My Taylor Swift Blog: Taylor in London Feb 2015

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.

#innit trend that pic.twitter.com/KQKYPmjAV7
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 24, 2015

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.