Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer and songwriter. She is an important figure in popular culture, known for writing songs about her own life and changing her musical style over time. Swift is the top-selling live music performer, the wealthiest female musician, and one of the most successful music artists in history.
Swift signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 and began her career as a country singer with the albums Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008). Songs like "Teardrops on My Guitar," "Love Story," and "You Belong with Me" became popular on both country and pop music radio. Her album Speak Now (2010) added rock influences to her country pop style, while Red (2012) included electronic music elements. In 2014, she changed her style again with the synth-pop album 1989, and in 2017, she released Reputation, which included hip-hop influences, partly inspired by media attention. During the 2010s, her songs "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," "Shake It Off," "Blank Space," "Bad Blood," and "Look What You Made Me Do" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In 2018, Swift moved to Republic Records and released the pop album Lover (2019). She also re-recorded four of her first six albums due to a disagreement with Big Machine Records. She explored indie folk music in the 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore, synth-pop in Midnights (2022) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024), and soft rock in The Life of a Showgirl (2025). Songs like "Cardigan," "Willow," "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)," "Anti-Hero," "Cruel Summer," "Is It Over Now?," "Fortnight," "The Fate of Ophelia," and "Opalite" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Her Eras Tour (2023–2024) and the film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) became the highest-grossing concert tour and concert film ever.
Swift is the only artist to have won the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year award six times. Eight of her albums each sold over a million copies in their first week in the US. Publications like Rolling Stone and Billboard have ranked her among the greatest artists of all time. She is the first person in the arts to be named Time Person of the Year (2023) and the youngest woman inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2026). She has won 14 Grammy Awards, including four Album of the Year awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She holds the most awards from the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and MTV Video Music Awards. She is widely covered in the media, and her fans are called Swifties.
Life and career
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania. She was named after the singer James Taylor. Her parents chose a name that could be used for both boys and girls, hoping it might help her succeed in business. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, worked as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch. Her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (born Finlay), worked in marketing for mutual funds. Swift’s younger brother, Austin, is an actor. Swift and her brother have Scottish, English, and German ancestry, with distant Irish and Italian roots. They are paternal great-great-grandchildren of Charles Carmine Antonio Baldi, a businessman from Philadelphia. Their maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (born Moehlenkamp), was an opera singer. Swift’s earliest memories of music include hearing her grandmother sing in church.
As a child, Swift spent holidays on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania and summers at her family’s vacation home in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. There, she sometimes performed songs at a local coffee shop. She was raised Christian and attended preschool and kindergarten at a Montessori school run by the Bernardine Sisters of St. Francis before moving to Wyndcroft School in Pottstown. When her family moved to Wyomissing, she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. At age nine, Swift wanted to work in musical theater. She performed at local festivals and in Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions and took vocal and acting lessons in New York City. After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, she decided to pursue a career in country music in Nashville, Tennessee.
At 11, Swift traveled to Nashville with her mother to visit record labels and submit demo tapes of songs by Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks. She was not accepted by any labels, which made her focus on songwriting. She began learning guitar at 12 with the help of a local musician and computer repairman, who helped her write her first original song. In 2003, she and her parents started working with talent manager Dan Dymtrow. With his help, Swift modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch, had a song included on a Maybelline compilation CD, and signed an artist development deal with RCA Records at age 13. To help her career, her father moved to Merrill Lynch’s Nashville office when she was 14, and the family moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee. Swift attended Hendersonville High School for two years before transferring to Aaron Academy, which offered homeschooling.
In 2004, Swift signed with Sony/ATV Tree Music Publishing, becoming the youngest person in the company’s history at age 14. In Nashville, she worked with experienced songwriters, including Liz Rose. Rose and Swift wrote songs every Tuesday afternoon after school. After one year on the development deal, she left RCA Records, which wanted to keep her until she turned 18. Swift decided to leave because she wanted to release her songs quickly to keep them connected to her teenage experiences.
