From CMT, here's everything you ever wanted to know about Taylor Swift (well, almost!) in honor of her 21st birthday.
TAYLOR SWIFT'S 21ST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. Taylor’s 21st birthday has finally arrived, and the one thing on everyone’s mind is, will she drink an alcoholic beverage? Don’t expect to see Taylor stumbling out of a club tonight. She told Lady’s Home Journal,“Maybe I’ll have a glass of wine – but nothing too hardcore for me. I need to be in control of what I say, and if I drank, I’d stress out about saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.” Taylor will stick with a Christmas-themed party this year, but one significant man will be missing, and it’s not John Mayer. Santa Claus will not be making an appearance to take her pals’ wishes for Christmas. She said, "I'm not gonna do that, but there'll definitely be lots of Christmas-themed things."
TAYLOR’S 20TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. Instead of receiving gifts on her 20th birthday, Taylor decided to help her community instead. The singer donated 250-thousand dollars to schools around the country she attended. That money was used to pay teachers’ salaries and fund educational programs. Taylor held a Christmas-themed birthday party at her home in Tennessee for her friends, family, band, and tour crew. She spent the night before at home, baking butter cookies and gingerbread cookies with cream-cheese icing for her guests. She described the celebration as, “more like an end-of-year Christmas party that happens to be on my birthday.” Taylor was also dating her Valentine’s Day co-star Taylor Lautner, who at the time that was on hand to celebrate her big day. Rumors circulated he spent 50-thousand dollars on her gift.
TAYLOR’S 19TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. Taylor enjoyed her last year as a teenager with a low-key night spent with her family, friends, and band mates at her home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. She shared a homemade video she had created and dedicated it to her 40 guests. Taylor also treated her pals to a buffet which included sushi and bacon-wrapped scallops, followed by two ice cream cakes – chocolate peppermint and cookie-dough from Cold Stone Creamery. Before the party was over, her guests competed in a ping-pong tournament, which was won by her manager. For her 19th birthday, Taylor only wanted a stationary set and new glasses, since her others broke.
TAYLOR’S 18TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. Taylor celebrated her 18th birthday with a pink-themed celebration at Lot 7 in Nashville, surrounded by her family and many famous friends. The room was decorated with dozens of pink paper lanterns and throw pillows. Taylor’s label, Big Machine Records, gave her a brand-new pink Chevy truck which she donated to charity. During the party, a slideshow was played with pictures from Taylor’s childhood. Kellie Pickler helped her blow out the candles on her birthday cake. Lady Antebellum, John Rich, and Taylor’s best friend Abigail were also on hand. Instead of running out to get a tattoo, she registered to vote online.
FUN TAYLOR FACTS
- Her maternal grandmother, Majorie Finlay, was an opera singer, which inspired Taylor to pursue a singing career.
- When she was 12, she spent an entire summer penning a 350-page novel which fans have asked her to publish.
- “Monster in My Closet” was the name of the poem that helped Taylor win a national poetry contest in elementary school.
- The first song Taylor ever wrote was titled, “Lucky You.”
- Taylor says she has said she has a secret crush on Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl.
- She failed her driver's permit test 3 times.
- Music is her number one passion, but if she had to choose another career, she would be a forensic scientist.
- She has used two One Tree Hill stars in her music videos - "Teardrops On My Guitar" featured Tyler Hilton and Stephen Colletti made an appearance in "White Horse."
FACTS ABOUT TAYLOR’S SONGS
- Taylor’s first single in 2006 was “Tim McGraw,” which reached the #6 spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
- Her second single, "Teardrops on My Guitar,” was released February 24th, 2007. In mid-2007, the song peaked at #2 on Billboard'sHot Country Songs chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- Her third song off her debut album, Our Song, spent 6 weeks at #1 on the country charts and peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- "Should've Said No" became Taylor's second #1 single.
- The lead single from Fearless, "Love Story" sold more than 129-thousand digital copies. This gave Taylor the best online start for any country album in history. It had the 4th biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004.
- The second single from Fearless, "White Horse," was released on December 8th, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7th, 2009.
- "Change", was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics.
- When "Fifteen" reached the #38 spot on the Billboard chart the week of November 21st, 2009, Taylor became the female artist with the most Top 40 singles this decade, surpassing Beyonce.
- Taylor claimed both the #1 and #2 positions on Nielsen's Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all genres), with "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story."
- Taylor released the track "Today Was a Fairytale," from the Valentine’s Day soundtrack, as a digital download on iTunes on January 19th, 2010. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at the #2 spot which was recognized as Taylor’s sixth Top 10 and 23rd Top 40 single on that chart.
- Taylor first performed "Jump Then Fall," June 5th, 2010 at Gillette Stadium.
- “Mine” was leaked 12 days before Big Machine Records planned to release the single. So, they decided to rush the song to radio to counteract the leak. The song shot to the top of the iTunes charts while Taylor was on a plane to Japan.
FACTS ABOUT TAYLOR’S ALBUMS
- Her self-titled debut album was released on October 24th 2006. Debuting high on the Billboard 200, the album sold 39,000 copies during its first week. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and #5 on the Billboard 200.
- Her debut album spent 8 consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks.
- On November 11th 2008, Taylor released her second album, Fearless. The album debuted at #1 on the Top Country Albums and the Billboard 200 Album Chart. The album sold 592,304 copies in the first week making the highest debut of any country artist in 2008.
- It was also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the 4th biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay.
