Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American
country pop singer-songwriter, guitarist and actress. In 2006, she released her debut single "
Tim McGraw", which peaked at number six on the
Billboard country charts. Later in October 2006, she released her
self-titled debut album, which produced five hit singles on the Billboard
Hot Country Songs charts and was certified 3× Multi-
Platinum by the
RIAA. The
New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".
According to
Nielsen SoundScan, Swift was the biggest selling artist of 2008 in the United States with combined sales of more than four million albums. Swift's
Fearless and her self-titled album finished 2008 at number three and number six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million.
She was the first artist in the history of
Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart.
has topped the Billboard 200 in 11 non-consecutive weeks.
No album has spent more time at number one since 1999-2000. It also was the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at #1 on The Billboard 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs.
As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "
Love Story" became the country song with most paid downloads in history and the first country song to top the
Mainstream Top 40 chart.
Swift then subsequently went onto replicate the feat, reaching #1 again on the Mainstream Top 40 in September 2009 with "
You Belong With Me", making it just the second country song in the chart's history to reach the top.
[www.allaccess.com/] According to the 2009 issue of
Forbes, Swift is ranked as the 69th most powerful celebrity with over $18 million in earnings this year.