Swift organized a concert at the Bluebird Cafe on November 3, 2004. Scott Borchetta, a music executive planning to start Big Machine Records, attended the event. Swift signed a recording contract with Big Machine two weeks later, with the condition that she would write her own songs. Her father bought a three-percent share in the company. The contract was finalized in July 2005, when she ended her work with Dymtrow. She spent four months in late 2005 recording her debut album, Taylor Swift, with producer Nathan Chapman.
Swift’s debut single, “Tim McGraw,” was released in June 2006. She and her mother sent copies of the song to country radio stations across the United States in mid-2006. The album Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006. It reached number five on the US Billboard 200 chart and stayed on the chart for 157 weeks—the longest chart run by an album in the 2000s. With this album, Swift became the first female country artist to write or co-write every track on a platinum-certified debut album. The album was promoted by a six-month radio tour and by Swift performing with other country artists, including Rascal Flatts in 2006 and George Strait, Brad Paisley, and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in 2007. She performed with Rascal Flatts again in 2008, when she dated singer Joe Jonas.
The album Taylor Swift was supported by four singles in 2007 and 2008: “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “Our Song,” “Picture to Burn,” and “Should’ve Said No.” “Our Song” and “Should’ve Said No” reached number one on the Hot Country Songs chart. With “Our Song,” Swift became the youngest person to write and sing a number-one country single. “Teardrops on My Guitar” helped Swift gain attention on mainstream radio and charts, reaching the top 10 of the Pop Songs, Adult Pop Songs, and Adult Contemporary charts. Her next releases were the Christmas EP The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007 and the Walmart-exclusive EP Beautiful Eyes in July 2008. In 2007, Swift became the youngest person to win the Nashville Songwriters Association’s Songwriter/Artist of the Year award.
Swift’s second album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008, in North America and in March 2009 elsewhere. Fearless spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming her first chart-topping album and the longest-running number-one female country album. It was the best-selling album of 2009 in the US. The album’s lead single, “Love Story,” was the first country song to top the Pop Songs chart. Its third single, “You Belong with Me,” was the first country song to top Billboard’s all-genre Radio Songs chart. Both singles reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Country Songs chart. Other singles from the album—“White Horse,” “Fifteen,” and “Fearless”—all reached the top 10 of Hot Country Songs. In 2009, Swift performed with Keith Urban and began her first headlining tour, the Fearless Tour.
Fearless became the most-awarded country album of all time. It won the top three awards for a country album: Album of the Year from the Country Music Association Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards in 2009, and Best Country Album from the Grammy Awards in 2010. At the Grammys, it also won Album of the Year, and “White Horse” won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. In 2009, Swift was named Artist of the Year by the American Music Awards and Billboard and Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association Awards, becoming the youngest person to win that honor. “You Belong with Me” won Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. Her acceptance
Artistry
Taylor Swift has changed her music style many times, and some publications, like Time and the BBC, called her a "musical chameleon." Her music includes many types, such as country, pop, and folk, and also includes subtypes like country pop, pop rock, synth-pop, and others. She identified herself as a country musician in her first four albums, from Taylor Swift to Red. She was influenced by female country artists from the 1990s, like Shania Twain, Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, and the Dixie Chicks, as well as Keith Urban’s mix of country with rock, pop, and blues. These albums used country pop sounds with instruments like the six-string banjo, mandolin, and fiddle, a slight twang in her voice, and pop-rock melodies. Speak Now used rock styles from the 1970s and 1980s, like pop rock and arena rock. Some critics said country music showed her songwriting skills, not her musical style, and argued that her music moved away from traditional country roots.
After Red received mixed reviews, Swift chose 1980s synth-pop as her new sound, inspired by artists like Phil Collins, Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel, and Madonna. Her 1989 album used electronic sounds, like synthesizers and drum machines. Later albums, such as Reputation, included hip-hop, R&B, and EDM influences with heavy bass and rhythmic beats. Lover mixed country, pop-punk, and folk rock, while Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department used minimalistic synth-pop with analog synthesizers and simple drum patterns. The Life of a Showgirl combined pop and soft rock. When Swift focused on pop music, some critics said it hurt her country songwriting reputation, but others supported her as a pioneer of "poptimism," a movement that values pop music as an art form.
