Taylor Swift

Taylor Alison Swift was born December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania and grew up in the nearby town of Wyomissing. Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer, Taylor's tastes always ran more toward country and she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton at an early age. Taylor was given the opportunity to showcase her own vocal chops at the age of 8 when she joined a local children's theater group for a production of Grease. "I was playing the role of Sandy... and it just came out sounding country," she recalls. "It was all I had listened to so I guess it was just kind of natural. I decided country music was what I needed to be doing." Through the next few years, Taylor began honing her talent by singing at every venue she could. "Every weekend I would go to festivals and fairs and karaoke contests -- any place I could get up on stage," she says. That experience clearly paid off, and at the age of 11, she was invited to sing the national anthem in front of thousands of boisterous fans at a Philadelphia 76ers game.

Her second album is about to be recorded and planned for a 2008 release, the same year she is scheduled to graduate high school through her home-school program.

On August 30, Taylor was named one of 5 nominees for the 2007 CMA Horizon Award. The CMA Awards will be televised on November 6.

Taylor is one of the first country music artists to use the Internet as a primary source of communication, such as her Myspace, which has over 26,000,000 music plays. She has directed much of her attention to her "Myspace friends" and attracts younger audiences because she is young herself.

In 2008, Taylor continued touring (she was on the road with Rascal Flatts as well as headlining some shows), which she loves so much.

In November 2008, she released her sophomore release, titled Fearless. Like the first album, it contains songs she's written and co-written. If it ain't broke... Whatever she does, you can be sure it will be a success. This girl looks to Garth Brooks as inspiration for how to treat her fans, and you can't get a better inspiration than that.

In March 2009, Swift, 19, gets candid on the cover of Rolling Stone, where she says of sex, "I feel like whatever you say about whether you do or don't, it makes people picture you naked. And as much as possible, I'm going to avoid that." Of her love (and breakup) songs, she adds, "I love love. I love studying it and watching it. I love thinking about how we treat each other, and the crazy way that one person can feel one thing and another can feel totally different."