Taylor attended the 2015 Brit Awards in London at the O2 Arena on Wednesday night.
It was a great night for Taylor, She opened the show with a stunning performance of Blank Space and soon after picked up her first Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist.
For once Taylor was early to the Red Carpet and had plenty of time to say hi to many fans who were waiting on the Red Carpet. Red Carpets are not free for anyone to attend events and everyone there had a wristband which they had won or been given for one reason or another in the days leading up to the Brit Awards. Many fans had camped out especially to get the wristbands a few days earlier and then again to get a good spot on the Red Carpet.
Taylor looked stunning on the Red Carpet in a long black dress with a small train behind it. On the back of the dress was a lace red dragon that trailed down her back and into the train of the dress. She had her hair nicely pinned up, only to let it out again for her performance.
Taylors performance of Blank Space was amazing as always. Simple but eye catching and I felt it fitted the song. Although the performance was not as out there as the 2013 Brit Awards performance and I felt didn't give as much indication as to what the tour may look like, I still loved the performance and Taylor sounded amazing.
You can watch the full performance below.
Shortly after Taylor's performance and she had returned to her seat in the audience, her name was called as winner of International Female Solo Artist. This award is Taylor's first Brit award.
The video of Taylor receiving the award is below along with the video from her interview back stage.
Taylor had many friends at the Brit Awards tonight including Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith and Karlie Kloss. I'm sure she had a great time with them all and will be heading back to Nashville soon to start her 1989 World Tour rehearsals.
Congratulations Taylor on your first Brit Award, It was very well deserved.
Taylor arrived in London in the early hours of Monday morning (Feb 23rd) for the Brit Awards on Wednesday night (London Time).
Taylor is a busy girl as we all know so in her time in London she has got up to the following.
A separate post about the Brits will be posted after the award show.
Taylor was first seen arriving at Londons Claridges Hotel. For those who don't know, Claridges is one of the most expensive and poshest hotels in London and ranges in price from 450 pounds to 4,500 pounds+ for the most exclusive penthouse suites. While Claridges does attract some of the biggest names in the world from pop stars to princes, it is not known if this is where Taylor is staying or if she has stayed there in the past. While the place is very flash and you get what you pay for in terms of price per night, to me it seems like Claridges may be a bit up market for the down to earth pop star.
After the sun rose in London, Taylor was set to get busy for the day. Sound check/rehearsal at the O2 Arena, Interviews with both Kiss FM UK and Capital FM and receiving an award for the biggest global artist of 2014 were all on Taylor's list of things to do on Monday.
Taylor is set to perform Blank Space at this years Brit Awards on Wednesday night after confirming in her interview with Kiss FM UK as the song she was performing. Taylor did her interview with Kiss FM UK backstage at the O2 Arena when she was there for soundcheck/rehearsal. In her interview she talked about many things including Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and the changes between now and the last time she performed at the Brits in 2013.
For the full interview listen below.
Also while at the O2 Arena, Taylor was surprised with the IFPI award after being named the world's most successful artist of 2014.The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI) named Taylor as the Global Recording Artist of 2014. The award covers physical sales, downloads and streaming numbers. Taylor's latest release 1989 is said to have totalled more than 8.6 Million copies worldwide since its release in late October 2014. Frances Moore, the CEO of the global organisation was backstage at the O2 Arena to present the award to Taylor. She has this to say about the popstar below.
"She merits this result as she is a hardworking and talented performer who has an amazing ability to connect with audiences worldwide. This IFPI award reflects the global popularity of recording artists across the diverse ways in which fans choose to listen to music today."
Taylor with the IFPI award, backstage at the O2 Arena in London.
More about Taylor's award can be found on the Billboard Article HERE
On Monday while Taylor was backstage at the O2 Arena for the Brit Awards soundcheck/rehearsal she also did an interview with Capital FM. Taylor discussed the upcoming Brit Awards, who would win in a fight between Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith and some of her fears of paparazzi. Listen to the full interview below.
On Tuesday morning, Taylor did an interview with BBC Radio One's breakfast host Nick Grimshaw. Taylor arrived at BBC Radio One to a crowd of loyal fans just waiting to get the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the pop star. Taylor proceeded to meet with as many of the fans as she could as the time allowed, before being ushered inside for her interview. Taylor even spotted a fan in the crowd who she recognised off Tumblr and got her manager Tree Paine to get her to the front of the crowd so they could meet. Many who met Taylor that morning had never met Taylor before so it was wonderful to see new people get that opportunity along with some who had met her on previous occasions.
The total interview was about 25 mins long and the video can be found below. Ed Sheeran was co-hosting with Nick Grimshaw for the morning so the questions and discussions were bounced back and forth between Ed and Taylor during the interview. Many topics were covered in the interview. Everything from Olivia, Taylor's cat and why she gets carried to the car instead of going in the cat cage, Ed's trip to a strip club in Atlanta during the RED Tour with the background dancers, The Brits, and more. They also played a little quiz game to see who knew the most about the other with the winner getting to tweet off the other person's phone.
