1989 and Release week

Monday October 27th at Midnight, Taylor's new album 1989 was release world wide on iTunes and as day broke on Monday morning, fans across america flocked to Target and other stores to buy their own copy of 1989 and get the Polaroid photos that came with it.

Across the world some had to wait until Tuesday 28th October to get their hands on a CD copy of 1989 with the differences in time zones across the world.

1989 shot straight to the top of the charts around the world and currently sits at #1 top of 89 charts on iTunes worldwide. Billboard has been reviewing its estimated sales charts throughout the week since the release of 1989 and now on Oct 29th predicts that the album will sell over 1.2 Million copies up from earlier predictions of 700k, 900k, and 1 Mil. By the time Taylor appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on Tuesday night (28th Oct) it was already known that 1989 had sold over 600,000 copies in just 24 hours.

Release week kicked of with a bang at about 11pm ET on Sunday 26th October when 1989 was released onto iTunes in America and the rest of the world followed suit at 12am Monday 27th October when 1989 was released onto iTunes worldwide.

Monday morning and Taylor makes her first appearance of what is a very busy week promoting the album across many different tv shows and radio stations. First up is Good Morning America at the studio in Times Square in New York City. The announcement was made that Taylor will be returning to Times Square on New Years Eve to perform at the 2015 Dick Clark's Rocking New Years Eve on which Taylor last performed on in 2012 after the release of her last album RED. Taylor will be returning to GMA to perform on Thursday 30th October. Video of the interview can be found below along with the performance from later in the week.

As part of release week, Taylor made a long awaited return to Ellen. She was last on the show in 2012 for the release of RED and this time around Ellen dedicated the full episode to her. The episode was filmed the week prior and aired on Monday 27th October. Taylor talked about many things and brought some super cute videos of Olivia to share. Taylor also performed Shake It Off and Out Of The Woods and did a funny cat segment with Ellen. Sadly Ellen didn't scare her on the show this time around. A video from the interview can be found below. The full episode is Here.

Taylor and iHeart Radio hosted the ultimate secret session Monday night on top of a roof top in New York City with the skyline and Empire State Building in the background. Taylor hand picked fans to be at this session and proceeded to take polaroids with them after the concert. Taylor performed Welcome To New York, Blank Space and Style for the first time along with Out Of The Woods and Shake It Off. What made this even more special is that Taylor had the Empire State Building flashing and lighting up in time to the beat of the songs as she performed them and Taylor was able to see the Empire State Building as she was performing.

On Tuesday Taylor was on The Late Show with David Letterman where she also performed Welcome To New York. Interview and Performance is below.

Madame Tussauds in Sydney, Los Angeles and Washington DC all have unveiled new wax sculptures to coincide with the release of 1989. Sydney based theirs off the 2012 performance on Dancing With The Stars USA, Los Angeles based theirs off the 2013 performance of The RED Tour at The Staples Center when Taylor wore an I heart LA top, while Washington DC based theirs off the 2012 performance outfit from the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden.

Other appearances are made on tv shows The View, The Talk and The Voice US. Taylor is on air co hosting with Ryan Seacrest via skype to Los Angeles and performed on Good Morning America. Taylor performed Welcome To New York, Out Of The Woods and Shake It Off in Times Square in what was the biggest concert ever in Times Square that drew a massive crowd which could simulate the crowds that New Years Eve celebrations draw.

More appearances are scheduled for Friday Oct 31st which happens to be Halloween. Taylor is attending a Halloween party and we all know she scares easily so should be interesting to see what happens.

Throughout the week Taylor has been doing something she has hastagged #Taylurking. Taylor has been looking on instagram, Tumblr and Twitter to find photos of fans with the new album, polaroids, both or displaying them in some interesting way. She has proceeded to then start tweeting photos which is making fans freak out across the world. Along with the photos she is tweeting lyrics from the new album with each set of photos she posts. Some of the photos have even been edited by Taylor with filters before she has posted them. A link to Taylor's twitter account is here.

With 5 separate sets of Polaroids to collect and it being completely random with each CD, let the trading begin and Good Luck getting all the sets.

Welcome To New York "1989"

So the release of 'Welcome To New York' didn't go quite to plan tonight with the song leaking early into some countries iTunes stores as early as lunchtime Eastern Time and then as word spread of the leak iTunes is believed to have crashed with the amount of Swifties trying to buy the song.

