Taylor Swift's record-breaking career and stormy love life: an overview of all her 'Eras'

While Taylor Swift is on her 'The Eras Tour' - yes, 'that' tour, whose unprecedented online presale crashed the 'Ticketmaster' website - let's review how this female country singer-turned-popstar became a fierce female lead, breaking countless records to become one of the best-selling musicians in history.

Taylor Swift's statistics as an artist are beyond impressive. She has sold around 250 million albums to date, making her the 12th most successful musician in history, beating out other artists like Beyonce, The Rolling Stones, Justin Bieber and others, for now, at least. She is also among the top five streamed artists of all time on 'Spotify.'

Her awards are pretty impressive, too. She has a total of 12 'Grammy Awards,' including 3 'Albums of the Year,' an 'Emmy Award,' 40 'American Music Awards,' 29 'Billboard Music Awards,' 3 'IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Awards' and has broken 92, yes 92, 'Guinness World Records.'

Swift has also been honored in the 'Rolling Stone '100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time,' the 'Billboard 'Greatest of All Time Artists,' and in 'Time 100 and Forbes Celebrity 100.' Whew, that's a lot.

(Image: Twitter, Taylor Swift)

When accepting the prestigious Global Icon award at the 2021 BRIT gala, Taylor Swift held a moving speech reaching out to young artists and especially to women. "If you face criticism and resistance," she said, "you're probably doing something new." And "if you feel turbulence, it must mean you're rising. Never stop believing in yourself."

Taylor Swift is such a phenomenon that some US universities offer courses on her "literary, cultural and sociopolitical contexts." Stanford University, New York University and the University of Texas at Austin are some schools were you can take classes studying the musician and her career trajectory.

So, where does Taylor Swift come from? And how did she develop her ability to write and perform such inspiring music to become the feminist pop star she is today? Let's take a closer look and find out.

Taylor Swift was born in 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania to her father, a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch at 'Bank of America' and her mother, who was a mutual fund executive.

Taylor Swift attended public schools. As a child, she took drama and singing classes, and as a teenager, she was inspired and motivated to start an artistic career by the female musician Shania Twain.

(Image: Twitter, Taylor Swift)

Taylor Swift had a trouble-free childhood and, curiously...lived for a time on a Christmas tree farm! Urban legend or reality, the fact is that (within that idyllic environment) Taylor Swift threw herself into music and immediately achieved success.

The singer's first album was entitled 'Taylor Swift.' Released in 2006, it was a collection of love songs with country inspiration, all written by Swift herself.

In 2008, 'Fearless' catapulted Taylor Swift into stardom with her pop-country. The album sold 700,000 copies in its first week, and contained two of the first country songs to ever hit #1 on the US pop charts.

Taylor Swift won the 2009 MTV award for best video clip featuring a female lead. That female lead happened to be... her!

Taylor Swift's first foray into the world of cinema came with the film 'Valentine's Day' in 2009. Other roles would follow in films such as 'The Giver' and 'Cats'. In general, however, Taylor is more of a singer than an actress.

Taylor Swift is known for her public love life, and for finding inspiration in the lyrics of her songs from her personal relationships.

She has dated a slew of Hollywood hunks: Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal, Calvin Harris, Tom Hiddleston...and they've all ended up in some form or another in her songs.

In 2016 she began a relationship with model and actor Joe Alwyn. According to various media, they were a strong couple. Yet, in 2023, they appear to have split up.

For most of us, Taylor Swift is an icon of pop. Her song 'Shake it Off' in 2014 was a leap towards a massive and global audience, attracting all ages, cultures and genders alike. Her album 'Folklore' released in 2020, however, was closer to indie than pop, though. Some critics said the album reminded them of indie sensation Lana del Rey.

But Taylor Swift started in the country universe and, step by step, became a mainstream pop singer, but she has never seemed to forget her country. The singer performed one of her new songs at the 2020 American Country Music awards and has often parodied her country origins on TV, in places like SNL.

She really is one of the best earners in American music. 'Forbes' values Taylor's net worth at around $570 million, impressive for a self-made female singer.

The singer has transformed her image from an innocent-looking young girl to a confident, stylish woman. She was initially known as a girl next door with curly blonde hair and a more conservative appearance.

(Image: Instagram, Taylor Swift)

Over time she's begun to use more intentional make-up and statement pieces in her wardrobe to create a fiercer look. Nowadays, she often straightens her curly hair.

The bright red colour on her lips is a sign of the identity that she has been building for herself.

Taylor Swift has a mansion in Beverly Hills and several properties in Tennessee, the epitome of country music, where she got her start in the industry and lived for many years.

Taylor kept quiet for many years regarding her political stance. However, she decided to celebrate the arrival of Barack Obama as President. Of course, she wasn't bothered at all by the fact that conservative George W. Bush was an outspoken admirer of hers.

She has made an exception for Trump, though. Swift addressed him directly in the context of the George Floyd case and the nationwide protests against police violence: "We'll throw you out in November."

In 2020, Netflix released a documentary about Taylor Swift. 'Miss Americana' was an intimate and personal portrait of the singer that addressed sexism in the music industry and the misogynistic comments Swift endured herself.

(Image: Twitter, Taylor Swift)

Through the years, Taylor Swift has undergone several artistic and stylish innovations, challenging the standards it had set for women and their defined roles within the industry. All the while, the global star has always continued to be herself. What will be her next step? We're not so sure, but clearly, for Taylor, the sky's the limit.