Taylor spent Tuesday night at the Elle Style Awards with pals that included Ellie Goulding and Cara Delevingne. She was awarded the prestigious Woman Of The Year award by Elle and after the year she had in 2014, you can see why. After the awards Taylor headed to the Fund Fair which was an event set up to raise funds for Childrens Charities in the UK. While there Taylor met up with Karlie Kloss and Ellie Goulding and Cara Delevingne had also come along. Full review still to come
Taylor attended the 2015 Brit Awards Wednesday night and opened the show with Blank Space and picked up her first Brit award for International Female Solo artist.
You can find my full review HERE.
After attending the Universal Music Brit Awards after party (the company who promotes Taylor in the UK) Taylor appears to have headed back to the hotel to change before being spotted at London's Luton Airport north of the city to get her flight back home to Nashville to start the 1989 World Tour rehearsals. Taylor has had a very successful three days in London, picking up three awards along the way.
Taylor pictured with Ellie Goulding at the
Brits after party
Taylor arriving at London Luton Airport in the early hours of
Thursday morning to jet back to Nashville
Congratulations Taylor on your three awards and good luck for the start of 1989 World Tour rehearsals.
Taylor returned to the screen on Jimmy Fallon on Feb 17th, to appear as part of the one year celebrations for Jimmy Fallon being the host of the Tonight Show.
Guests appearing on Jimmy Fallon often do funny little skits and plays with Jimmy and are very entertaining. Last time Taylor was on the show her alter ego Natalie came out and this time Taylor's dancing at award shows was the topic. Taylor is known for her dancing and as she has been attending multiple sports games in NYC recently, Jimmy chose to combine both the dancing and fan cams at the sports games.
A video of Taylor's antics and the link to her tweet about the interview are below.
Link to Taylor's tweet HERE.
In the interview before Taylor and Jimmy got up to their antics, multiple topics were covered. These topics included Taylor performing onstage with Sir Paul McCartney and Jimmy at the SNL after party a few days before, The records 1989 broke (listed below), replicating the best friend drawing game Taylor did with Karlie for Vogue, and how her label wanted her to put some country songs on her new album.
The records 1989 broke that were mentioned on the show were
- The first female artist to have four studio albums to stay at number one for six plus weeks which hasn't happened since the Beatles.
- First artist ever to sell a million copies in the first week three times.
You can watch Taylor's interview below.
To see photos, gifs and more from Taylor's latest visit to Jimmy Fallon, the link is HERE.
For the first time, Taylor and Karlie Kloss have covered a magazine together. Vogue's march issue is what is known as the power issue and who better to put on the cover as one of the most powerful woman in the music industry and her fashion model bestie.
Its been obvious for a while that Taylor and Karlie are best friends after their meeting backstage at the 2013 Victoria Secret Fashion Show in NYC. Taylor was performing on the show and Karlie was one of the models. It was the mutual friend of Lily Aldridge who brought the initial idea of Taylor performing on the show to producers which allowed for the friendship to form.
With Karlie on the left and Taylor on the right, the two of them look so similar it can often be scary.
The two of them have been seen on many outings together including a road trip to Big Sur up the coast of California, getting ready for award shows and gala's together and attending basketball games.
The pair returned to the Victoria Secret Fashion Show in 2014 where they both walked the runway in London and Taylor performed 2 songs.
Taylor and Karlie played the Best Best Friends game and you can watch the video of their antics below.
For more on the article and photos from the cover shoot, you can find them HERE. .
The march issue of Vogue hits news stands this week so be sure to pick up a copy for the full article.
Style, the 3rd single to be released off Taylor's 5th studio album 1989.
Style was officially released to radio across the world on February 10th, with the music video to follow on February 13th. Style has been steadily climbing the Billboard charts and has yet to reach number one on the charts but is not far off doing so.
Style is rumoured to be about or relate in some way to Harry Styles by the media, as per the title of the song but it is just that, a rumour and true people who know Taylor just ignore anything like that.
Style was used during the lead up to the album release as a song preview in the Target commercial for the deluxe edition which could be found exclusively at Target.
The video for Style is again something very different to what Taylor has done before. The video included alot of imagery, shadowing and special effects to create the final product. Directed by Kyle Newman, who is Taylor's friend Jamie King Husband. Although it is not currently known when the video was filmed, some detective work has been done into when the video may have been filmed which I will get into further down the page. The video is below.
The video was initially premiered on Good Morning America on Friday 13th February and released on youtube soon after. Taylor did not make a public appearance on GMA as part of the release but was seen out in NYC later that day.
Style has already gained 10 Mil views on youtube in the 2 days since its release. Along with the video release, new merchandise was released both within America and world wide. 2 new 'Style' tops were released worldwide while other merchandise is available in America. The update to Taylor's website can be found Here.
It is suspected that some or all of the video was filmed as far back as early August 2014. As per the photos and screenshots of the video below, both the clothes and hair match up. In the first photo Taylor was seen out in Central Park in NYC in August 2014 looking a little bit down in herself on a park bench. However as you can see in the second one which is from the video how it matches.
