Profile of the Day: Taylor Swift

Posted December 13, 2023 by Amanda | No Comment

Today American singer and songwriter Taylor Swift turns 34! Swift has had a monumental year thanks to her record-breaking Eras Tour, the release of two re-recorded albums, and she was just named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

Image: Taylor Swift / David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0), cropped

Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania to Scott Kinglsey Swift and Andrea Gardner Finlay. She was named after singer-songwriter James Taylor. Growing up, music was always a part of her life. Her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, was an opera singer and hosted her own television program in Puerto Rico. The song “Marjorie” from Swift’s ninth studio album Evermore was written as a tribute to her late grandmother and even includes her voice as backing vocals on the song.

One of the best-selling musicians of all time, Swift has dominated 2023. She first kicked off her Eras Tour in March and it has since become the highest-grossing tour in history, surpassing more than $1 billion in revenue. At the end of the first leg of the tour, Swift released a movie of the Eras Tour which is now the highest-grossing concert film of all time. This year, Swift also released two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Both albums reached #1 on the Billboard charts. With such a successful year, it’s not surprising that last week Time Magazine named Taylor Swift 2023’s Person of the Year.

Explore Taylor Swift’s family tree on Geni and share how you’re connected to the music phenomenon.