Her 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore, were described as "alternative" and used indie folk and rock styles. These albums had simple sounds with orchestration, muted synthesizers, and drum pads. Evermore experimented with unusual time signatures and diverse instruments. Critics said these styles showed her growth as a singer-songwriter and helped popularize "alternative" music, though some disagreed with that label.
Swift has a mezzo-soprano voice range but mostly sings in her alto range. Her singing style changed over time. Early reviews criticized her vocals as weak compared to other female country singers, but supporters praised her for avoiding Auto-Tune and focusing on emotional storytelling. Ann Powers, a critic, said her style used precise word choices to express feelings like doubt, hope, and intimacy.
On Red and 1989, her vocals were altered with electronic effects like looping and multitracking. On Reputation and Midnights, she used hip-hop and R&B influences, creating a rhythm-focused delivery. In Folklore, she used her lower vocal range, and in Evermore, she used both her lower and upper ranges. Musicologist Alyssa Barca described her upper range as "breathy and bright" and her lower range as "full and dark."
Since Folklore, critics have praised her vocals more. Amanda Petrusich said her singing became richer and clearer, even in live performances. Rolling Stone ranked her 102nd on their 2023 list of "200 Greatest Singers of All Time," noting her versatile voice. Ann Powers said her vocal style reflects her artistic growth, blending hip-hop rhythms with the smooth tone of country singers.
Swift’s interest in songwriting began in childhood. Her mother helped her prepare for school presentations, and she made up lyrics to Disney songs when she ran out of words. Early influences included country artists like Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton, as well as 1990s singer-songwriters like Melissa Etheridge and Alanis Morissette. Later, she cited Joni Mitchell, Pete Wentz, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and others as role models.
Swift sees herself first as a songwriter. She divides her lyrics into three types: "quill lyrics," which use old poetic styles; "fountain pen lyrics," based on modern, vivid stories; and "glitter gel pen lyrics," which are lively and playful. Her songs are mostly about love and personal experiences. She starts by choosing an emotion to express, then builds the story and melody around it. Taylor Swift and Fearless focus on youthful, fairy-tale-like love, while Speak Now reflects her young adulthood and lessons from heartbreak. Red explores a painful breakup, and 1989 looks back on failed relationships with a wistful tone. Lover is a "love letter to love," inspired by real, meaningful relationships.
As her career grew, she wrote about self-perception and dealing with critics, influenced by fame, sexism, and media scrutiny. Speak Now addressed media speculation about her personal life, which she called sexist. Reputation tackled public controversies and a new romantic relationship, with themes of sex and alcohol. Midnights includes reflections on fame, regrets, and fantasies. The Tortured Poets Department was written during her rise to fame, exploring themes like heartbreak, forbidden love, and escaping public attention.
On Folklore and Evermore, Swift focused on fictional stories instead of her own life, inspired by themes of escapism and romanticism.
Achievements
Taylor Swift has won 14 Grammy Awards, including four for Album of the Year, which is the most by any artist. She is the first person to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year seven times. She has also won 12 Country Music Association Awards, 8 Academy of Country Music Awards, 2 Brit Awards, and an Emmy Award. She holds the most wins in the American Music Awards (40), Billboard Music Awards (49), and MTV Video Music Awards (30, tied with Beyoncé). Swift is the first woman and second artist overall (after Garth Brooks) to receive the Pinnacle Award from the Country Music Association in 2013. She is also the first woman to receive the Global Icon Award from the Brit Awards in 2021.
At the 64th BMI Pop Awards in 2016, Swift became the first female songwriter to receive an award named after her, the Taylor Swift Award. She is the youngest person to be featured on Rolling Stone’s 2015 list “The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.” She received the Songwriter Icon Award from the National Music Publishers’ Association in 2021 and was named the Songwriter-Artist of the Decade by the Nashville Songwriters Association International in 2022. In 2026, Swift became the youngest woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) named her the Global Recording Artist of the Year six times (2014, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025), more than any other artist. As of February 2024, she is the most-streamed artist on Spotify. She is also the highest-grossing touring act of all time, with total revenue reaching $3.12 billion by December 2024. Her chart records include the most number-one albums in the UK and Ireland for a female artist in the 21st century; the first artist to occupy the top five of the Australian albums chart twice; and the most entries, most simultaneous entries, and most number-one entries for a soloist on the Billboard Global 200. She is also the first artist to spend 100 weeks atop the Billboard Artist 100.
