"Some extraordinary news..." (Diet Coke)
Artikel om Taylors duett med Tim McGraw
Country songwriter Mark Irwin was in Chicago on Thursday (Jan. 24), and I had a chance to ask him about the songs he co-wrote on Tim McGraw's upcoming Two Lanes of Freedom album. Irwin, who refers to himself as a "song maker-upper," talked about what a really good song picker McGraw is.
"That he thought these songs were good enough to be in the whole lexicon of songs he recorded is really exciting," Irwin said. "He's one of the few artists who hasn't started writing, himself, just to put his names on songs. He turns to writer to do their jobs. That's always worked for him and he's a really smart guy."
Irwin, who grew up going to open mic nights in and around New York City, decided to pack up and move to Nashville in the late '80s after people kept telling him he was "way too country." And now, more than two decades later, he's certainly country enough. After writing songs for Alan Jackson, Martina McBride,Jimmy Buffett, Hank Williams Jr. and many others, he's now on the verge of McGraw's album release. The album has three songs that Irwin co-wrote, including the much-anticipated duet with Taylor Swift, "Highway Don't Care."
"It was Tim who came up with the idea to put Taylor on it. It's basically about a guy leaving someone and driving around and trying to forget the person they're leaving," he said. "Then, of course, the song comes on the radio that reminds them of that person and makes them think about things even more." He described it as a mid-tempo kind of groove and very modern country. "It's just very Tim." Keith Urban has a guitar solo on the song, and when I asked Irwin about that, he said, "Tim really wanted to make this song an event."
Taylor samarbetar med Diet Coke
COCA-COLA’S ANSWER TO PEPSI’S BEYONCE? POP COUNTRY SONGSTRESS TAYLOR SWIFTPepsi has Beyonce and Sofia Vergara , and now Coke has Taylor Swift.
The 23-year-old singer will partner with Diet Coke on a series of branding initiatives, Ad Age has learned. It’s not clear how Diet Coke will use Ms. Swift, though it’s likely she will become a brand ambassador of sorts, with the partnership going beyond simply 30-second TV spots. However, executives close to the company noted she will not be involved in the company’s Super Bowl campaign . A Coca-Cola spokeswoman declined to comment.
Ms. Swift doesn’t have the superstar presence of the leotard-wearing, vigorously-dancing Beyonce, who was named the official brand ambassador of Pepsi last month. In addition to being one half of entertainment’s highest-wattage power couple along with Jay-Z, Beyonce is headlining the Super Bowl halftime show sponsored by Pepsi, performed at Barack Obama’s second inauguration, has starred in movies and will be the subject of autobiographical HBO documentary next month.
Still, Ms. Swift’s power is rising fast. According to Billboard’s list of 2012’s top 40 Money Makers, the star blew past competition like Adele and Lady Gaga to come in at No. 1, with earnings of more than $35 million last year. Her newly struck deal to rep Diet Coke follows a lucrative contract with Cover Girl, as well as work for Sony Electronics and Keds. She’s been nominated for 15 Grammy Awards and taken home six. And there’s no denying too that she’s a favorite of celebrity magazines; the paparazzi love to document her short-lived romances, which include everyone from singer John Mayer and One Direction’s Harry Styles to actor Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy Jr.
Taylor om att ta semester
Taylor Swift does a lot of jet-setting, traveling all over the world to perform for fans and attend various award shows and events. Every once in a while, she takes a trip purely for enjoyment but she never stays on vacation long.
“I can’t spend two weeks anywhere,” she said. “How can you stay put for that long? I feel like I need to do something. I feel like I need to be productive. I need to send an email. I need to write a song. I need to work on a mix.”
With her hectic schedule, people could argue that she deserves a break every now and again. Not Taylor. “Vacations are a little weird for me because I don’t feel like I deserve them right now because I’m promoting a record,” she said. “I think the only time that I would ever really want to spend extended time not doing this would be if I was a lot older and I decided to have a family. I think that’s the only time.”
Taylor will keep up her traveling ways for the foreseeable future, performing on a couple of international award shows as well as the GRAMMY Awards on February 10. She’ll then kick off her RED Tour on March 13.
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Artikel om Kaylas lunch med Taylor
Kayla Kincannon was diagnosed with her first brain tumor at age 16 and her second at 17. While this high school junior is fighting for her life, Monday she was on top of the world.
"It was by far the best day of my life," she said.
In the midst of a ferocious battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer, the smile on Kincannon's face doesn't waver. Friends and family will tell you she's the sweetest and strongest girl they know.
