Thus, Taylor Swift became one of the biggest stars in the world

From a teenager with a guitar and a dream in Nashville to one of the most famous artists in the world. Taylor Swift has now grown so large that you would almost forget that she once simply started writing songs in her bedroom. But how did she actually become so famous? From her first country hit to sold-out stadiums, bizarre records, and a music catalog that is impressive: this is the story of Taylor Swift.

It all started with a guitar

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania. From a young age, she knew she wanted to do something with music. She wrote songs, played guitar, and performed wherever she could.

At eleven, she went to Nashville with her mother to give record labels her demos. That didn’t go as hoped right away. Taylor got the idea that she needed to approach it differently: not just singing, but especially writing her own songs.

In hindsight, that may have been one of the most important choices of her career. At the age of fourteen, Swift moved with her family to Nashville. This made her one of the youngest artists to be signed as a songwriter by Sony\/ATV. Not long after, she signed with Big Machine Records. And then things suddenly took off.

This is where her success began

In 2006, her first album, simply titled Taylor Swift, was released. She was sixteen years old at the time. The first single, ‘Tim McGraw’, became her first hit and reached the American Billboard Hot 100.

What stood out about Taylor from the beginning was her way of writing. She didn’t just sing about love stories (which is somewhat funny at such a young age), but wrote about things she experienced herself: falling in love, feeling insecure, friendships, school, and the feeling of not quite belonging anywhere.

This made her music relatable to a huge group of young fans. For her fans, this didn’t feel like an unreachable pop star, but like that girl who could have sat next to you in class.

Then it really took off

In 2008, Taylor released her second album: ‘Fearless’. And that was the moment she truly broke through to the general public. With songs like ‘Love Story’ and ‘You Belong With Me’, she became much bigger than just in the country world. Especially ‘Love Story’ became a massive crossover hit.

‘Fearless’ became her first number 1 album in the United States, and in 2010 she won the Grammy for Album of the Year with it. Taylor was not yet twenty and had already found her place among the biggest names in the music world.

From country girl to pop star

Anyone who knows Taylor Swift only from ‘Shake It Off’ or ‘Blank Space’ might almost forget that she was once primarily known as a country singer. But Taylor kept evolving. With Red in 2012, she moved further into pop. That same year, she scored her very first number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’.

Then in 2014, her album ‘1989’ followed. And that was actually the definitive switch to pop. ‘Shake It Off’, ‘Blank Space’, and ‘Bad Blood’ all became number 1 hits. Taylor was no longer the country girl with a guitar. A new pop star was born.

Just a moment about all those number 1 hits

By now, Taylor has an impressive list of American number 1 hits.
Among others, these songs reached the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100:

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Shake It Off
Blank Space
Bad Blood
Look What You Made Me Do
cardigan
willow
All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)
Anti-Hero
Cruel Summer
Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version)
Fortnight
The Fate of Ophelia
Opalite
I Knew It, I Knew You

With that, Taylor Swift now has 15 number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. And there’s also a special record in between. ‘All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)’ became in 2021 the longest number 1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100: the song lasts over ten minutes. A rather unusual length for a world hit, I might add.

Then Taylor lost her own music

Perhaps one of the most remarkable eras of Taylor's career doesn’t even revolve around a hit. In 2019, Big Machine Label Group, the record label that had released Taylor's first six albums, was acquired. This also meant that the master recordings of those albums fell into other hands.

For Taylor, this was a huge problem: she had written the songs but did not own the original recordings. So she decided to do something quite unusual. She re-recorded her old albums. Thus, ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’, ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’, and ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ were created. And eventually, in 2025, Taylor got what she had fought for for years: she bought back the master recordings of her first six albums.

And then her fanbase

You can’t talk about Taylor Swift without mentioning the Swifties. Her fans are not just people who occasionally listen to a song. It’s a huge global fan community where lyrics are dissected, music videos are analyzed, and hidden hints are sought.

Taylor cleverly plays into this herself. She loves to include so-called ‘easter eggs’ in her music, music videos, clothing, and social media posts. This way, a new album is not just a collection of songs, but almost a kind of puzzle. And exactly that ensures that people not only listen to her music but also talk about it. A lot.

Her biggest tour ever

And then came ‘The Eras Tour’. Starting in 2023, Taylor took the world by storm with a massive show. Instead of focusing on one album, she brought her entire career along.

The tour ultimately consisted of 149 shows in 19 countries and five continents. The numbers are quite absurd: ‘The Eras Tour’ reportedly grossed over $2.07 billion according to Guinness World Records, making it the highest-grossing concert tour ever. More than ten million tickets were sold.

And yes, the Netherlands was also on the show list. In July 2024, she performed three nights at the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam.

Grammy alert

As if she didn’t have enough awards already, Swift now also holds a unique Grammy record. She has won the Grammy for Album of the Year four times: with ‘Fearless’, ‘1989’, ‘folklore’, and ‘Midnights’. This makes her the first and only artist to have won this prestigious award four times. In total, she has fourteen Grammys to her name.

While other artists might slow down after twenty years, Taylor seems to have little interest in that. In 2025, her twelfth studio album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ was released. The album was once again a huge success, and all twelve songs simultaneously entered the top twelve of the Billboard Hot 100.

In September 2026, ‘The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore’ was added, featuring four new songs. She continues to break records internationally. IFPI named Taylor Swift in 2026 again as the best-selling global artist of the previous year.