CMT Insider Interview: Dolly Parton

Another very talented young lady is Taylor Swift. Everyone’s talking about her right now. And like you, she’s really a prolific songwriter at a young age.

She is. I have been extremely impressed with her, especially with her songwriting. I think she does magnificent work. She seems such a likeable little person, but I don’t know her. But I love watching her. My husband gets a kick out of her. He just loves watching her. He thinks she’s great. But I’m real impressed with the depth of her sometimes. I’ll tell you someone else that’s great like that — little Miley Cyrus. Miley is such a great songwriter — a lot of surprises about her that people don’t know yet. She’s still just Hannah Montana to a lot of people, but I think that she could have a very big career as a singer-songwriter even when she gets past the Hannah Montana days.

Link to entire article.

Hannah Montana: The Movie Ensemble Cast Featurette

Taylor is featured. Watch it below:

The 100 People Who Are Changing America

100 | Taylor Swift 

The first teen-pop star who seems to get what it means to be a teenager

WHAT SHE’S CHANGING: At 19, the biggest star in country and teen pop has managed to keep her head on straight — no drinking, no smoking, no limousine peekaboo — without seeming like a prude. Swift has given country music a new audience: teen girls who identify with her wholesome persona as much as her music.

TWEET: “Rehearsals today with Miley. We ate an entire pizza in about five minutes.”

Link to entire article.

3News: Taylor Swift – taking over the world

She is the biggest seller on iTunes right now – country singer Taylor Swift is rapidly taking over the world.

The teenager is just across the Tasman as we speak and the Aussies can’t get enough of her.

If you were to click on Taylor Swift’s ‘Teardrops on My Guitar’ music video on youtube, you’d be adding to the already 28 million others to do the same.

Taylor Swift’s MySpace site boasts 70 million views and counting.

She’s had more than 10 million paid track downloads of her growing list of No. 1 hits, and she had higher week one sales of her new album Fearless than the Killers and Guns N Roses combined.

A recent concert at the enormous Staples Centre in LA sold out in 2 minutes flat.

So you get the idea – Taylor Swift is just a little bit popular, even Downunder.

“When you come to a place you’ve never been before,” says Swift, “We got here, I walk out all these people are saying: ‘we came all the way from New Zealand to see you’ – it’s been so amazing.”

Swift is a little bit country and a little bit pop like so Shania meets Miley Cyrus.

She wrote a novel when she was bored one school holidays, released her first album when she was 16, was a No. 1 and nominated for a Grammy when she was 17.

The willowy teen is now a red carpet staple, working the cameras in Sydney a few nights ago for her buddy Zac Efron at the world premiere of his new film 17 again.

Her friends and her dating life are now tabloid fodder – even her best friend from school has become a celebrity by default.

So where to now for Taylor Swift?

Not content with dominating her home turf, she’s taking Swift Mania beyond US borders. And she’s going a little bit Kiwi – about to tour with Keith Urban.

Link

Taylor on Sunrise in AUS

Check out this great interview Taylor did this week on an australian morning show. In it, she talks about fame, making good choices, Miley Cyrus and more.

Watch the video here!

The Sun: Swift-ly avoids ‘doing a Britney’

GOLDEN girl of pop TAYLOR SWIFT knows it’s only a matter of time before she ‘does a BRITNEY’ and goes off the rails.

And the 19-year-old, relishing in her 10th week at No1 on the US charts, says the snappers can’t wait to capture her falling out of clubs drunk.

She said: “I definitely think there are a lot of people who are waiting for me to do something wrong and I think it’s inevitable that in my life I’m going to eventually. People do things wrong.

“I’m just going to try and make it as graceful a mistake as possible when it happens. I try to make the right choices and I’m never going to sit here and guarantee that I’m not going to do something stupid because I’m very capable of that.

“But I’m going to try as hard as possible not to.”

The country star, who hails LEANN RIMES andSHANIA TWAIN as her heroines, also counts a certain Brit musician among her idols.

Taylor said: “Meeting CHRIS MARTIN fromCOLDPLAY at the Grammys was amazing. He was so incredible and so nice.

“People like that really set a good example for newer artists because he’s as big as it gets with his career and he’s still the most down to earth person.”

She added: “I also had the dressing room next toKATY PERRY. We’d been talking that day, she came by and sat down and hung out for a while and then later on when I was getting ready for red carpet, putting my dress on, getting my make-up done she walks in with a pair of scissors.

“And she says, ‘Hey, is it cool if I cut a piece of your hair?’ And I was like,’Umm, yeah sure, why?’ She said, ‘Well, I’m going to carry a heart-shaped purse down the red carpet and when people say, ‘Katy, what’s in your heart-shaped purse? I’m just going to say a lock of Taylor Swift’s hair.'”

Another famous friend in her telephone is Disney favourite MILEY CYRUS.

The girls both dated JONAS BROTHERS boys and star in the upcoming Hannah Montana movie together.

Taylor said: “I play a song in the film, so it’s not exactly an acting cameo but it is a cameo.

“I get along great with Miley, we’ve been friends for a long time so we just goof around… She’s so much fun to be around so it’s not hard at all.

“The one thing that is very similar about me and Miley is that we’re both just trying to be as normal as possible and that’s how we can relate.”

 

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Although the country girl is yet to hit her twenties, she is wise beyond her years.

Taylor said: “I’ve always wanted this and everything that comes along with it. All the stress and the hard work. I asked for all of this and getting to live this dream is such a privilege and such a blessing.

“I really like doing things myself and I’m very involved in the production and business decisions and planning the stage, planning the tour and all that stuff.

“Sometimes there’s a lot, but I’d rather be in charge than hand off these decisions to someone else.”

