Who is Taylor Swift?

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country pop singer. Signed to the independent Big Machine Records label in 2006, she made her debut on the Billboard country charts with the release of her debut single "Tim McGraw". This song, which peaked at #6, was the first of five singles from her self-titled debut, which was released in late 2006 and re-issued in 2007, and has been certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA. Following "Tim McGraw" were the #2 "Teardrops on My Guitar", the six-week Number One "Our Song", the #3 "Picture to Burn" and another Number One in "Should've Said No".
All five singles from her debut were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, as was her song "Change" from the AT&T TEAM USA Soundtrack. Her second album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008 and its lead-off single "Love Story" has become her highest Hot 100 hit.

The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop’s finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".

According to Nielsen SoundScan, with a combined sales of more than four million albums sold, Swift is the biggest selling artist of 2008 in America. Swift's Fearless and her self-titled album finished 2008 at #3 and #6 respectively with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million. This is the first time in the history of Nielsen SoundScan one artist had two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart. In early January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to reach the 2 million paid download mark with two different songs. Her current hit, "Love Story," has sold 2,026,000 downloads. Her 2007 hit, "Teardrops On My Guitar," has sold 2,052,000 downloads.