"I'm not completely unafraid of this cancer. I still have my fears and my days of doubt, but I'm living in spite of that fear and I'm living my life in spite of having this cancer," she said.
That's why they set out on a mission to make her wish come true.
Kincannon used to sing along to Taylor Swift for hours in the mirror when she was a little girl. Now she listens to her to get through the dark times.
"To me fearless isn't the absence of fear, but living in spite of those things that scare you to death," she said.
Last week, Kincannon and her family traveled to Tennessee looking for treatment options, and what she got in return no medicine could match. Swift's tour bus rolled up to their hotel in Memphis.
"We were in the hotel eating breakfast, and my dad's like, 'The bus is here.' And I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm about to go on Taylor's bus."
Kincannon and her family were then whisked away to Nashville for a two hour lunch with the superstar.
"She was so humble and so real and so down to earth and like she wasn't fancy and dressed up. She was like in jeans," she said.
What makes this story even better is how the lunch date came about.
Late last year, Kincannon's classmates at Lamphere High School launched the social media campaign "Operation Get Kayla to Meet Taylor Swift". After hundreds of tweets, emails and Facebook posts, their persistence paid off.
"I couldn't say enough words to express my gratitude for them, and other schools that don't like my school and people at my school don't like each other, but they came together," she said.
The meeting with Swift lasted only a few hours, but the memory from Kincannon's lunch date will stay in her heart forever. So will the love and support from a community that refused to give up on making her dream become a reality.
"I just have to say a huge thank you to Taylor and to the students at my school because they made this happen," she said.
Kincannon is still under her doctor's care, but she is feeling well enough to return to school on Tuesday.
Donerar böcker till Reading Hospital
Country music star Taylor Swift is giving something back to the hospital where she was born.
Swift, a native of Wyomissing, Berks Co., and Scholastic Inc., have donated 2,000 books to the Reading Hospital Child Health Center's early literacy program.
Swift made the donation through the national Reach Out and Read initiative, which promotes early childhood literacy by bringing new books and information about the importance of reading aloud into the pediatric exam room, officials said.
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Taylors 57:e låt på Billboard's Hot 100 Chart
‘KNEW’ MUSIC: As Taylor Swift bullets at No. 4 (with Airplay Gainer honors) on the Hot 100 with current pop single “I Knew You Were Trouble.,” she debuts another “knew” track: “The Moment I Knew” starts at No. 64. The latter song bows after being released digitally in the iTunes Store and on the U.S. Target-exclusive deluxe physical edition of parent album “Red.” It was previously available only on the set’s Canadian version.
The new “Knew” marks Swift’s 57th Hot 100 entry, pushing her past Madonna and Dionne Warwick for the second-most appearances among women in the chart’s 54-year history. With 73, only Aretha Franklin has more. (Among all acts, the “Glee” cast leads with 205.)
Here’s an updated ranking of the women with the most charted Hot 100 titles:
73, Aretha Franklin
57, Taylor Swift
56, Madonna
56, Dionne Warwick
53, Connie Francis
48, Brenda Lee
44, Mariah Carey
42, Nicki Minaj
41, Barbra Streisand
40, Mary J. Blige
40, Diana Ross
39, Janet Jackson
39, Rihanna
Notably, Swift has benefited from charting in an era in which album cuts, as opposed to only commercially-available singles (often promoted to radio), can appear on the Hot 100 (a rule change enacted the week of Dec. 5, 1998). Of her 57 Hot 100 hits, 20 have spent just one week on the chart, a majority of which arrived thanks to hefty digital sales the weeks that her albums “Fearless” (2008), “Speak Now” (2010) and “Red” (2012) debuted atop the Billboard 200 album chart.
Still, Swift’s top 10 total - 14 - is in line with most of the other women with the highest sums of Hot 100 visits. While Madonna has tallied a Hot 100-record 38 top 10s, Franklin has collected 17 and Warwick, 12
Taylor till NRJ Music Awards
Artikel om Golden Globe nominering för Safe & Sound
[...]