In the United States, Swift has sold 116.7 million album units, including 54 million pure sales, as of May 2025. She holds the record for the most weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist. She is the female artist with the most number-one albums on the Billboard 200 (15) and the most number-one debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 (8). She has the most number-one songs on Pop Airplay (15) and Adult Pop Airplay (15, tied with Maroon 5). She is the first living artist to chart five albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. She is the first woman to have both an album (Fearless) and a song (“Shake It Off”) receive Diamond certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She is also the first and only woman to have 100 million album units certified by the RIAA.
Billboard ranked her number eight on its list “Greatest of All Time Artists” (2019), number two on “Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century” (2024), and number one on “Top 100 Women Artists of the 21st Century” and “Top Artists of the 21st Century” (both 2025).
Swift has appeared in power listings. In 2024, she became the first solo artist and second overall (after Beyoncé and Jay-Z) to top Billboard’s annual Power 100 ranking of the top music industry executives. Time magazine included her on its annual list of the 100 most influential people in 2010, 2015, and 2019. She was one of the “Silence Breakers” highlighted as Person of the Year in 2017 for speaking out about sexual assault. In 2023, she became the first person to be named Time’s Person of the Year for “achievement in the arts” and the first woman to appear on a Person of the Year cover more than once. She received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University and served as its commencement speaker on May 18, 2022.
Public image
Taylor Swift is an important person in 21st-century popular culture. Her career path from a country singer-songwriter to a pop star in the 2000s and 2010s was widely discussed. She was called "America's Sweetheart" early in her career and described in the press as a "media darling" with a friendly, polite personality and open, honest conversations. She presented a feminine image but avoided the "feminist pop" style that focused heavily on sexuality, which made some publications note that her sex appeal was modest, subtle, and elegant. The teenage themes in her music helped her become a teen idol, though some feminist writers criticized her songs about relationships as limiting and possibly harmful to her fans, who are mostly girls and women and are called "Swifties."
When she shifted her music to pop, Swift began identifying as a feminist and became a famous pop star. In 2013, writer Jody Rosen called her the "Queen of Pop," noting her widespread popularity that crossed traditional lines between "genres, eras, demographics, and trends." Her feminist image received mixed reactions, with some praising her success in a male-dominated music industry as an inspiration for girls and women, while others criticized her feminist views as shallow or self-centered.
The 2016 conflict with Kanye West made some of her critics believe she was calculating and manipulative, despite her kind image, and this disagreement continued to affect both of their careers. Her artistic changes in the 2020s helped her become a respected singer-songwriter. Supported by her lasting pop fame, she is seen as a rare success who combines the roles of a pop star and singer-songwriter. Swift is also known as a triskaidekaphile, meaning she often uses the number 13 in her work.
Legacy
Taylor Swift is one of the few artists who have sold many albums over many years, even as the music industry saw fewer album sales after the rise of digital music. Experts and writers have called her "the last pop superstar" and "the last great rock star" of the 21st century. Her methods to increase album and concert ticket sales, such as adding special features to physical albums and using hidden details in her music, have made her known as a skilled businessperson. Economist Alan Krueger called her an "economic genius." These strategies became examples of trends in how music is marketed.
Taylor Swift’s success in country music helped spread the genre beyond the United States and introduced it to young women, a group that was not often focused on before. Critic Kelefa Sanneh said she is the most important country star since Garth Brooks, possibly even more so. Her guitar performances led to more women buying guitars, a trend called the "Taylor Swift factor." Her move from country to pop music helped promote the idea that pop music is valuable, and her songwriting and musical changes inspired new artists. Billboard noted that she is rare in being able to achieve high chart positions, critical praise, and strong fan support at the same time, and she can make any music style popular in mainstream culture.
