Taylor Swift: Everything came up for the pop star in 2023. A look at her record-breaking year.
In work and life, everything seem to come together for the "Lavender Haze" singer this year.
If there's one thing that 2023 taught us: It's Taylor Swift's world and we're just fanning out in it.
Miss Americana herself turns 34 today, the same day the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie starts streaming, capping off a year of career highs. Getting a Golden Globe nomination this week for her concert movie is the proverbial cherry on top of recently being named Time's Person of the Year and the news that her "Eras Tour" is officially the first one ever to gross over $1 billion.
While some may grumble about too much Swift, it's been a milestone year for the "Lavender Haze" singer — one in which she hit her stride in seemingly every facet of her life. Her successes have been so layered — like the record-breaking tour being turned into the highest-grossing concert film of all time and potentially netting a Globe — that it truly feels like everything she touches turns to gold. All the while, she looks so comfortable wherever it is she's standing — onstage in front of a sea of Swifties, on the red carpet premiering her film or off the clock, plus-one-ing in a Kansas City Chiefs luxury box.
A year of smashing records
When tickets went on sale for the "Eras Tour" in 2022, it was such a debacle it led to a government investigation. With all of the drama — including the astronomical ticket prices — it could have been a PR disaster. Instead, Swift flipped the narrative and — after six months of hardcore tour prep — put together a killer three-hour, 40-plus-song show, spanning all her musical eras to date.
Swifties, her loyal fanbase, showed up in force. As the tour kicked off in the U.S. in March, fans rocked special outfits, including Swiftie Dads with colorful friendship bracelets up to their elbows. They became participants in the show, making so much noise in Seattle it caused record-breaking seismic activity. It was estimated that the average U.S. concertgoer spent $1,300 to attend a show. Some fans traveled to different cities and booked hotels or Airbnbs. People who couldn't get tickets showed up at arenas anyway to "Taylor-gate" outside. All of that pumped so much money into local economies that the Federal Reserve credited Swift for boosting the economy and "Taylornomics" became a thing.
This month, the tour crossed the $1 billion mark in earnings, setting a new record. Now international, with dates through 2024, it's estimated to bring in double that over the span of the tour.
The "Eras Tour" was also turned into an epic, three-hour concert film released on Oct. 13. Savvy Swift, on the advice of her dad, cut out the middleman, releasing the film through AMC directly. It went on to become the highest-grossing concert film (among other records) and is nominated for a Golden Globe in the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category.
To coincide with her birthday, the film — with bonus songs "Wildest Dreams," "Long Live" and "The Archer" — is available to rent on Wednesday.
She also rerecorded two of her albums amid her efforts to reclaim her music after a dispute with her former label. First was Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), originally released in 2010, which dropped July 7. It debuted at No. 1, and Swift broke the record for most No. 1 albums by a female artist. Then came 1989 (Taylor’s Version), originally released in 2014, which dropped Oct. 27. It became her 13th No. 1 album and was her best debut ever. (She's also broken records upon records this year for her music).
Then there are the new awards she collected in 2023:
Her 12th Grammy Award (Best Music Video for All Too Well: The Short Film, which she directed, making history)
Nine more MTV Video Music Awards, tying the record for most in a single night, bringing her total to 23
10 new Billboard Awards, tying the record for most ever with 39
iHeartRadio's Innovator Award as well as five other awards, netting her 19 in total, the most of any artist
Two new Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, including favorite female artist, as well as a bonus one for her cat Olivia Benson
As the year closed, she was named Time's Person of the Year, joining a list filled with presidents, innovators and activists. (Another cat fact: Her cat Benjamin Button participated in the photoshoot.) She's also been crowned Apple's Artist of the Year and Spotify's Top Global Artist of 2023.
Everything she's done this year has been so big, Gannett hired a reporter just to write stories about her (even though there was backlash over the hiring). Meanwhile, the number of universities teaching courses about Swift has grown to now include Harvard. Google even blocked her from its 2023 Year in Trending Searches List, saying Swift being included was too "predictable."