- Fearless topped the Billboard 200 chart for 11 non-consecutive weeks. No album has spent more time at #1 since 2000.
- In its debut week, 7 songs from Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Taylor with Miley Cyrus for the most by a female artist in a single week.
- Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 spent time on the Hot 100.
- Fearless was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US with more than 3.2 millions copies sold in that year.
- Taylor’s third album, Speak Now, sold 1,047,000 copies in its first week.
- Speak Now received Triple-Platinum certification by the RIAA after selling 3-million copies since its release on October 25th.
- Speak Now came in at #13 on Rolling Stone’s Top Albums of 2010. According to the RIAA, Taylor has also scored the most single digital downloads of any artist this decade.
- All three of Taylor’s albums are now certified multi-Platinum:
- Taylor Swift (2006) – 4x multi-Platinum
- Fearless (2008) – 6x multi-Platinum
- Speak Now (2010) – 3x multi-Platinum
TAYLOR’S AWARDS
Throughout the past couple of years, Taylor has won over 70 awards including:
- CMT Music Awards
2007 – Breakthrough Video of The Year for “Tim McGraw”
2008 – Female Video of the Year & Video of the Year for “Our Song”
2009 – Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year for “Love Story”
- Grammy Awards
2010 - Fearless – Album of the Year, Best Country Album, “White Horse” Best Female Country Vocal Performance, & Best Country Song
- CMA Awards
2007 – Horizon Award
2009 – Music Video of the Year for “Love Story,” Album of the Year for Fearless, Female Entertainer of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year.
- Taylor became the youngest artist ever to win the CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year, and is one of only six women to win the highest honor.
- ACM Awards
2008 – Top New Female Vocalist
2009 – Album of the Year for Fearless, Crystal Milestone Award
- Taylor is the youngest artist in history to win the ACM Album of the Year award.
- Billboard Music Awards
2009 – Artist of the Year, The Billboard 200 Artists of the Year, The Billboard 200 Album of the Year, Hot Radio Songs of the Year, Top Country Album Artist of the Year, Top Country Album of the Year & Hot Adult Contemporary Artist of the Year.
- Other Recgonitions…
- Taylor was country music's best-selling artist of 2008.
- In 2008, Taylor was ranked the 38th Best Artist of the 2000–2010 Decade by Billboard.
- In mid-January 2009, Taylor became the first country artist to top the 2-million mark in paid downloads with three different songs.
- In 2009, Forbes ranked Taylor the 69th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $18 million and in 2010 as the 12th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million.
- In January 2010 Nielsen SoundScan listed Taylor as the most commercially successful country (or country/pop crossover) artist in music history with over 28-million digital tracks sold.
- Taylor was the first celebrity to appear on the cover of 2004-founded teen magazine Justine.
TAYLOR’S MEMORABLE PERFORMANCES
- Taylor made a cameo in Brad Paisley's 2007 music video for "Online".
- In October 2008, Taylor performed a duet with rock band Def Leppard for CMT Crossroads. Their collaboration was up for bothPerformance of the Year and Wide Open Country Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards in 2009.
- Taylor sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” at game 3 of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25th, 2008.
- On February 8, 2009, Taylor performed her song, "Fifteen," with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards.
- Taylor made her first musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live in April 2009 – the same month she kicked off her first headlining tour. She was the show’s youngest performer ever.
- On September 15, 2009, Taylor gave her first interview about the infamous MTV VMA Music Awards incident to The View.
- In November 2009, Taylor served as the youngest host on Saturday Night Live, and even wrote her own monologue which addressed Kanye West, her ex-boyfriend Joe Jonas, and her rumored boyfriend at the time Taylor Lautner. This was her second time as host.
- Taylor performed “Rhiannon” and “You Belong With Me” at the 2010 Grammy Awards with rock legend Stevie Nicks.
- June 13th, 2010, Taylor held a 15-hour meet and greet during the CMA Music Festival in Nashville. She greeted more than two-thousand fans, who were also entertained by costumes and other memorabilia from the Fearless world tour.
- Taylor had a memorable performance at this year’s 2010 MTV Video Music Awards when she performed “Innocent” in response to last year’s Kanye West incident.
- After releasing her new album Speak Now, Taylor performed at the JetBlue terminal in the Kennedy International Airport and later took 30 contest winners on a flight from New York to Los Angeles where they had the chance to conduct an interview.
TAYLOR’S TOUR FACTS
- Taylor was an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has also opened for Brooks & Dunn, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, and Rascal Flatts.
- In January 2009, Taylor announced the first leg of her North American Fearless Tour, which took place in 56 cities over the span of 6 months. The tour kicked off April 23rd in Evansville, Indiana – all shows sold out within minutes.
- On the Fearless tour, she was joined by opening-acts Kellie Pickler and Gloriana. Justin Bieber joined her for the tour when she went to the UK. During the tour, Taylor also performed with guests such as John Mayer, Faith Hill, and Katy Perry. She also opened a select few dates for Keith Urban on his Escape Together World Tour 2009.
- Pop-group Needtobreathe will serve as the opening-act for the North American leg of Taylor’s Speak Now 2011 World Tour. She will perform at 87 stadiums and arena shows in 19 countries on four continents.
- Taylor managed to sell out the Staples Center in Los Angeles in two minutes and filled the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in five minutes. Tickets for the Speak Now 2011 tour continue to go on sale and so far Taylor has sold out seven arenas. Several venues have even added additional shows, including a pair at the Staples Center.
