Taylor Swift bio and 18 things you probably didn’t know about Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is a multi-award winning artist American singer-songwriter and has won several multiple awards and is know for songs including ‘Love Story’, ‘Shake It Off’ and ‘Blank Space’ among many others! Taylor’s musical talents go all the way back to when she was just nine-years-old. She developed an interest in musical theatre and had singing and acting lessons in New York.

How did Taylor Swift become famous?

After being inspired by Shania Twain, Taylor began to focus on a career in country music and submitted demos of herself singing covers of Dolly Parton and The Chicks, when she was 11, to record labels in Nashville. Sadly, she was rejected, later saying: “Everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do. So, I kept thinking to myself, I need to figure out a way to be different.”

At the age of 12, Taylor began working with local musician Ronnie Cremer, who taught her to play guitar and helped her become a songwriter, and her parents hired talent manager Dan Dymtrow who put her forward for record labels.

By 14, Taylor was living near Nashville and began having songwriting sessions with Liz Rose, who later co-wrote ‘Teardrops on My Guitar’, ‘You Belong with Me’ and ‘White Horse’ among many others. Taylor then met record executive Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his new label Big Machine Records and her debut album was released in 2006.

How old is she?

Tay’s birthday is 13th December 1989, making her currently 34-years-old.

How many albums has Taylor Swift released?

So far, Taylor has released 10 studio albums: ‘Taylor Swift’ (2006), ‘Fearless’ (2008), ‘Speak Now’ (2010), ‘Red’ (2012), ‘1989’ (2014), ‘Reputation’ (2017), ‘Lover’ (2019) and ‘Folklore’ (2020), ‘Evermore’ (2020) and ‘Midnights’ (2022).

She’s also released two re-recordings: ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ is a re-recorded version of her second studio album ‘Fearless’, and was released in April 2021. It features 26 tracks in total including six brand-new unheard songs.

Taylor also re-recorded her 2012 ‘Red’ album and released ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ in November 2021, with an extra 14 songs included.

Where is she from?

Taylor was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania in the US, and the family moved to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania in her early childhood. They moved again to Hendersonville, Tennessee when she was 14-years-old so she could pursue a country music career in nearby Nashville.

Which films has Taylor Swift been in?

Taylor is also a talented actress, having appeared as lovesick teenager Felicia in 2010 flick Valentine’s Day, Zac Efron’s love interest Audrey in The Lorax in 2012, 2014 film The Giver as Rosemary and 2019’s live-action remake of the musical Cats as Bombalurina.

She was also the star of 2020 documentary Miss Americana, which followed her “during a transformational period in her life as she learns to embrace her role not only as a songwriter and performer, but as a woman harnessing the full power of her voice.” Taylor also had a cameo in 2013 in New Girl.

Taylor also announced in December 2022 that she’s written a film script which is being put into production at Searchlight Pictures. Presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield said: “Taylor is a once in a generation artist and storyteller. It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey.”

Here we take a look at the incredibly talented and universally beloved pop star Taylor Swift, with 18 things that you probably didn’t know about her – from why 13 is her lucky number, to who her cats Olivia and Meredith are named after…

What are Taylor Swift’s cats called?

1) Taylor has three cats. Two of the cats are named after famous TV characters. The cats, Meredith and Olivia, are named after Ellen Pompeo’s character in Grey’s Anatomy, whilst Olivia gets her name from Mariska Hargitay’s character in Law & Order: Special Victims.

Taylor’s third and newest cat is called Benjamin Button, after Brad Pitt’s character in the film of the same name. Taylor met Benjamin on the set of the music video for ME!, a song she duetted on with Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie.

Does Taylor Swift write her own songs?

2) Taylor Swift has written or co-written nearly every song that she has released, and Taylor’s had a lot of songs! To date she has had nine albums, plus two re-recordings and over 55 singles!

How old was she when she wrote her first song?

3) Taylor wrote her first song when she was just 12-years-old, it was called ‘Lucky You’.

How old was Taylor when she got signed?

4) When Taylor Swift was 14-years-old she was signed to Sony/ATV music publishing, making her the youngest songwriter EVER to be hired by them.