The second comparison below is also from August 2014, Taylor was seen in this dress visiting a Boston Childrens Hospital where she stayed for approx 5 hours visiting patients. This could give the suggestion that the video was filmed on the coast of Massachusetts somewhere which is in the same area as where her 2010 video for Mine was filmed.
Many people tweeted about the release of the video and you can view the full list of Tweets HERE.
Meanwhile, 1989 is currently at just over 4 Mil in sales in the US alone and bringing in album sales of over 6 Mil worldwide in just 3.5 months. This brings 1989 to outsell the number of copies Taylor's 4th album RED sold in 2 years, in just the first 3.5 months of its release. 1989 has logged its 11th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, which has brought it in to tie with her 2nd album Fearless as her longest charting album at number 1.
Its only onwards and upwards for Taylor from here.
So, Taylor didn't win any awards this year at the 2015 Grammy Awards but she sure had a good time anyway.
Taylor is known for her award show dancing and given that she had her best friend Abigail Anderson with her, she had the perfect dancing partner with her for the night. Taylor also presented the first award of the night while also introduced one performance as well.
First order of business of the night was presenting Best New Artist. This category contained some of Taylor's close friends including Haim and Sam Smith. Her introduction included a joke at herself after saying "As a former loser of best new artist in 2008, if you do not win this award, its going to be fine, just like shake it off". Taylor lost to Amy Winehouse in 2008 and has clearly proven that you will be just fine. Below, is Taylor's introduction and presenting the award to Sam Smith.
Once Taylor returned to her seat in the front row with Abigail, the dance party commenced. Taylor was seen dancing at various times throughout the night and danced to pretty much everyone who performed. Taylor was seen dancing as the likes of Pharrell and Lady Gaga looked on.
During the night she also said hi to Kanye West. This came after Kanye West almost pulled the same stunt he did to Taylor back in 2008 at the VMA's. Kanye West could be seen going half way up the steps after another artist Beck was awarded Album of the Year to interrupt his speech but then decided against. You would have thought Kanye West would have become a bit smarter in the last 6-7 years but no. Kanye West was once again defending Beyonce as he felt she should have been given Album of the Year.
Later on in the night Taylor came back out on stage to announce the next performer which was Sam Smith who dueted with Annie Lennox for his song Stay With Me.
Taylor was very gracious in her defeats in both Song and Record of the Year. She was the first one to stand up both times. This shows just how kind hearted Taylor is and how she is able to accept both sides of the award shows.
While the Grammys' were on commercial breaks alot goes on that most people don't see. This included talking to Kanye West and surfing Tumblr. While there is nothing new about Taylor being on Tumblr, the fans knew she was going to be on during the commercial breaks.
One fan Jill, who was posting on tumblr while attending the awards caught Taylor's attention and that was enough. Taylor sent her publicist Tree Paine to find her and bring her back stage. This all came as a surprise to Jill and her boyfriend who was with her. They were brought backstage at the Grammys and one of the crew said this was the first time a celebrity had requested a fan be brought back stage in all the years he had worked the Grammys. A full story of how the meeting went down can be found HERE.
For a full rundown, including interviews with Ryan Seacrest, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Weekly, Photos of Taylor on the Red Carpet, Gifs and videos of Taylor dancing and more, check out Taylor Swift NZ's Tumblr with the link HERE.
1989 has smashed records so far and we know it wasn't eligible for the 2015 Grammys but sure it will be well awarded next year at the 2016 Grammys.
Taylor has done it again and made history yet again. What for this time you ask?
Well let me explain below.
In the week ending Feb 1st, '1989' jumped 2-1 up from the number 2 spot on the Billboard 200 Chart to reclaim the top spot for a record equalling 10th non-consecutive week since the albums release just over 3 months ago.
The history making part you ask? Well, '1989' gives Taylor her 2nd album to stay at the top of the Billboard 200 Charts for at least 10 weeks after her sophomore album Fearless stayed atop the chart for 11 weeks in 2008/2009.
'1989' steps back into the No. 1 spot with an equivalent 101,000 album units which include traditional album sales, track equivalent albums and streaming equivalent albums. Taylor follows Whitney Houston as the only woman to achieve such a feat and have multiple albums lodge 10 weeks or more atop the Billboard 200 chart after Houston did so in 1986, 1987 and 1992/1993.
In total, only 7 acts including Taylor and Houston have made it to 10+ weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart which includes The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
You can read more about the chart topping feat along with the others who make up the top 10 HERE.
I can easily see Taylor going for an 11th week atop the charts and with the Grammys and 1989 world tour just round the corner even more weeks atop the charts seems likely. This could easily give Taylor her most successful album yet.
UPDATE: Taylor makes it 11 weeks atop Billboard 200 Chart. More info can be found HERE.
Taylor looked stunning on the Red Carpet in a long black dress with a small train behind it. On the back of the dress was a lace red dragon that trailed down her back and into the train of the dress. She had her hair nicely pinned up, only to let it out again for her performance.
