I was about 15. I mean I spent that entire time trying to get a record deal and um actually moved to Nashville when I was 13 and didn't get a record deal right away. Didn't get a record deal at all so I signed a publishing deal and became a staff songwriter at Sony ATV Publishing and so I would write every single day after school because it was a it was a job you know. I was I was a paid songwriter when I was 14 so I wrote songs in Nashville for two and a half years. She proceeded to work with experienced Music Rose songwriters and eventually formed a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose. Swift saw Rose performing at an RCA songwriter event and suggested that they write together. I remember Jody Williams who at that time was Liz Rose's song publisher and he said something to Liz like why are you wasting your time with this 14 year old kid and Liz said to him she pulls her own weight. In a songwriting session she's no kid and that I thought that little anecdote right there said volumes about who this person was, who Taylor Swift really was. After performing at a BMI Songwriter Circle showcase in 2004 in New York, Swift became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony ATV Tree Publishing House. They really took a chance on me that I was the youngest person they ever signed so I've been writing since I was 12 years old and when I was 14 I really started to co-write around Nashville and it was really really fun because I'd been writing by myself and getting getting involved in the whole songwriting community in Nashville really helped me along and helped me on my way to you know becoming an artist. Swift left RCA Records when she was 15. The company wanted her to record the work of other songwriters and wait until she was 18 to release an album but she felt ready to launch her career with her own material. For me songwriting is everything everything you know I didn't want to sign with a record label that wouldn't let me write all my own music. For me making an album is about telling stories making confessions and writing songs so detailed that each guy knows which song is about him you know it's like they're all very personal and so songwriting has been everything as far as me being an artist and being able to say what I want to say it's been wonderful. The kid had ice water in her veins she just knew what she wanted and she had a very very astonishing sense of self about her to take that opportunity which anybody would kill for a development deal at a major record company like RCA and basically say no this isn't for me it's not working this isn't what I want just is jaw-dropping. It showed that Taylor didn't just want to be famous most people come to town they'll do whatever it takes to be successful you know if somebody wants them to sing other people's songs fine other people sing their songs absolutely it'll bring in royalties you know for Taylor she wanted to be on a record label but she didn't want to do other people's songs she wanted to have a publishing deal but she didn't want other people to do her songs. For a kid of that age and at that level in her career to basically have be have that clear-headed a sense of who she was and what she wanted I've never seen anything like it. All along it hasn't been about just being famous it's been about being successful doing what she wants to do she's always had her own vision about how she wanted to do it and she was willing to give up pretty much a sure thing to do things the way that she wanted to do them. At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005 Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta a DreamWorks records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label Big Machine Records. She became one of the label's first signings with her father purchasing a three percent stake in the fledgling company at an estimated cost of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Swift began working on her debut album shortly after signing her record deal. After experimenting with veteran Nashville producers Swift persuaded Big Machine to hire her It was his first time recording a studio album but Swift felt they had the right chemistry. She wrote three of the album's songs alone including two singles and co-wrote the remaining eight. Her self-titled debut album was released in October 2006. The New York Times described it as a small masterpiece of pop-minded country both wide eyes and cynical held together by Ms. Swift's firm pleading voice. Following the debut single Tim McGraw four other singles were released through 2007 and 2008. Our song Picture to Burn, Should Have Said No and Teardrops on My Guitar. Thank you. It's a song I wrote about ex-girlfriends who don't exactly know who their ex-girlfriends. I think y'all know what I'm talking about. This is called Permanent Marker. It's called Teardrops on My Guitar and I wrote it about a situation that I went through when I was in high school when I sat next to this guy in class and I had the biggest crush on him and he had no idea. So every single day he would come in and sit down and talk to me about his girlfriend and I got sick and tired of it one day and so I wrote this song about it and well needless to say I'm guessing the secret's out at this point. Well I think what was so extraordinary about Taylor's first album is that there were so many hits on the album and as one song would become go straight to number one another one was coming out. I think Taylor Swift took everyone by surprise with that first album. I think what took me by surprise was the maturity of this kid. And it started small. It was not one of those debut albums that comes out and is at number