New Album by Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department Unleashed – Entertaining Arts and Music News
Taylor Swift is one of the world’s best-selling artists, a billionaire, and a record breaker. And she’s just 34.
With her 11th studio album – The Tortured Poets Department – out today (her follow up to 2022’s Grammy winning Midnights) the buzz around the singer is at fever pitch.
Update:
Swift reveals ‘secret double album’
Swift accepts the Global Icon award at the Brit Awards 2021. Pic: PA
Fans can expect 16 new tracks (addressing the five stages of heartbreak) and collaborations from the likes of Florence + The Machine and Post Malone.
With a history of writing about her exes (you know who you are, Joe Jonas, Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer), there’s much interest over whether any songs will refer to her English ex-boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn who she dated for six years until their split last year.
There’s a strong suggestion track number five (the slot she always gives to her most meaningful songs) – So Long London – may do just that.
And the very title of album may be referring to a WhatsApp group Alwyn previously set up with fellow actors Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, called The Tortured Man Club.
Speaking about it in 2022, the actors joked that they’d not been using it much since becoming less tortured. Four months later news of Swift and Alwyn’s split emerged.
Meanwhile, in current boyfriend news, Swift’s latest beau – Travis Kelce – says he’s had a listen to parts of the album and says it’s “unbelievable”.
The US star’s rise from teen country pop singer to all-round global phenomenon has been – well – swift.
We take a look at the unstoppable rise and rise of Taylor Swift.
Swift with boyfriend Travis Kelce in February. Pic: Reuters
Moving forward while reclaiming her past
She started out Taylor Alison Swift, born in Pennsylvania and named after singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Inspired to become a country singer after watching a documentary about Faith Hill (one of the genre’s best-selling stars), her parents upped sticks to move to Tennessee in 1993 to help her forge her music career, and Swift landed her first record deal aged just 13.
A musical chameleon, she’s switched up her genre a few times since then, moving from country to pop to alternative and folk.
And as well as moving forward artistically, she’s quite literally reclaimed her past too, re-recording her back catalogue since 2021 as a way to regain ownership of her music following a spat with talent manager Scooter Braun, who bought her former label Big Machine Records.
The MTV VMAs moment in 2009 when Kanye stormed the stage. Pic. Reuters
Earlier this year, Swift made Grammy history when she became the first person to win album of the year four times with Midnights.
She’s come a long way since Kanye West infamously stormed the stage at the 2009 VMAs as Swift accepted her award for best video by a female artist, a stunt he later claimed in a lyric “made that b**** famous“.
Her fame has been on the rise ever since – reaching peak Swift over the last few years.
Taylor in 2006, when she was seen as the sweet girl of country music. Pic: Reuters
Billionaire status
Swift is a billionaire, according to Forbes magazine, accumulating $1.1bn (£875m), based on earnings from her Eras Tour and the worth of her pop music catalogue.
It makes her the first musician to hit 10-figure status solely based on her songs and performances.
Following the start of her Eras Tour, kicking off in March 2023, she became the first artist to surpass $1bn (£800m) in revenue, breaking the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing music tour.
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