By age 16, Taylor was already getting major recognition as an established country artist. She released her first single, ‘Tim McGraw’, off her self-titled debut album, which was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Her album was released on October 24th 2006 by Big Machine Records. The songstress wrote the best-performing songs ‘Teardrops On My Guitar’, ‘Should’ve Said No’ and ‘Picture To Burn’ whilst juggling high school with her blossoming music career.

Impressively, the singer-songwriter became the youngest person in history to single-handedly write and perform a Number 1 song on the Hot Country Songs chart with ‘Our Song’. ‘Teardrops on My Guitar’ also performed well commercially, spending 48 weeks in the Billboard chart and became Taylor’s first US top 20 hit.

Can Taylor Swift play the guitar?

5) Yes, Taylor Swift can play the guitar. She reportedly learnt how to play a 12-string guitar BEFORE she learnt the ‘usual’ six-string guitar.

Who has Taylor Swift collaborated with?

6) Taylor has done a lot of collaborations over the years, with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and former One Direction member Zayn Malik.

Has Taylor Swift ever performed on Broadway?

7) Taylor auditioned for Broadway shows when she was younger, but never made it onto the stage. However, in 2019 she appeared in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats as Bombalurina.
Why is the song ‘Love Story’ so special?

8) Taylor Swift’s 2008 song ‘Love Story’ became the first song ever to reach Number 1 in both the pop and country music charts in the US.

Has she broken any records?

9) When Taylor’s sixth album, ‘reputation’ was released in 2017, she became the only artist to release four consecutive albums which sold more than one million copies in their first week of release.

Does Taylor write songs under any other name?

10) Taylor normally writes under her own name, but once she used the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg on Calvin Harris’ song ‘This Is What You Came For’ featuring Rihanna. At the time, Calvin and Taylor were dating and it’s believed that they didn’t want their names to overshadow the song’s release.

Do Taylor Swift’s relationships inspire her songs?

11) Taylor’s ex-boyfriends have been the subject of a number of songs including, her relationship with One Direction singer Harry Styles . She reportedly wrote ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ about their relationship.

Any Hidden messages in her songs and music videos?

12) Taylor often has hidden messages in her music videos, in her video for ‘Delicate’ fans noticed lot of hidden messages . You can also see all the hidden messages from the ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ video.

Why is Number 13 lucky for Taylor Swift?

13) Whilst it might be unlucky for many, for Taylor the number 13 is lucky for a number of reasons. In 2009 she told MTV: “I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first Number 1 song had a 13-second intro. Every time I’ve won an award I’ve been seated in either the 13th seat, the 13th row, the 13th section or row M, which is the 13th letter.”
Taylor’s friendship with Blake Lively

14) Taylor has many celebrity friends and has been close with Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds since 2015. Taylor and Blake even worked together when they collaborated on Taylor’s ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ album.

15) Speaking of her friendship with Blake… Taylor’s music video for her re-recorded track ‘I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version)’ was actually directed by her famous friend!

The video premiered on 15th November 2021, with Taylor sharing a clip to her Instagram along with the caption: ‘The reddest video EVER is out now. Directed by @blakelively who SMASHED it just like I smashed this cake.’

Which song did she perform on SNL?

16) As part of her ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ album, Taylor released a 10-minute version of her song ‘All Too Well’ which she created for the short film All Too Well: A Short Film, also released starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien.

Taylor performed the song for the first time live when she performed on Saturday Night Live on 13th November.

17) We all know how Taylor loves to include Easter Eggs in her music releases, and it seems like the release time of ‘Midnights’ was significant.

Taylor brought out the album at midnight on 21st October 2022, which seemed like a fitting time given the name. But fans on Twitter figured out there was a deeper significance, as Taylor was exactly 12,000 days old at the time of release, which is symbolic of the number 12 and midnight!

Taylor has written a film script

18) Yes, we all know that Taylor is a hugely creative person, and can seemingly turn her hand to pretty much any aspect of showbiz at this point. While she’s acted in films before, and of course, is fantastic at telling stories, she’s never put the two together until now.

Announced in December 2022, Taylor has penned a film script which is being put into production by Searchlight Pictures! Presidents of the company David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield said: “Taylor is a once in a generation artist and storyteller. It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey.”