As you can gather, Today was rather eventful. With everything that happened today, I hope there is no repeat of today for the full album release in just under a weeks time on October 27th.

Today Taylor flew out of Australia bound for LA with multiple appearances scheduled including The Ellen Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and We Can Survive concert. Some where in between flying from Sydney to LA, 'Welcome To New York' is believed to have leaked and appeared on iTunes accounts in Australia, New Zealand and the UK (according to posts on Twitter). Once the news of this spread rapidly across Twitter as Swifties across the world waited for the song to be released at 11:59pm EST in America, Scott Borchetta, Taylor, and iTunes raced to fix the problem and release the song worldwide as soon as possible. Before the night was up and the clock hit 11:59pm EST, 'Welcome To New York' had already topped the iTunes charts in both America and Canada while either sitting at the tops of other charts around the world or steadily climbing the charts.

This was not the kind of stress that anyone needed today, especially Taylor. Jet lagged after being in Paris, London, America and Australia all within 10 days and another long flight ahead of her before the rest of the week is super busy with appearances in the week before her highly anticipated 5th album "1989" is released. Then add trying to get iTunes to release 'Welcome To New York' earlier than planned adds up to one very tired Taylor but I know she is loving life right now and thats all we can ask for.

Anyway, on the song:

'Welcome To New York' is track 1 on the new album "1989" and was written in collaboration with Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic.
'Welcome To New York' was inspired by the city itself as an important part of Taylor's life for the past few years having just brought an apartment in the city back in March 2014. Taylor describes New York as an electric city and an inspiration hard to describes like anything she has felt before.
The video can be found below

Although most of us may have never been to New York, the song makes us both feel welcome and resonates deep within us.

One of the key lyrics is "Boys and Boys and Girls and Girls". In a time where Gay and Lesbian rights and opinions about them are so divided, I feel this is a subtle hint towards Taylor's opinion.

Out Of The Woods "1989"

Midnight on Tuesday 14th October 2014, Taylor released the next song off her upcoming album "1989". It was clear that this release was not the next single but just a promotional song.

However as shown by "Ours" in 2011, which was an additional song on the deluxe version of the 2010 album "Speak Now", If the song is really popular and taken hold of by the fans, it may become a single at a later date with its own music video.

Taylor released a preview of Out Of The Woods on Monday 13th October through Good Morning America and released the song to iTunes that night.

"Out Of The Woods" has been very well received and topped iTunes charts around the world, only knocking "Shake It Off " out of the top spot to create a No.1 /No.2 situation in many countries around the world. Pre Orders of "1989" on iTunes have also sent the album back to No. 1 around the world.

Out Of The Woods was co-written and co-produced with Jack Antonoff who is from the band FUN. who also wrote the song "Sweeter Than Fiction" with Taylor in 2013.

You can see Taylor talking about the influences behind "Out Of The Woods" below. Billboard rated "Out Of The Woods" 4.5/5 stars and you can read the full review here.

Until next time, enjoy the new music

Billboard Woman of the Year 2014

Billboard recently announced that Taylor Swift is the 2014 Woman of the Year.

Billboard's Woman of the Year is defined as the female artist who "has shaped and inspired the music industry with her success, leadership and innovation over the past 12 months." as quoted here.

Taylor was first awarded the honor in 2011 after the success of Speak Now and a sold out Speak Now World Tour. Below is a video of Taylor being honored at the 2011 Billboard Woman in Music Awards on Dec 2 2011 in New York. Taylor was the youngest person to receive the honor when she received it in 2011.

This year in 2014, Taylor has been awarded Billboard Woman of the Year again and makes history as the first artist every to be awarded the honor twice. With the upcoming release of "1989" and the only new music to be released so far this year being 'Shake It Off ', This honor just shows how much Taylor influences the music industry and the world. Taylor came off a very successful RED Tour back in June. Taylor will receive her award in December.

A link to the Billboard article can be found Here.

