Taylor Swift was born December 13, 1989 in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Swift is a Grammy-nominated country music artist who began her career as a teenager. Swift developed an early interest in country music, and began performing in Wyomissing at concerts, fairs, and festivals at age ten.
After repeatedly visiting Nashville and boldly attempting to distribute her demo to several country music labels but being widely rejected, Swift was signed to the independent Big Machine Records in 2006. Swift released her debut, self-titled album that same year, and made her debut on the Billboard country charts with the release of her single "Tim McGraw". "Tim McGraw" went to #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in January of 2007. The music video for the track appeared 30 consecutive times on the Great American Country (GAC) weekly Top 20 countdown, setting a record for the fan-voted show. The track also went to number one on CMT's video charts. Swift also won a Breakthrough Video of the Year award at the 2007 CMT Music Awards." Swift’s path toward stardom made her a feature focus on "GAC Short Cuts", a part-do!$#!#entary, part-music-video television series on the Country Music channel. The Taylor Swift album went triple platinum in the U.S., selling over three million copies, and spawned further hit singles “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “Our Song.”
Swift’s most recent studio effort is Fearless (2008), and her single “Love Story,” inspired by the story of Romeo & Juliet, has been her largest commercial success to date. Taylor’s original song “Changes” was selected as part of the soundtrack for the U.S. Olympic team at the Summer 2008 Games in Beijing, China. Taylor was also asked to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia in 2008. Swift currently lives in Hendersonville, Tennessee with her family.