Taylor Swift, more queen of pop than ever

(Los Angeles) She is everywhere, performing hits, concerts, records, magazine covers and above all has very loyal admirers across the planet: it is of course Taylor Swift.

After a year of all records, she made pop history again on Sunday by winning a fourth Grammy for the prestigious title of best album.

The 34-year-old artist thus does better than American music legends like Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon or Stevie Wonder.

“I would like to tell you that this is the best moment of my life, but I also feel happy when I finish a song,” she reacted on Sunday. “Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do what I love so much! I’m blown away! »

Also awarded the prize for best pop album, she took the opportunity to sign a marketing coup, announcing the release of a new opus on April 19, entitled The Tortured Poets Department.

Nearly 20 years after getting started, nothing seems to be stopping her. Her Eras Tour is expected to garner a total of two billion dollars in revenue after having already broken the symbolic ceiling of the billion collected last year, a first in the history of music.

With her hundreds of millions of followers on social media and her base of devoted “Swifties,” she can swing the scales of opinion without much effort, so much so that politicians are speculating about her potential influence on the presidential election. November American.

“A Madonna”

“You can’t live in the United States without having heard of Taylor Swift,” laughs Kristin Lieb, specialist in pop, brands and gender issues at Emerson College.

“She took all the advice in a Madonna’s handbook and started writing her own book. It’s incredible ! “.

His empire is estimated to be worth more than a billion dollars. The American superstar’s concert film took home more than $93 million in its first weekend this fall.

The NFL has gained legions of new admirers thanks to the highly publicized love story between the singer and Travis Kelce, star of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Since his adolescence, the artist has been used to seeing his private life exposed.

And all the successes achieved in 2023 have earned the pop star the title of personality of the year by the magazine Time, a title generally awarded to the likes of Volodymyr Zelensky, Martin Luther King or Greta Thunberg. Taylor Swift is that “rare character who is both the writer and the heroine of her own story,” praised the magazine.

The singer made her professional debut as a teenager, signing with Nashville record label Big Machine Records as a country artist.

His first album, soberly named Taylor Swifthas earned him a solid base of supporters, but it is Fearlessher second country/pop album released in 2008 which propelled her into popular culture, with titles like love story Or You Belong with Me.

In the following albums, Speak Now (2010) and Red (2012), Taylor Swift borrows more from rock and electro influences. His fifth opus, 1989 is completely pop.

“Taylor version”

The megastar recently explained in Time that the following years were not easy, evoking an era which had not yet called into question the treatment reserved for young famous women, scrutinized, criticized at the slightest suspicion of missteps.

His dispute with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian didn’t help. “All the hyenas came running to shoot at the target,” she remembers.

Another delicate turning point was the moment in 2018 when the star reached the end of his contract with Big Machine and joined Universal without the rights to his previous albums.

She took to the public arena her fight to regain ownership of the recordings of her first six opuses after the takeover of her former record company.

She sharply attacked her former manager Scooter Braun, founder of the company which had acquired her catalog, describing him as a “manipulator” who had taken advantage of her professionally in her early days.

Taylor Swift decided to re-record the first six records, inviting “Swifties” to listen to the “Taylor version” of her works.

A bold bet, but a winning one. She embellished the new recordings with unreleased material, like a version of All Too Well ten minutes long, which brought joy to its early admirers, seduced new admirers, and commanded the admiration of the music industry.

At the same time, the artist released four new albums, Lovermade with producer Jack Antonoff, Folklore, Evermore And Midnights.