one on the charts and then kind of falls. It was a build and a build and a build and a build and it kept selling over several years and is still putting up you know one or two thousand units every week so people are still discovering that first album. The dream for me you know I always just wanted to make it in country music that's what I wanted. I mean I think your dreams change as you start to achieve more of them. I'd love to write songs for other artists. I love to have a double platinum album you know. I think part of being in this business is being competitive and and being somewhat restless. Always wanting to achieve more than you have and it's kind of like playing yourself. You know you want to beat what you've already done. So I'm just hoping that you know I have a second album that does as well as the first and you know someday get to be a headliner and always be the same person that I started out as. So with that album Taylor tapped in to a market that country music doesn't always get which is teenage girls. And I think that album more maybe than any of the rest of them was really it was you know it was it was an album by a teenage girl for teenage girls. Country's market is women but it's usually women in their 30s and 40s that's kind of the core country demographic. And so she was really bringing new people into the format at the same time that she was starting to win over some of the people that were already country listeners. It's been amazing you know just all the things that have happened seeing my album go double platinum getting to tour with my heroes and topping it all off with like a Grammy nomination. I'm just I'm really really in awe of it all. I first met her in Nashville after she just had just turned 17 and her record had been out for a couple of months and I was really impressed by the record when it came out and that was one of the reasons I went to to meet with her. That her songs sounded very refreshing to me because this was a teenager who was happy to sound like a teenager. We'd had the the Britney's and Christina Aguilera's and performers like that where everybody's trying to move beyond their years and she was happy being in the years that she was living in and it sounded very believable. The album sold 39,000 copies during its first week and went on to sell 5.5 million copies worldwide. Shortly after the release of her debut album she went on to win a string of high profile awards. Swift and Alan Jackson were jointly named the Nashville Songwriter Association's Songwriter Artist of the Year in 2007, with Swift becoming the youngest person ever to be honored with a title. She also won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award for Best New Artist, the Academy of Country Music Awards Top New Female Vocalist, and the American Music Awards Favorite Country Female Artist Honor. She was also nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released in November 2008. She co-produced the album with Nathan Chapman. My new CD comes out November 11th and the first single just came out on iTunes and stuff so I'm really excited. It's a song that I wrote by myself and having written every song on the new record and co-produced it I'm just so excited for people to hear it. The lead single from the album, Love Story, was released in September 2008 and became the second best-selling country single of all time, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. You know on Love Story, Taylor talks a lot about the kind of trials and travails of being a high school girl and getting your heart broken. She does everything from talk about you know a cute boy in her math class she has a crush on to getting her heart broken by a boy who promised to love her forever and always. I think that for Taylor Swift, she still experiences life, love, and disappointment the way the rest of us do. And despite the fact that people may be a lot older or from different cultures or different perspectives, I think she really gets to the heart of what all of us feel in those situations, hence her incredible mainstream and widespread appeal. The release of her second album coincided with a short-lived relationship with Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers. The couple dated for several months before an infamous phone call put an end to the relationship. Yeah, so after she started getting some success, suddenly you know other famous people are interested in her and she has a dating life. And at one point she was seeing Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers and wasn't hesitant, didn't bat an eye in talking about that, that he had called her up on the phone to break up. And she said, I clocked it, I looked at looked at my cell phone record after he was done and it was 27 seconds. He spent 27 seconds on the phone breaking up and I think that's bad. And she writes about about that stuff. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart with sales of over 500,000 copies and has since sold 8.6 million copies worldwide. I remember talking to her and she's going, I'm so excited for you to to hear where we're going because it's going to be so much better. And she, you could see how excited she was and she you know insisted on playing some things for me and you know she had had her iPod there and she's zipping through and going, okay you got to hear this one, you got it, and then oh what should I play you next and and goes on to the next one. So I got a preview of it and was impressed by the amount of growth that that I heard from you know two years before you could hear. Now what she was writing about when she was 15 and 16 and still in high school very different than 17 and 18. Now she's you know getting up out into the world and at this point she's getting her career is really taken off while she still is working on graduating from high school. Swift went on her first headlining tour in support of Fearless. She played shows in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. The tour was attended by more than 1.1 million fans and grossed over 63 million dollars. I'm just so excited. I cannot believe all the sellouts like when I get a call like that when they're like oh by the way um the tour sold out Madison Square Garden in a minute. I just I don't know how to react to that other than to just start jumping up and down and screaming. I always expected to have to do a lot of stressing out about selling tickets and then I went on my first headlining tour and everything just sold out and I was like really this is how this works. I've never expected that kind of success. I've never just felt entitled to my shows selling out or things like this happening to me but the fact that they have happened to me has been wonderful and I hope that the second leg of the tour is as successful as the first. This tour has been so amazing because the fans have just absolutely made me feel like I've won the lottery of dreams coming true. When I'm up there and I look down and I see all these t-shirts that people have made and the signs that they make are hilarious. Just very creative. It's going to be so sad knowing that we're not going to see each other for a while. Everybody on the tour from the lighting to the crew to the dancers and the band and everybody that have just become even more of my family in the last couple of months. But the last weekend of the tour is also elaborate pranking. Swift became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award when You Belong to Me was named Best Female Video in 2009. Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West and the incident received much media attention. Everyone was shocked. Here comes Taylor to you know receive a very well-deserved reward and he gets up and makes an absolute idiot of himself rambling about Beyonce who looked horrified in the audience. He was not doing her any favors either. And she just handled it very gracefully incredibly professionally. I think what was interesting to me about that whole debacle was that the world really the world kind of stood up and said leave her alone don't pick on her we like her. And everybody in the world saw that for what it was. And the way she handled it was classic Taylor. You know she was just as gracious as ever. I think that's one of those places where she kind of grew up in the public eye because people saw from that that she could handle a crisis situation and just stay calm just going about things. She was very gracious she never really criticized Kanye who basically went into hiding after the incident because he had embarrassed himself so badly and ended up apologizing profusely on Twitter for really offending not just Taylor but really a lot of her fans. Taylor brushed off the incident and went on to end the year in tenacious style. Fearless was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album while White Horse was named Best Country Song and Best Country Female Vocal Performance. She was the youngest artist ever to win Album of the Year and became the youngest artist and one of only six women to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. Well tonight I'm just gonna I'm just gonna dance around with my band and my crew and my record label and freak out because honestly I never imagined that the unattainable thing that I had always held in my mind in my imagination would happen to me at 19 and I've watched every single year of my life I've watched the CMA Awards every single year that I could remember watching CMA Awards so I know what this means and that's why I'm so at a loss for words right now so addressing the pace of my career I feel like I can I look at it from both ways of course this feels like it feels like just yesterday that I was knocking on doors of Nashville going hey will you listen to my demo but then again I feel so lucky to know you guys and to have talked to you in press rooms and to have been an opening act for every single person that I was nominated against in the Entertainer of the Year category I'm just I'm just very appreciative right now. Swift went on to win four Grammy Awards in 2010 from a total of eight nominations. This is the dream come true it's um it's like I've never been presumptuous about dreams and when you have crazy dreams like I wonder what it would be like to win a Grammy someday I I never actually could fathom that it might happen until I was walking up there and winning one. Swift released her third studio album Speak Now in October 2010. She wrote all 14 songs on the album and co-produced it. Musically it has been said that the album expands beyond country pop to border both alternative rock and bubblegum pop. The album's lead single Mine was released in August 2010 and a further five singles were released throughout 2010 and 2011. I got to get a little preview of it I was the only journalist allowed into the studio with her while she was recording it. She was out here in Hollywood adding some strings to a couple of songs back to December and Haunted and I wanted to see how she works creatively behind the mixing board not just just in the studio as a as a singer and we know how she works as a songwriter but to see her develop the the overall sound of of her records and she was so excited to have this like 26 piece orchestra being conducted by Paul Buckmaster a very major orchestrator and arranger conductor in in pop music circles