Taylor Swift is Time’s Person of the Year for 2023.
There were nine people/groups nominated this year, ranging from powerhouse celebrities to controversial political figures and more. But amongst the stiff competition, Time has officially named the 33-year-old music powerhouse as the winner.
Taylor had the most dominant year with her streaming breakthroughs, Eras tour, massive worldwide success, and more.
Time explained of their pick:
“For building a world of her own that made a place for so many, for spinning her story into a global legend, for bringing joy to a society desperately in need of it, Taylor Swift is TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year.
In a divided world, where too many institutions are failing, Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light. No one else on the planet today can move so many people so well. Achieving this feat is something we often chalk up to the alignments of planets and fates, but giving too much credit to the stars ignores her skill and her power.”
Here are some of the biggest highlights from her interview for the mag —
On the catalysts to her success:
“It’s not lost on me that the two great catalysts for this happening were two horrendous things that happened to me. The first was getting canceled within an inch of my life and sanity. The second was having my life’s work taken away from me by someone who hates me.”
She was referring of course to the Kim Kardashian/Kanye West incident, and not owning her masters.
She stated:
“Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me.
You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
On Scooter Braun buying her masters:
“With the Scooter thing, my masters were being sold to someone who actively wanted them for nefarious reasons, in my opinion. I was so knocked on my ass by the sale of my music, and to whom it was sold. I was like, ‘Oh, they got me beat now. This is it. I don’t know what to do.
I’d run into Kelly Clarkson and she would go, ‘Just redo it.’ My dad kept saying it to me too. I’d look at them and go, ‘How can I possibly do that?’ Nobody wants to redo their homework if on the way to school, the wind blows your book report away.”
Her powerful declaration about trash:
“Nothing is permanent. So I’m very careful to be grateful every second that I get to be doing this at this level, because I’ve had it taken away from me before. There is one thing I’ve learned: My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art.
But I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out every single time.”
On Travis Kelce and when they really started dating:
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell. 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.”