A year of personal growth
In her interview with Time, her first in print in four years, Swift said, "This is the proudest and happiest I've ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I've ever been." It shows.
Swift's personal life has always gone hand in hand with her songwriting (as John Mayer knows all too well), so fans are now expecting some love songs of the pop variety amid this happy era of her budding romance with NFL star Travis Kelce. After her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn — and whatever that was with The 1975's Matty Healy — she's clearly happy partnered up with Kelce, loving out loud for the first time in years.
"When you say a relationship is public, that means I'm going to see him do what he loves, we're showing up for each other, other people are there, and we don't care," she said, adding, "Life is short. Have adventures. Me locking myself away in my house for a lot of years — I'll never get that time back."
For his part, Kelce told WSJ. Magazine of his "genius" partner in November: "The scrutiny she gets, how much she has a magnifying glass on her, every single day, paparazzi outside her house, outside every restaurant she goes to, after every flight she gets off, and she's just living, enjoying life. When she acts like that I better not be the one acting all strange."
Despite the unhappiness over that by, in her words, "a few dads, Brads, and Chads," she's rooting Kelce on at his games, looking A+ as usual in the luxury box with his fam, her old friends and some new ones. He's done the same for her on her tour in Brazil. They're down with PDA, here and abroad.
Estimated to be worth over $1 billion by Forbes, Swift's continued to be a philanthropist, donating $1 million to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Emergency Relief Fund just this week after tornadoes there. She's given money to food banks along her "Eras Tour." When her fan Ana Clara Benevides Machado died at her show amid a heatwave in Brazil last month, Swift connected with the family, flew them to a show and donated money to her parents.
Her generosity has extended to her friends. For instance, when her pal Sophie Turner embarked on an international custody battle amid her split with Joe Jonas (also a Swift ex), the singer allowed the Game of Thrones actress to stay in one of her New York City apartments. She supported pal Emma Stone's premiere and doesn't say no to a fun night out with her besties, including Selena Gomez, Cara Delevingne and Zo? Kravitz.
Especially noteworthy, however, is her alliance with Beyoncé, who also killed it this year on tour and with a concert film. They showed up for one another's premieres, teaching young fans that lifting up other women is the way to go.
"There were so many stadium tours this summer, but the only ones that were compared were me and Beyoncé," Swift told Time. "Clearly it's very lucrative for the media and stan culture to pit two women against each other, even when those two artists in question refuse to participate in that discussion."
It's not just the ladies. Swift showed up for Hugh Jackman amid his divorce and supported ex Harry Styles at the Grammys.
Looking to 2024
Swift's tour resumes in February and continues through December 2024. During that time it's expected she'll smash her current record, with the tour grossing over $2 billion. Every tour stop and new record will be covered in the news and be all over social media feeds.
So will the sightings of Kelce at her concerts, especially those at which she shouts him out in her lyrics or runs to kiss him. Ditto her support of him as far as the Chiefs go this season. Their dinner dates will be "papped" as well, and if their relationship flourishes to a new level, all bets will be off as far as the media coverage.
The Grammy Awards are Feb. 4 — and Swift has already made Grammy history with the most Song of the Year nominations. This year, "Anti-Hero" makes seven, but she's also nabbed her sixth Album of the Year nomination for Midnights, leaving her tied with Barbra Streisand for the most nominations by a female artist in that category. She has six nominations in total — and her calendar is clear that day, so expect her to be there.
We're also still waiting for two more album rerecordings: Taylor Swift (2006) and Reputation (2017). And that's to say nothing about new music. While we seemingly got a glimpse into her split from Alwyn via her Midnights vault track "You're Losing Me," you know she's going to go deep — and then bring us up to date with all her Kelce feels.
She'll do it all with the new sensibility she's acquired. After having been — in her words to Time — "raised up and down the flagpole of public opinion so many times in the last 20 years," she's come to a place where "I don't have the time or bandwidth to get pressed about things that don't matter" while also being "mentally tough enough" to deal with all the things that go along with superstardom "for the first time in my life."
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