Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989. She was raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, spending her early years on her family’s Christmas Tree Farm. Her father is a financial advisor and her mother is a homemaker, but previously had a career in marketing.Taylor also has a brother named Austin who is 3 years younger than her.
Taylor was already meant to do music, being named singer James Taylor. At age nine Taylor expressed an interest in musical theater and performed in four Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions. She also traveled to Broadway regularly to get voice and acting lessons. As she got older, Taylor began to find an interest in Shania Twain’s music, which inspired her to take on country music. At age 12 Taylor was taught to play guitar by a computer repair man, which became the base of her career. Taylor also was very good at poetry at age 13, which made writing songs come almost naturally.
On the weekends Taylor performed original songs at coffee shops, local festivals, fairs, karaoke contests, garden clubs, Boy Scout meetings and sporting events. After many trips to Nashville, meeting with record companies, and many failed attempts, Taylor finally made her break after performing original songs at an RCA Records showcase, She was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother. At age 14 Taylor and her family moved to Nashville,Tennessee at to pursue a career in country music. Taylor caught the attention of Scott Borchetta at an Industry showcase at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe in 2005 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 per cent stake in the fledgling company at an estimated cost of $120,000.
Taylor’s country career started in 2006 when her first album “Taylor Swift” her single was “Tim Mcgraw”. Four more singles on the album were released in 2007 and 2008 including “Picture to Burn” and “Our Song”. She spent those years promoting her music and in November of 2008 she released her second album “Fearless”. She went on her first headlining tour promoting “Fearless” with 105 dates in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Taylor released her third studio album “Speak Now” in 2010. She toured throughout 2011 and early 2012 to promote of Speak Now. This world tour consisted of 111 shows played shows in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Taylor’s fourth album “Red” was released in 2012, She played 86 dates in North America, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Asia on her world “The Red Tour” lasting from 2012-2014. Her fifth studio album “1989” was released in 2014. This was seen as her “official” transition into pop music, and her songs lost the country feel.Taylor decided to do something different with this album and had secret listening sessions, called the “1989 Secret Sessions”, at her houses in New York, Nashville, Los Angeles and Rhode Island that allowed her to bond with her fans and let them listen to her album before it was released. As part of The 1989 World Tour, running from May 2015 to December 2015, Taylor performed in Japan, the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.