going back to the days of Elton John's early records and she was so jazzed to hear the orchestra playing her music because that's the thing that that really comes across to me that the most important thing to her in her career is being a songwriter. Speak Now was a major commercial success debuting at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Its opening sales of 1.5 million copies made it the 16th album in U.S. history to sell 1 million copies in a single week. As a result of selling 20 million albums worldwide Taylor was presented with a special plaque from Scott Burketta representing her 20 million album sales. Oh my god. Wow. What? So Taylor on behalf of Big Machine Records and our partners Universal Music Group Worldwide we are so proud to present to you this plaque that indicates you have sold more than 20 million records worldwide. Oh my god. Oh my gosh I have to find a wall big enough for this. I'm absolutely blown away by the 20 million records plaque. It's just sort of beyond my comprehension to get a plaque like that and the fact that the fans have done that much for me in such a short period of time is just unreal and I'm so excited and so thankful. I remember coming up in the music industry and like I would make goals for myself that were just ahead of the last goal I had just accomplished. I would never make a goal that was so so far down the line that I felt like it was unattainable. A 20 million record plaque in my mind is just always seems unattainable. I never would have imagined that that would be a possibility for a goal. I was hoping to be able to sell one record you know be able to make a record to be able to have songs that people could hear. That's like the fact that that's happening now and the 20 million plaque is just it's all the fans and I'm just at a loss again for words. Taylor embarked on the Speak Now World Tour in 2011 and visited Asia, North America, Oceania and Europe. Well hello London and welcome to the Speak Now World Tour. I'm Taylor. We have had but you have never looked as beautiful as you look tonight at the O2. Finishing the tour in Europe at the O2 arena in London with a sold-out show is um I couldn't think of a more perfect way to end this European run. I've gotten to experience just parts of the world I never thought I'd get to see and nonetheless play shows in and have the crowds singing the words back to me. As a songwriter to have people singing the lyrics back to you in countries where they don't even really speak English it's like so gratifying and just it's been a really beautiful tour here and finishing it here at the O2 is just so perfect. Taylor Swift's fourth studio album Red was released in October 2012. It was with this album that Taylor started to experiment with her music and created singles for a pop demographic. The album's lead single We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together became Swift's first number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Production-wise in terms of the sound of the record it's it's very different. It's the first album track that she's ever done where it wasn't just her and her producer Nathan Chapman where she's working with Max Martin and Shellback out of Sweden and you know those are the guys that make those big dance pop records and it's and so it's in a lot of ways it's much more like that it's very much a pop record. There's a country mix to it but it's really clearly an effort to go make a big pop record but it's almost like the Swedish dance pop version of what an old Taylor Swift song should have sounded like you know so she's working with different producers she's working with different songwriters she's got some guests in on the album and it's really about seeing what she can learn seeing what she can do with all of these other people and and kind of learning just how broad the Taylor Swift sound is going to go. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble were both international hits. I Knew You Were Trouble was written about One Direction's Harry Styles who Taylor dated for several months around the time of Red's release. One of the things I think people like about Taylor Swift particularly her young fans is that her awkwardness with men she has been dumped she has been rejected and she sings about it very openly. Taylor herself has said you know I'm not the girl who always has a boyfriend I'm the girl who rarely has a boyfriend and I think a lot of girls who feel awkward of any age can relate to that. I mean for what kind of horizon there's so many different kinds of horizons. On the romantic horizon. I've heard nothing on the romantic horizon come on. As part of the Red tour Swift played 86 states in North America, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and Asia. I'm really excited about being in China for the first time. It's really exciting to bring the Red tour here because having never been here I'm most excited about the fact that the show in Shanghai sold out in under a minute. That was unbelievable so it makes me even more excited to play the show knowing that there was that much demand here. It's really exciting going somewhere new because I've done so much international touring that you very rarely get to be in an entire country you've never even stepped foot in before so that kind of experience is always really exciting and there are lots of different places we're going on this Asia tour where I've never been there before but surprisingly the shows have sold out so I think that like I said that's the most exciting thing that these audiences have been so excited about the show being here. It's hard to try and figure out why my music works so well in