Features
10 Facts About Taylor Swift
Learn more about the prolific singer and songwriter through these surprising facts and books for all ages.
Taylor Swift needs no introduction, but we’ll do our best. Coming in at #8 on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Artists, which combines performance on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, she’s already ranked among legends like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. And between her record-breaking Eras Tour, which has grossed over $1 billion, and her current relationship with Kansas City Chief’s tight end, Travis Kelce, it seems like Swift’s name is consistently on the tip of everyone’s tongue.
Beyond her commercial success, Taylor Swift is beloved by her fans for being an exceptional songwriter, with lyrics that deeply resonate with her listeners young and old. Swift’s dedication to her fans is clear, be it by performing an over three-hour concert or continuing to produce music at a seemingly impossible rate. With 10 albums, and an 11th titled The Tortured Poets Department arriving on April 19, Swift and her influence are here to stay. Learn more about the artist with these 10 facts about Taylor Swift!
1. Taylor Swift is named after James Taylor, one of her parents’ favorite artists.
Her mother thought that giving her a gender-neutral name would help her forge a business career someday. Though Swift needed no help in that department, the two artists have performed together before, duetting James Taylor’s hit “Fire and Rain” and Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” in 2012. The connection also spawned a hilarious reaction from Taylor Swift when she won the Best Pop Vocal Album Grammy Award for 1989 and asked if James Taylor was in the audience. You can see the video below, starting at 0:50.
2. She grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Reading, PA (which inspired her song “Christmas Tree Farm”). Her job was to pick praying mantis pods off the trees before they were sold.
Swift’s music video for the song includes footage from her childhood spent at the farm. You can see the full music video below.
3. Swift’s first CD was by LeAnn Rimes, purchased when she was just six years old.
According to an interview with LeAnn Rimes, “She [Taylor] used to come to my shows when she was really little, which is crazy.” Though the duo has never collaborated, Rimes seems open to it!
4. She wrote “Our Song,” a single on her debut album, for her high school talent show.
It’s hard to believe Swift wrote such a catchy tune for her ninth-grade talent show! According to Liv Simpson’s book on the artist, Swift chose “Our Song” as her debut album’s closing track because she thought the last line, “play it again,” would encourage listeners to replay the album.
5. The day before her Reputation tour began in 2018, she invited 2,000 adopted and foster children to a private dress rehearsal.
In May 2018, Swift played a two-hour show for the children, along with their parents and caregivers, in Arizona. She also stayed for an extra three hours after the show to take photos, sign autographs, and treat fans to a pizza party!
6. It only took 15 minutes for Taylor Swift and Liz Rose to write the song “Tim McGraw.”
They wrote the song together when Swift was still in high school. The singer is quoted as saying, “The concept for this song hit me because I was dating a guy who moved away, and it was going to be over for us. So, I started thinking of things that I knew would remind him of me. The first thing that came to mind was that my favorite song is by Tim McGraw. After school, I went downtown, sat down at the piano, and wrote this with Liz Rose in 15 minutes. It may be the best 15 minutes I’ve ever experienced.”
7. Her grandmother, Marjorie, was an opera singer.
After winning a talent contest in 1950, Swift’s maternal grandmother Marjorie Finlay toured on the ABC radio network show, Music With the Girls. Swift has been influenced throughout the years by her grandmother, releasing “Marjorie” in 2020, which featured Finlay’s backing vocals.
8. Speak Now was the first album Swift wrote entirely on her own.
Taylor Swift’s third studio album, Speak Now, was written entirely on her own, partially due to her intense touring schedule. The album was a departure from her previous, more youthful and fairytale-inspired album, Fearless, and provided a deeper, introspective look at relationships and even media criticism.
9. Her album Lover was originally going to be called Daylight.
Though both the tracks “Lover” and “Daylight” ended up on her seventh album, Swift mentioned in an interview with Ryan Seacrest that she, “almost called the album Daylight […] but I felt like that was a little too on the nose. […] It’s an album about all different forms of love. Even when love hurts, this album is about the full spectrum that love makes us feel, so I was like, this album is definitely going to be called Lover.” The album does end with “Daylight,” which fans seem to agree is the perfect way to sum up getting through tumultuous times of love to end up in the light together.
10. The 2019 film, Someone Great, helped inspire the song “Death By a Thousand Cuts.”
The Netflix movie, about a nine-year relationship that has to end because they grew apart – not because they fell out of love, inspired Taylor Swift to write “Death By a Thousand Cuts,” which appears on her album Lover. Ironically, the film’s director and writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson has stated she listened to Swift’s 1989 while going through a breakup of her own.
Discover books for Taylor Swift fans of all ages below!
Help your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography about Taylor Swift.
Discover 21 “fill-in-the-blank” stories about getting a reputation, being a fan forevermore, and getting into trouble, trouble, trouble in 1989.
This enchanting book will teach you all about the experiences that helped Taylor Swift become the successful superstar many kids and adults looks up to.
Containing advice on love, friendship, overcoming fears, being yourself, and finding creative inspiration, Be More Taylor Swift is the perfect gift for Taylor Swift fans.