Taylor's album release and promotion schedule for 1989

I will keep this as updated as possible and only add events once they are confirmed

October 6 - Le Grand Journal - Paris.
October 6 - NRJ radio interview - Paris
October 7 - C a vous tv show performance and radio station interviews - Paris
October 8 - Alan Carr taping to air Oct 24th in US - London
October 9 - Capital Breakfast - London's Shard building
                 - BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge - London
October 10 - Graham Norton Show feat Taylor airs - London
October 12 - X Factor UK performance - Manchester UK
October 17 - Stand Up To Cancer UK Skit (pre recorded) - London
October 20 - X Factor Grand Final - Sydney, Australia
                   - Fitzy & Wippa/ Kyle & Jackie radio interviews - Sydney, Australia
October 22 - Ellen Show taping and possible performance to air Oct 27th - LA
October 23 - Jimmy Kimmel live exclusive performance - Hollywood Boulevard
October 24 - "We Can Survive" Concert supporting Breast Cancer at the Hollywood Bowl - LA
October 27 - 1989 Midnight Album Release world wide
                   - Good Morning America Interview - NYC Times Square
                   - CMT Canada special
October 28 - Madame Tussauds Wax Figure unveil - NYC
                   - Late Show with David Letterman - NYC
October 29 - Scholastic 1pm ET time Live - NYC
                   - The View guest appearance - NYC
October 30 - Good Morning America performance - NYC
October 31 - Elvis Duran and The Morning Show - NYC



November 5 - CMA Awards (Taylor is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year) - Nashville
November 9 - MTV EMA's ( Taylor is nominated twice)- Glasgow
November 23 - The AMA's - LA

October is here #1989Month

So October is here and the countdown is on until 1989 is released on October 27th.

I shall be covering everything from the iHeart Radio performance, promotional events and tv appearances, #1989SecertSessions to magazine covers.

On 19th September 2014, Taylor performed at the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas. Taylor was the first performer on the night getting to open the iHeart Radio Music Festival. Taylor started out the performance with a very cunning and very Taylor secret agent clip filmed in and around the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where the event was being held. The clip featured a vintage car with the number plate "1989", fans in the hotel lobby and Ryan Seacrest. Taylor's set list for the performance is as follows: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, 22, I Knew You Were Trouble, Love Story -Remix and Shake It Off. Sadly there was no extra or new songs performed that we had not already previously heard and I am not surprised by the set list of the night. A full video of both the introduction clip and performance can be found below.

As the album release grows closer, Taylor is starting to do more promotional events both on tv and with different commercial outlets. Taylor appeared on a French Canadian talk show Tout le Monde en parle in Montreal on 28th September as part of her album promotion. While she was in Canada it is also believed that she talked with multiple out radio hosts, tv shows and entertainment shows all of which the interviews will air during release week Oct 27th - 31st. Just some of the places she has talked with lately throughout America and Canada are Access Hollywood, CTV Canada and ETalk Canada. Interviews have also been done with British, French and German radio stations which are all still yet to air. Most interviews can be found on youtube.

This album Taylor has teamed up with Subway to have a special promotion of being able to win a trip to see Taylor live on tour next year. The promotion involves buying a special collectible cup which has a code on it which you can enter online for your chance to win. More information including videos on putting the album together and commercials for Taylor's Subway promotion can be found Here.

#1989SecretSessions are just exactly what the hashtag reads they are Secret listening sessions of the full 1989 album. Taylor personally invited fans from across America to both her home in LA and her parents house just outside of Nashville for a party where they got to hear the full 1989 album, have Taylor tell them about the meaning of each song, hang out with Taylor and get Polaroid photos with Taylor. Fans were chosen from Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Taylor Connect with all the fans being given the opportunity to meet Taylor for the first time. There were 89 fans at each listening session and they all had the opportunity to also talk with Scott and Andrea, Taylor's parents. Each fan also went home with a gift bag which included 2 T-Shirts, one tank top, tote bag, a personalised keyring from the listening session and more.

After the release of the album a behind the scenes video from the secret sessions was released and can be found below.

Taylor is featuring on the cover on many magazines in the lead up to the release of 1989. Rolling Stone, Fashion Canada, British Vogue and Nashville Lifestyles all have Taylor as the cover girl for the latest either October or November issues of their magazines. Rolling Stone was the first to release their magazine a few weeks ago and Fashion Canada, British Vogue and Nashville Lifestyles have all just released the latest copies of their magazines in the last week.

I will be posting a schedule of upcoming events Taylor has in the next few months later on.