TAYLOR SWIFT
Taylor Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and lives with her parents, Scott and Andrea, and her brother, Austin, in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Swift's influences include her grandmother and LeAnn Rimes. Swift began to regularly visit Nashville, where, at age 12, she wrote songs with local songwriters. Eventually, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb. Taylor Swift performed at Nashville's premier songwriters' café, The Bluebird Café, catching the attention of Scott Borchetta who signed her to his newly-formed record label, Big Machine Records. Swift plays a Taylor Grand Auditorium acoustic guitar made of koa wood.Swift's first single, "Tim McGraw", was released to radio in Summer of 2006 and on October 24, 2006, her self-titled album was released. Swift wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, which debuted at #19 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 61,000 during its first week. It later peaked at #1 at Billboard Top Country Albums and #5 at Billboard 200. It also spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts, and has since sold over 3 million copies. Swift has surpassed the 20 million mark for music streams on MySpace. She is currently ranked at 15 for the most MySpace visits for all genres of music, and is MySpace's current top-ranking Country artist.
Swift also recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season, that was released October 16, 2007, exclusively available at Target stores. The album, which was not as successful as her self-titled debut, featured both holiday classics such as "Last Christmas" and original songs written by Swift.
Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse Swift's latest single, "Picture to Burn" is the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted early in 2008 and is currently a major hit on the Billboard Country Chart.
Swift's second studio album is slated for a fall 2008 release. In a repeat of her debut album, Swift is expected to have at least a co-writing credit on every track; John Rich and Colbie Caillatcontributed writing to the album's early songs, according to Billboard Magazine.
On September 21, 2007, Swift launched a campaign to protect children from online predators. Swift has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes. The year-long campaign, launched in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state.
