Since 1927, TIME magazine has selected a Person of the Year, their editors’ assessment of an “individual who most shaped the headlines over the previous 12 months, for better or for worse.” It comes to nobody’s surprise then that the illustrious publication has selected American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for the year 2023. Past recipients include Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg.
This year, Xi Jinping, Barbie, Vladimir Putin, and King Charles III were among the names on the shortlist. But Taylor beat all of them out for the honour because love her or hate her, you can’t deny the impact and influence she has in pop culture.
This year, she reportedly became a billionaire with her blockbuster Eras Tour. Numerous university classes to study her lessons in literature, business, and law were announced. Numerous world leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked her to bring her tour to their countries/cities, due to the staggering economic impact the Eras Tour had wherever she went.
TIME explained why the 33 year old was selected, mentioning that she is first ‘Person of the Year to be recognized for her success in the arts’ and a ‘symbol of generational change: she is only the fourth solo Person of the Year born in the past half century.’
In fact, this isn’t the first time Swift has been part of TIME Person of the Year; in 2017, she was among the “Silence Breakers” the publication recognised ‘for standing up and speaking out against discrimination, harassment, and assault faced by too many women for far too long’. She’s been featured on their cover multiple times as she was also named among the 100 Most Influential People in 2019.
Despite being one of the biggest entertainers in the world for a long time, Taylor said, “It feels like the breakthrough moment of my career, happening at 33.”
Taylor Also Opened Up About Her Love Life with Travis Kelce
She also spoke about how her relationship with American footballer began. “This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she says. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
Read her full interview with TIME here.
Taylor Exclaims Her Excitement on Instagram
Taylor also posted about the honour on her Instagram page in three separate posts and in an IG story. In the first, she is seen posing with her cat Benjamin Button around her neck and joked in her caption:
In the second, she expressed her excitement, saying:
She also humbly thanked the writer who interviewed her:
Watch a video of Swifties expressing love for their queen here:
Congratulations to Taylor! We think that she’s far from being done smashing records! Image credit: TIME