Taylor Swift’s lasting popularity, especially among women, made her a symbol of millennials and the culture of her generation. Her fans, called Swifties, are known for being very loyal and committed. Time’s Cady Lang said she kept her fame by carefully managing the music industry and her personal brand. Scholars Mary Fogarty, Gina Arnold, and others said her story shows important issues in American culture during the early 2000s. In a 2024 article, Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times wrote that her lasting popularity led to comparisons with artists like Drake, Beyoncé, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Elton John, and Madonna.
Taylor Swift’s efforts to protect artists’ rights and re-record her old music influenced changes in the music industry. Her work and career choices are studied in university courses about literature, culture, and social issues. Scholars Sarai Brinker, Kate Galloway, and Elizabeth Scala said her legacy is viewed differently by various groups, including feminists, LGBTQ+ communities, conservative groups, and religious organizations. Experts in many fields, such as musicology, literature, sociology, media theory, linguistics, and cultural studies, have studied her work.
Wealth and endorsements
Taylor Swift, through her management company TAS Rights Management, LLC, has filed more than 300 trademark applications in the United States and holds over 400 trademark registrations worldwide as of August 2025. These trademarks include her name, "Taylor Swift," the name of her fanbase, "Swifties," album art, tour names, lyrics, slogans, and the names of her cats. Forbes listed her as the world's highest-paid musician in 2016 and 2019, the highest-paid female musician of the 2010s decade, and the highest-paid female musician in 2021, 2022, and 2025.
By October 2023, both Forbes and Bloomberg L.P. reported that Swift had become a billionaire. She is the first billionaire recognized as primarily earning her wealth from songs and performances, with most of her money coming from royalties and touring. As of March 2026, Forbes estimated her net worth at $2 billion, making her the wealthiest female musician globally. The value of her music catalog is estimated at $900 million. Her real estate investments, valued at $110 million as of 2025, include homes in Nashville, New York City, Los Angeles (Samuel Goldwyn Estate), and Rhode Island (High Watch).
Swift's use of private jets has raised questions about carbon emissions. In 2023, a representative for Swift said she purchased more than double the required carbon credits to balance emissions from her tour and personal flights. In December 2023, her lawyers sent a letter to Jack Sweeney, a programmer who tracked her private jet, asking him to stop because it was considered a safety risk. Reports stated that Sweeney's information came from public data. In February 2024, it was reported that Swift sold one of her two private jets.
Swift's album releases often include promotional activities with companies and product endorsements. Target has been a long-term partner, offering exclusive albums and merchandise. From 2008 to 2011, her albums and tours were promoted with self-designed dolls from Jakks Pacific, fragrances from Elizabeth Arden, clothing from L.E.I., and holiday cards from American Greetings. She also partnered with CoverGirl for makeup and Sony Electronics for cameras. From 2012 to 2015, she worked with Starbucks, Keds, Subway, Diet Coke, Walgreens, Walmart, and Papa John's.
In 2014, New York City named Swift its official tourism ambassador. She had an exclusive streaming deal with Apple Music in 2015, signed a multi-year contract with AT&T in 2016, and partnered with United Parcel Service to distribute her albums in 2017. In 2019, she signed a multi-year deal with Capital One and launched a clothing line with Stella McCartney. In 2022, she became the first global ambassador for Record Store Day.
Social activism
Taylor Swift did not talk about politics during the early part of her career. In a 2012 interview with Time magazine, she said she tried to stay informed but did not want to share her political views with others. Because she stayed out of political discussions, some members of the alt-right movement in the United States began to support her, which caused controversy. However, she did support President Barack Obama in 2008, saying, "I've never seen this country so happy about a political decision in my entire time of being alive."
