Swift named Time’s person of the year

Time magazine on Wednesday named Taylor

Swift as its person of the year.

“Picking one person who represents the 8 billion people on the planet is no easy task. We picked a choice that represents joy. Someone who’s bringing light to the world,” said Sam Jacobs, the magazine’s editor, on NBC’s “Today” Wednesday morning. “She was like weather, she was everywhere.”

Swift beat out eight other finalists who were announced on “Today” this week, including King Charles III and Barbie.

“Swift’s accomplishments as an artist — culturally, critically, and commercially — are so legion that to recount them seems almost beside the point,” the magazine wrote.

Time awards the title to “the individual, group, or concept that has had the most influence on the world throughout the previous 12 months.” Launched as a marketing gimmick in the 1920s, the award has continued to drive fanfare as weekly print magazines struggle to remain relevant.

Last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the magazine awarded the distinction to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, and the “spirit of Ukraine.”

The magazine named Elon Musk person of the year in 2021. “With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons,” the magazine wrote at the time.

In 2020, Joe Biden and

Kamala Harris — then the president-elect and vice president-elect — were on the cover, and in 2019 it was climate activist Greta

Thunberg.

In 2018, the title went to

Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and other journalists. The previous year, the title went to “the silence breakers,” women who stepped forward to accuse powerful men of sexual harassment and assault.

And in 2016 it was President-elect Donald Trump, whom the magazine called the “president of the divided states of America.”