She added: “I feel like my music is my diary. I write all about what happens to me and my personal experiences.

“Singing songs live, I definitely try to go back to that place where I was when I wrote it because I try to give the crowd more than they’re going to get than just by hearing the song on a radio.”

Link

News of the World: Fairy Taylor Story

By Dan Wootton, 01/03/2009

THERE’S no chance America’s new sweetheart Taylor Swift will head down the same path as Britney Spears.

The talented 19-year-old sold more than any other singer or band in America last year but is untouched by all the trappings of pop stardom.

Even though she’s another bombshell blonde, Taylor doesn’t drink alcohol, hates talking about sex and even dated a virgin celebrity.

“Honestly, I’ve never had this desire to be a party girl. It’s just never been a temptation for me,” she tells Rated.

“In high school I watched all my friends go through the party phase and just saw them make mistakes, do things they regretted later.

“I have always been so focused on having control over my actions — it would just freak me out if I couldn’t remember what I had said the night before.”

Dumped

After wowing on the red carpet in a slinky silver dress at The Brits last week, the stunning blonde is now set to repeat her Stateside success over here.

Her first single Love Story, set to hit No2 today, has already become a sensation on radio and the video is top on the iTunes chart.

Taylor, who lives in Nashville, has been writing love songs for a living since she was just 14.

But she laughs: “I’d like to think that I haven’t had the great love of my life yet. I think that you don’t know real love until you’ve found it — and when you do, it erases all the other times you thought you were in love.”

The pretty blonde had her heart broken by hunky Joe Jonas, the virginal American pop star who cruelly dumped her during a 25 second phone call.

But Taylor — the most searched artist in the world on MySpace — says: “I don’t have a rule against dating celebrities. And there’s really no pressure on me as far as getting married.

“I’ve always focused on the success of my career rather than the success of my relationships.” Taylor started out young on the road for pop success after being spotted by record bosses.

“I worked for Sony Publishing and I signed that contract when I was 14. That became my job and I would write every day after school.

“The argument I’ve always faced is that, ‘Oh you’re so young. How can you feel these things.’

“I’ve always felt a lot. I’ve been inspired by simple things. I don’t need to have a relationship with someone to write a song about them.

“I can see them from across a room. I can be inspired to write a song about them.”

Taylor is following her best friend Miley Cyrus into acting . . . but only to be murdered on screen in a special episode of TV’s hit drama CSI.

“I’ve been obsessed with that show for years,” she explains. “I’ve seen every episode from Seasons One through to Nine.

“And I mentioned my obsession with the show in basically every one of my interviews so they wrote a part for me.” She adds: “This girl is 16-years-old and she changes her hair, she changes her appearance, she changes everything about herself and it’s this tragic sequence of events.”

Link

Taylor Swift French Interview

Note: The interview is in English, with French subtitles.

Nashville Scene: Taylor Swift Likes Pizza, but not Sushi

When I talked to Taylor Swift for the Scene‘sPeople Issue, I mentioned that I had read somewhere that she and Miley Cyrus had eaten an entire pizza while rehearsing for the Grammys. “Yeah, we were talking 100 miles a minute,” she said, “and so we didn’t even realize that we were just completely eating an entire box of pizza.” (I told her there’s a Nashville band, Those Darlins, who have a song called “Whole Damn Thing,” but that song’s about a chicken, not a pizza. “I’ll have to look that up!” she said.) Teenager, pizza: Makes sense.

Then I asked Swift to name some of her favorite Nashville restaurants, and she said, “I like Bricktop’s a lot…. Bricktop’s is cool. I went to Flyte once, have you ever been there?” I said I had been there, once. “It seemed really good,” she replied. Seemed really good? But I think I know what she meant: Everything about the atmosphere of the place–the way the wait staff carry themselves and brush the crumbs off your table–makes the place seem good. But maybe that’s another post. Anyway, pop star, fancy restaurant: Again, makes sense.

But remember when our own Nicki Wood asked the question: Eaten at the Old Spaghetti Factory latey? I guess I was a little surprised when Swift ‘fessed up.

“When I’m home, I like to get to know my brother,” Swift says. “Other than that, Abigail and I”–you may remember Abigail as her friend in “Fifteen” who “gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind”–“we’ll go to, like, the Old Spaghetti Factory. We literally do that. Just go to Broadway and do touristy stuff, because it’s fun.”

Then, probably because I had talked to chef Hide Watanabe earlier in the day, I popped the question: “Do you like sushi?”

“I have tried so hard to like sushi,” she said apologetically. “I am the last person on earth who is not cool enough to be able to eat sushi. I can’t swallow it.” Then, in the same voice I might use to ask Yoda how he lifted the X-Wing out of the swamp, she asked, “How do you do that?”

“Um, I guess it’s an acquired taste,” I offered, trying to reassure her that it has nothing to do with being cool. “You’re not the last person on earth, though,” I added, not wanting to put my interview subject off, “because actually I talked to a sushi chef today who also plays banjo. He’s friends with Earl Scruggs, and Earl Scruggs won’t eat sushi, either.” And though she was in L.A. and I in Nashville, I could sense the weight begin to lift. “That’s good to know I’m in good company.”

“You are in very good company,” I said.

“I tried so hard to like it.”

Link

Taylor Swift – Key 103 Interview – Feb. 19, 2009

Taylor Swift joined Lucy and Alex in-studio on the Manchester radio station Key 103 to talk about The Brit Awards, Grammys, Miley Cyrus, The Hannah Montana Movie, Miley and Justin, Justin Gaston, Love Story, If she’s going to tour in the UK, Hairstyle tips, Social Youth Campaigns, What she does in her free time and Kings of Leon.

Part One

Part Two