Artist Of The Day - Taylor Swift

• Taylor Swift’s debut single, “Tim McGraw,” dropped in 2006, followed by a self-titled album that topped the charts for four weeks. The album produced five hits with “Our Song,” “Teardrops On My Guitar,” “Tim McGraw,” “Picture to Burn” and “Should’ve Said No.” It ended up spending 157 weeks on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart. Taylor is the first female artist in country music history to take writing credit on every song of a platinum-selling debut.
  
• In 2007, Taylor was named Breakthrough Artist at the CMT Music Awards and won the CMA Horizon Award. She also nabbed her first BMI award for “Tim McGraw.” “Fearless” became the most awarded album in country music history. It spent 11 weeks at the top of the charts, the 10th longest-running No. 1 album in the history of the Billboard 200 chart and the most weeks at the top ever for a female country artist. The album’s hit singles included “Love Story,” “White Horse” and “Fearless.” The album charted 7 songs in its debut week alone, tying Swift with Hannah Montana for the most songs by a female artist to make the charts in a single week.
  
• In 2009, Swift became the first country artist to win an MTV Video Music Award. She won for Best Female Video for “You Belong with Me.” At the 2009 CMA Awards, Swift took home Entertainer of the Year, Female Vocalist, Album of the Year for “Fearless,” and Music Video for “Love Story.” At the 2010 52nd Grammy Awards, She won Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song for “White Horse” Album of the Year and Best Country Album for “Fearless.”
  
• Swift released the track “Today Was a Fairytale” as a digital download on iTunes in January 2010. The song was featured on the soundtrack for the film “Valentine’s Day,” in which she made her feature-film acting debut.
  
• Taylor Swift is the only country artist to fall in the top 10 of Billboards Top Money Makers of 2011. She came in at No. 6 with $20,730,431 earned last year. She was also was named Nielsen SoundScan’s top-selling artist of 2010.
  
• Taylor has been named the No. 7 Most Powerful Celebrity on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 List. Criteria to make the list include radio, TV, and press exposure as well online and social media presence.
  
• Taylor Swift has been crowned Woman of the Year by Billboard magazine, the youngest person to receive the award. Swift will be honored at the 2011 Billboard Women in Music event in New York on December 2nd. It’s the latest honor for Swift, who became the youngest person to win the Grammy for best album for “Fearless” in 2008. The Pennsylvania-born musician won five Grammys in 2009 and four in 2010. She has also won several ACM, CMA, CMT and AMA awards. Billboard has been giving her awards every year from 2009 to 2011.
  
• Swift’s latest album, “Speak Now,” has sold more than 3.6 million copies since its release last fall, and she’s sold the most albums of any artist over the past year. Swift scored her 8th No. 1 with “Mean,” the third single “Speak Now,” becoming her 3rd consecutive No. 1 song from the album. Other hits from the album include “Back to December” and “Mine.” "Sparks Fly,” her latest single, is in the Top 5 and climbing.
  
• Taylor is promoting her new Wonderstruck perfume and is still out on her “Speak Now Tour.” She is currently working on her fourth record, which she expects to have ready before late next year.
  
• Official Web site: www.taylorswift.com