Taylor Swift has been voted Time Magazine’s person of the year, capping off a successful 2023.
The singer, whose Eras tour broke box office records and prompted an investigation into Ticketmaster’s sales methods, joins Barack Obama, Greta Thunberg, and Volodymyr Zelensky on the list.
She told the magazine that she is “the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt”.
The award is given to the event or person who has had the greatest influence on global events in the previous year.
The singer also told the magazine that the physical toll of her 180-minute Eras concerts left her physically exhausted.
After a run of shows, “I do not leave my bed except to get food and take it back to my bed and eat it there,” she said.
“I can barely speak because I’ve been singing for three shows straight. Every time I take a step my feet go crunch, crunch, crunch from dancing in heels.”
The actress also discussed her budding romance with American football player Travis Kelce.
Swift made headlines in September when she was seen with Kelce’s mother at one of his games.
“By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple,” she explained, adding they had first hooked up over the summer.
“I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard-launch a first date.”
Swift’s love life, however, pales in comparison to her cultural significance. Already a superstar by 2023, her fame has reached new heights thanks to the Eras tour, which features the singer performing a 45-song set every night.
The demand for tickets was so high that it disrupted Ticketmaster’s website, forcing the US Senate to hold an investigation into its business practices.
When the tour kicked off in the summer, ticketless fans congregated in parking lots to listen to the music. Her concerts in Seattle caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
“It feels like the breakthrough moment of my career, happening at 33,” she told Time. “And for the first time in my life, I was mentally tough enough to take what comes with that.”
Swift’s imperial time follows a period in which she was attacked for her views on feminism and politics, despite the fact that her silence on those matters stemmed from nothing more nefarious than a lack of confidence.
She reached a creative purple patch with the pandemic-era albums Folklore and Evermore after coming out against Donald Trump and in support of abortion rights.
The songs reinforced her standing as a generational songwriting prodigy, showcasing a more organic, indie-folk style than the country-pop that made her famous.
Last year’s Midnights, a hazy, sleep-deprived compilation of pop tunes based on the thoughts that keep her awake at night, solidified her comeback.
According to Time editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs, Swift is “the rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story,” and she has “found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light.”
Time Magazine announced its shortlist of nine applicants for the title on Monday. Among them were Chinese President Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Barbie, and a slew of Hollywood stars and writers.
Swift, in addition to her tour, has released the biggest-selling record of 2023, a re-recording of her decade-old album 1989.
Incredibly, she also owns the second and third best-selling albums of the year in the United States, with Midnights and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) outselling Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, and Ed Sheeran.
Amongst her other achievements this year:
- The Eras tour film became the biggest concert movie of all time, taking $249m (£197m) at the global box office.
- Swift became the first living artist to have five albums in the US Top 10 simultaneously, with 1989, Midnights, Folklore, Lover and Speak Now.
- She broke the record for the most number one albums by a woman in US chart history – 13 in total – overtaking Barbara Streisand.
- Swift became the first songwriter to score seven Grammy nominations for song of the year, overtaking Sir Paul McCartney and Lionel Richie.
- With eight sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium, Swift equals a UK touring record set by Take That.
- Boosted by her tour, Swift was named the most-streamed female artist in the history of Spotify and Apple Music.
Bloomberg crowned the actress a billionaire last month, estimating her net wealth at $1.1 billion (£907 million).
Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z are the only other musicians who have become billionaires.
Swift, on the other hand, is the first to accomplish the milestone solely through music, as her competitors’ fortunes include commercial operations in fashion, beauty items, and hi-fi equipment.
Swift celebrated her latest honor in a social media post by focusing on her beloved cat, Benjamin, who was draped around her shoulders on Time Magazine’s cover.
Swift is presently on tour, with the Asian and Australian legs of her Eras tour kicking up in February.
The concerts will be held in Europe in May, and Swift is anticipated to release a remastered version of her Reputation album in the new year.
After her old record label, Big Machine, sold her master recordings to music tycoon Scooter Braun in 2019, she decided to re-create all of her first six albums. He later sold them to a private equity firm.
She told Time that she was first shocked by the notion, which was presented by both her father and another pop artist Kelly Clarkson.
“I’d look at them and go, ‘How can I possibly do that?’ Nobody wants to redo their homework if on the way to school, the wind blows your book report away.”
In the end, she went ahead with the project as an act of rebellion.
“It’s all in how you deal with loss,” she says. “I respond to extreme pain with defiance.”