Since 2018, Swift has openly shared her political opinions and no longer avoids discussing politics. She supported two Democratic politicians during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, which led to news stories about her moving away from the alt-right and conservative groups. In interviews, she explained that her earlier reluctance to speak about politics was influenced by the 2003 Dixie Chicks controversy, which had a lasting effect on country musicians, especially women in the genre. She has criticized President Donald Trump and encouraged her fans to check their voter registration ahead of elections. In 2020, she helped 65,000 people register to vote in one day and supported the Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. She also supported the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 election.
A pro-choice feminist, Swift helped start the Time's Up movement, which works to stop sexual harassment. She criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 2022 to end federal abortion rights. She supports LGBTQ rights and has donated to organizations like the Tennessee Equality Project and GLAAD. In 2019, she supported the Equality Act and performed at the Stonewall Inn during WorldPride NYC 2019, a celebration of gay rights. Swift has spoken against white supremacy, racism, and police violence in the United States. She has supported the March for Our Lives movement and gun control reform, donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Black Lives Matter movement, called for removing Confederate monuments in Tennessee, and supported making Juneteenth a national holiday.
Swift's political actions have received different responses. Some people say her involvement has encouraged more public discussion of political issues and inspired her fans, while others have questioned if her political choices were part of her career strategy. Some experts believe her fame helped increase political engagement in the United States, while others think her influence was large but not as significant as some claim. A scholar named Simone Driessen noted that her political impact also reached countries like Australia and Europe.
Philanthropy
Taylor Swift was ranked first on DoSomething's 2015 "Gone Good" list. She received the Star of Compassion from the Tennessee Disaster Services and the Big Help Award from the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for her work helping others and inspiring action. Early in her career, she donated money to relief efforts after natural disasters. In 2009, she gave $100,000 to the Red Cross to help people affected by the 2008 Iowa flood. That same year, she performed at Sydney's Sound Relief concert, which raised money for those impacted by bushfires and flooding. In 2011, she used a dress rehearsal for her Speak Now tour as a benefit concert for victims of tornadoes in the United States, raising over $750,000. In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, she donated $500,000. In 2009, she sang at the BBC's Children in Need concert, raising £13,000 for the cause. In 2016, she gave $1 million to Louisiana flood relief and $100,000 to the Dolly Parton Fire Fund. After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, she donated to food banks. In 2020 and 2023, she gave $1 million each to Tennessee tornado relief. In 2024, she donated $5 million to help people affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
Taylor Swift has also supported cancer research. In 2011, after winning the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year award, she donated $25,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee. In 2012, she performed the charity single "Ronan" at the Stand Up to Cancer telethon. She wrote the song to honor a boy who died of neuroblastoma. She also gave $100,000 to the V Foundation for Cancer Research and $50,000 to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She has helped fans by covering their medical or academic costs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she donated to the World Health Organization and Feeding America and supported independent record stores. She performed "Soon You'll Get Better" at the One World: Together At Home benefit concert, which raised money for the World Health Organization's response to the pandemic.
Taylor Swift supports the arts. She has donated $75,000 to Hendersonville High School to help refurbish its auditorium, $4 million to build an education center at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, and $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony. In 2012, she partnered with Chegg for Good to give $10,000 to the music departments of six US colleges.
She has made one-time donations, such as partnering with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police in 2007 to protect children from online predators. She has donated items to charities like the UNICEF Tap Project and MusiCares for auction. She has encouraged young people to volunteer during Global Youth Service Day and donated books and money to schools to promote children's literacy. In 2018 and 2021, she gave money to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network during Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. She also supported fellow singer Kesha during legal battles and actress Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation.
During the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift donated to food banks in Florida, Arizona, and Las Vegas. She also hired local businesses and gave $197 million in bonus payments to her crew. In February 2024, she gave $100,000 to the family of a woman who died in a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl parade. In December 2024, she donated $250,000 to Operation Breakthrough, which helped workforce development, childcare, and early learning programs. In December 2025, she gave money to the American Heart Association, Feeding America, MusiCares, and the Academy of Country Music's Lifting Lives program.
Tours
- Fearless Tour (2009–2010)
- Speak Now World Tour (2011–2012)
- The Red Tour (2013–2014)
- The 1989 World Tour (2015)
- Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)
- The Eras Tour (2023–2024)