“They wanted the song to reflect what Appalachian music would sound like in 300 years, and they wanted me to write from Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence’s character) perspective,” says Swift of the Golden Globe-nominated tune. After watching exclusive clips from the apocalyptic thriller in Nashville, she promptly ripped through Suzanne Collins’ trilogy before teaming up with Burnett and the Civil Wars (Joy Williams and John Paul White). When the four gathered in a studio home that Burnett was working from, “It was just like lighting a match,” she says. “Joy suggested that we write about how Katniss wants to protect and comfort (the youngest Hunger Games contestant) Rue to the very end.” Coincidentally, Swift had been working on a song concept she was calling “Safe & Sound,” hence the tune’s title. Swift wrote the song on the back of her baby Taylor guitar (a brand unrelated to Swift), while the Civil Wars mapped out harmonies, an experience that she says was akin to “watching twins.”
“Throughout the course of writing ‘Safe & Sound,’ we discovered we were also writing about Katniss and her (best friend) Peeta, as well as her relationship with her (sister) Prim,” explains Swift. “The theme of protecting and comforting someone is so broad-reaching throughout the film.”
This is further evident in the song’s refrain, recalling the scene in which Rue dies in the forest before a crying Katniss: Just close your eyes/The sun is going down/You’ll be alright/No one can hurt you now/Come morning light/You and I’ll be safe and sound.
Swift dropped the song on Twitter just before Christmas 2011, three months prior to the Stateside release of Hunger Games. Within two days, the song sold 136,000 copies on iTunes before culminating a tally of 1.4 million last month, in addition to two Grammy nominations (best country duo/group performance, best song written for visual media) and, of course, its Golden Globes best original song nom. Unfortunately, the song was deemed ineligible by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences as it plays as a second end-credits track—a pity because the song, coupled with Swift’s ethereal, touching vocals, truly captures the film’s spirit.
Outside the film, “Safe & Sound” stands on its own with its guitar-stringed heart-wrenching lyrics about undying love against a wilderness setting. Should “Safe & Sound” softly bring to mind Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” that’s no coincidence.
“Stevie Nicks has inspired me in so many ways,” exclaims Swift, who spent time with the iconic artist a few years ago, “I’ll never forget the way she tells a story. There’s so much feeling in everything she does. No wonder that comes through in her songs.”
I Knew You Were Trouble ligger kvar på Billboard's #1
Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” is still #1 on the Billboard Digital Songs Chart, while the biggest gain this week goes to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (ft. Wanz)’ “Thrift Shop”, climbing 7-2.
1. Taylor Swift – “I Knew You Were Trouble” (326,000)
2. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (ft. Wanz) – “Thrift Shop” (236,000)
3. Bruno Mars – “Locked Out of Heaven” (233,000)
4. Will.I.Am (ft. Britney Spears) – “Scream & Shout” (203,000)
5. Phillip Phillips – “Home” (196,000)
6. PSY – “Gangnam Style” (192,000)
7. The Lumineers – “Ho Hey” (186,000)
8. Justin Bieber (ft. Nicki Minaj) – “Beauty and a Beat” (173,000)
9. Rihanna – “Diamonds” (160,000)
10. Swedish House Mafia (ft. John Martin) – “Don’t You Worry Child” (153,000)
Digital track sales totaled 34.54 million downloads. This was down 38% compared to last week (55.74 million) and up 5% compared to last year (32.77 million).
Taylor nominerad till en Brit Award
Bekräftat: Taylor till PCA's!
Top 20 Celebs Gone Good of 2012: Taylor nummer 1!
The country-pop star continues to top the charts with her new album “Red” – but that’s not all. TSwift is our number one celeb gone good. She’s had quite a year being the YOUNGEST person to ever receive the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for her charity work. The 23-year-old also donated 4 million (the largest sum yet!) to the Country Hall of Fame Museum. Not to mention, her tremendous work for young people battling cancer among many others.
Taylor att gästa Tim McGraws nya album!
Safe & Sound nominerad för en GOLDEN GLOBE
Pop Dust - Artist Of The Year: Taylor!
When you say your speaking voice has changed, have you lost your twang?
I think I talk how my friends talk. When I first moved to Nashville I was hanging out with all these kids with Southern accents, and I’d say “y’all” more and stuff like that. And now, I don’t know, I travel the world and I’ve developed my own way of talking.
Is there a lyric on Red you’re especially proud of?
The lyric I’m most proud of is from “All Too Well”: “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise / so casually cruel in the name of being honest.” That was something I came up with while ranting during a soundcheck. I was just playing these chords over and over onstage and my band joined in and I went on a rant. Those were some of the lines I thought of.
Who were you ranting at?
Hmm. I was going through a really hard time then, and my band joined in playing, and one of the first things that I came up with, just, like, spat out, was “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.”
That’s a tough line.
[Laughs] It’s very… pointed.