Asia and why the fans like it so much. I'm honored by the fact that they you know even if English isn't their first language they would learn the words to my songs and sing them back to me in concert. That's it's really fun for me to know that they put that much effort in and also it's that kind of amazing reminder that music is one of those unifying factors that works all over the world and looking out into the crowd and being in a completely new place seeing that it's sold out seeing that people know the words to the songs it's really really incredible. So we're in Shanghai we're actually going to do a dress rehearsal to prep for the Asian tour and although it's predominantly the same set list and production elements as the North American and the things we've done in the UK it's good to kind of get back in the swing of things so I'm going to do a dress rehearsal and everybody's in full costume so we're gonna go do that now to a completely empty arena. Tomorrow things will look a lot different. I'm really excited about the idea of touring all over the world and putting out albums that will translate all over the world and you know musically I think I think that's been a huge motivating factor for me in making new music is is making sure that it's music that people will love in America and maybe maybe they'll love in Asia and maybe they'll love in Europe and that's been a new thing I've really hoped for being able to travel internationally and tour internationally. The Red Tour was attended by 1.7 million fans and grossed over 150 million dollars. Swift won three MTV European Music Awards in 2012 including the honors for Best Female and Best Live Act. I Knew You Were Trouble won Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. She was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012 American Music Awards and was named Artist of the Year at the 2013 ceremony and in classic Taylor Swift fashion she was already focusing on her next album. Thank you so much the winning Artist of the Year for the third time is kind of a little bit mind-numbingly unbelievable and I'm just yeah it is it's a little bit hard to absorb it all at once to answer your question it's amazing and the fact that it's fan voted makes it that much better. This year has been unreal for me with this album I didn't I don't expect things to do well just as by default so for this to happen is wonderful. Can you talk about where you are on your next album? Oh yes I can that's my favorite thing to talk about. I'm so obsessed with where it is right now because I think for me the goal is that we start coming upon a sound that that's different from everything we've done before and an identity to a new record and having come upon that so early in the process just is is really thrilling and you know I mean I've got a lot of time to write more but it's really looking it's really looking promising so far like that like how many things I've got finished that I love that I know I want on the record it's more than it's way ahead of schedule to answer your question I'm really stoked for you here. 1989 Swift's fifth studio album was released towards the end of 2014. Taylor described 1989 as her first official pop release and parted ways with some members of her longtime band. As part of the 1989 promotional campaign Swift invited fans to secret album listening sessions called the 1989 secret sessions at her houses in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. The album's lead single Shake It Off was released in August 2014 and reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. 1989 sold just fewer than 1.3 million copies in the U.S. during the first week of release selling more copies in its opening week than any album in the previous 12 years. This achievement made Swift the first and only act to have three albums sell more than 1 million copies in the opening release week. It later became the best-selling album of 2014 selling 3.6 million copies. Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year in 2014. She is the only artist to be awarded this title twice. At the 2015 Grammy Awards Shake It Off was nominated for three awards including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. While at the 2015 Brit Awards Swift won the International Female Solo Artist Award. Taylor tell us how you feel about winning your first ever Brit Award. I'm way too excited about it. I need to calm down. I'm so excited. I'm so happy. It's been um it's been the most amazing slow build with you know my love affair with England and the UK and you know starting out playing King's College and ending up eight years later getting ready to play Sold Out Hyde Park is like what? So um this first Brit Award couldn't have come at a better time. I'm so happy. Honestly it's amazing. The reaction to 1989 has been incredible. You must be very happy with the way your fans and all your new fans have taken to your new music. I'm really happy with it and thank you for saying that you listen to it all the time. That's really nice. I'm so proud of this album and I feel like I've been very lucky that my my kind of creative evolution has taken just as long as my growth in England. It you know I've been writing songs since I was 12 years old and with every album they've changed. 1989 is my favorite by far so I'm really happy that's the one that people like the most. That's really convenient for me. And finally tonight please tell us about your incredible performance. You were one of the first performers on stage. It was a big gig, a big big one to start off with and how was it for you? I have no idea how it was because I haven't seen it back. I'm terrified but you think you think it was good so I trust you. You're not gonna lie to me. We met five minutes ago you wouldn't do that. Um I hope it was okay. I get really nervous at these things but somehow like you put a crowd in a room and it gets it gets easier and um you know the Brits are so nice to let me open the show and give me stuff like confetti and cool lighting cues and the whole stage to work with. I had a really fun time and I can't believe that like all the things I have to do tonight are over now and I just get to hang out. What will you do now? You've got a lot of friends here. Yeah I do. I'm gonna go hang out with them. I'm gonna Ed's about to perform so I'm gonna run now. You enjoy Ed Sheeran and thank you for talking to us. Congratulations. Thanks guys. Taylor Swift everybody. In 2017 Taylor released another internationally renowned album Reputation. The leading single from the album was Look What You Made Me Do. The song broke a string of records including the record for the most plays in a single day on Spotify. The song's music video premiered on August 27, 2017 at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. The video broke the record for the most watched video within 24 hours by achieving 43.2 million views on YouTube in its first day. Because she's dead. In May 2018 Taylor began her Reputation stadium tour in Arizona that went on to tour six countries and 53 shows. In October 2018 Taylor Swift broke her long silence on politics and urged her U.S. fans to register to vote to stand against rising anti-LGBT and rising racist right-wing hostility growing in American politics. In a powerful Instagram post she reached out to her 112 million Instagram followers and it had a real effect. Over the next 24 hours there were around 65,000 new registered voters. At the American Music Awards in 2018 Taylor arrived to collect her now 22 trophies as she became the most decorated female music artist ever in the 46-year ceremony. Lover is the seventh studio album by Taylor Swift. It was released on August 23, 2019 by Republic Records. She described the album as a love letter to love itself. The album celebrates the ups and downs of love and incorporates brighter, more cheerful tones departing from the dark sounds of its predecessor, Reputation. Lover features collaborations with the Dixie Chicks and Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco. It was preceded by three singles, the international top five singles Me and You Need to Calm Down and the title track, all of which reached the top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. A week before the release of the single You Need to Calm Down, Taylor made a surprise performance at the Stonewall Inn, an LGBT historical landmark. I heard that this is Jessie's favorite song to do at karaoke, which was an incredible rumor. I really want to believe it's true. So if there's anything you feel like you want to jump in on, if there's like your part that you're really good at, then just sing, dance, just be yourself. This is a really safe space. It's an absolute honor to be here at the Stonewall Inn. Thank you for being so wonderful. So fun dancing with you. Happy Pride Month. Thanks so much. 2019 would turn into a difficult year for In June, Big Machine, Swift's former record label, was purchased by music manager Scooter Braun, including the masters for her first six albums. Swift voiced her displeasure in a Tumblr post saying she had been trying to buy the masters for years and describing Braun as an incessant manipulative bully. In August, Swift announced plans to re-record the albums in November 2020. In November 2019, Swift said that Braun and Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta blocked her from performing her older songs at the 2019 American Music Awards, where she was to receive the Artist of the Decade Award, as well as using older material for the Netflix documentary Taylor Swift Miss Americana. Big Machine denied the allegations in general terms in the statement and accused Swift of owing millions of dollars and multiple assets to the label. In response, Swift's representatives released correspondence showing a Big Machine executive refusing to grant licenses for the documentary and stated Big Machine owes Swift nearly eight million in unpaid royalties. On November 18th, Big Machine issued a statement that it had agreed to grant all licenses of their artists' performances to stream post-show and for rebroadcast on mutually approved platforms for the American Music Awards, though it did not mention Swift by name. On December 16th, 2019, the musical blockbuster film Cats was released. Taylor Swift was given the role of Bumble Arena without an audition, and despite the film's struggle at the box office, many critics have said that Swift's performance was one of the film's highlights. Taylor Swift found her calling and turned her dreams into reality with a combination of talent and an unparalleled desire to reach the top. She is one of the most successful musicians of all time. Her music has evolved and grown along with her from small town girl to international superstar. I'm having a blast. I'm surprised that my legs aren't hurting yet. I'm surprised that there's no aching going on. I'm really having so much fun because like we're all having a really good time today and they're all telling me really sweet stories and they've given, look at all the bracelets that all the girls have given me today. This is just today and I don't know, this is just, this has been one of the coolest days I can remember. She was the girl who dared to dream. Never been presumptuous about dreams. You have crazy dreams like, I wonder what it would be like to win a Grammy someday.