How does writing with other people compare with writing by yourself? Is writing with others a very intimate experience?
Every cowriter is a different scenario, but they all start out with the same thing. I come in with a musical idea and I’ll play it for them on the guitar. But before that, I’ll tell them, for about 20 minutes, exactly why I want to write that and what I’m going through and why this guy did this and how it made me feel and when I met him and how I haven’t talked to him in 13 days and why I feel this and that. [laughs] And then I’ll play them the idea and say, “Do you want to work on this?” And if they say yes then we write that song.
I Knew You Were Trouble musikvideo information
As Taylor Swift turns 23 on Thursday, Dec. 13, the country-pop star will be celebrating yet another milestone: her 23rd music video.
Swift will debut the official clip for “I Knew You Were Trouble” on MTV as the capstone to a weeklong birthday celebration,The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The video stars Reeve Carney, currently playing Peter Parker in the Broadway production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, as Swift's brooding but beautiful love interest, and is directed by Anthony Mandler.
"As soon as I started writing this song, I knew it was different from anything else on the record, so I knew that I wanted the video to be different from anything we'd ever done," says Swift of the darker-than-usual subject matter. "I wanted to tell the story of a girl who falls into a world that's too fast for her, and suffers the consequences."
Mandler is a frequent collaborator with Rihanna, having directed several of her videos including "Take a Bow," "Disturbia," "Russian Roulette," "Wait Your Turn," and Jay-Z's "Run This Town," which features Rihanna and Kanye West. Mandler also served as a director and executive producer of the E! reality series Snoop Dogg's Father Hood in 2007.
The multiscreen rollout for "I Knew You Were Trouble" kicks off Monday with never-before-seen photos from the video shoot on MTV.com. Tuesday, the site will publish clips of Swift on-set discussing the creative concept for her dark video, as well as a video chronology of all 22 of her previous video offerings. On Wednesday, Swift will count down her top five moments of 2012 via livestream followed by a trailer of the new video.
The video itself is slated to premiere on MTV at 4:40 p.m. ET on Thursday before going into rotation across all MTV channels at 5 p.m. ET.
"Trouble" is the third single off Swift's latest studio effort Red, peaking at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in late October and at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart. She performed the song live on the American Music Awards Nov. 18.
Taylor gör countryhistoria med WANEGBT!
Two months after Billboard revised the Country Songs ranking method from core country radio audience to a digital, streaming, and expanded radio hybrid, Taylor Swift's ninth week atop the chart with "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" sets an all-time record for the most weeks at No. 1 by a solo female, surpassing Country Music Hall of Fame honoree Connie Smith's eight weeks with "Once a Day" in 1964.
Swift's ninth week is the result of a photo finish ahead of Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise," which bullets in its fifth week at No. 2. Swift's run is the longest for any artist since the late David Houston stayed nine weeks with "Almost Persuaded" in 1966. When Smith and Houston accomplished their feats, the chart was known as Hot Country Singles, and was tabulated by blending reported radio playlists and singles sales data taken from retail store reports. No artist has spent more than nine weeks at No. 1 since Buck Owens led for 16 weeks in 1963-64 with "Love's Gonna Live Here."
Intervju från The Telegraph India
Girls’ girl Taylor Swift shifts gear from country to pop-driven rodeo twists in her new album Red (Universal Music). There are enough sob-sob tales in there to feed the Taylor Swift myth — she’s all of 22 — as she indeed has come a long way since her 2006 self-titled debut album. And however much the lady doth protest, ex-boyfriends, her gal pals and unhappy endings make Red the stuff any hopeless romantic would kill for. An email chat with t2…
Is Red all about emotions?
The album actually covers the emotions one feels when in a relationship or is getting out of one. It is intense because every relationship turns out to be a roller-coaster ride –– from happiness to anger to frustration.
The album moves away from country. Is this an attempt to look at other genres?
I felt like getting out there and exploring different styles. I’m too young to get stuck in a comfort zone. This is my time to experiment and I’ve tried not to play safe. I’m hoping that my fans will like Red even if it is a little different from what I’ve done before.
Is this a very personal album?
You can’t really put a label on the songs I write. They’re a sum of things that I’ve been through and things that people I know have experienced.
Taylor är aktuell med den nya parfymen Incredible Things. Parfymen finns sedand den 1/12 -14 på Kicks. Ni kan även hitta de tidigare parfymerna Wonderstruck, Wonderstruck Enchanted och Taylor by Taylor Swift hos ett antal återförsäljare runt om i landet.
