Between tours, Swift has been busy
She’s coming back, certainly stronger than a ’90s trend. ⬤ Taylor Swift is embarking this week on her first tour in nearly five years. And boy, does she have a lot of ground to cover. ⬤ The Eras Tour suggests fans will be hearing songs from all 10 of her original studio albums. Four of which were released since her 2018 Reputation World Tour. Not to mention she rerecorded two albums. ⬤ Swift has been up a lot outside of music since her last tour, too. Here’s everything the 32-year-old music icon has done since the last time fans saw her on the road. Are you ready for it?
Scooter Braun masters feud leads to (Taylor’s Version) rerecords
Just days before the Reputation Tour ended, Swift announced that she had signed with with Universal Music Group and its subsidiary Republic Records following the expiration of her original contract with Big Machine Records, highlighting her excitement for being able to own all the master recordings she created from that moment on.
Her previous masters, however, were purchased by music tycoon Scooter Braun in 2019.Swift called the sale to Braun her “worst-case scenario” in a dramatic, public back-and-forth about the sale of the artists’ life’s work, which Swift said she was not made aware of before the rest of the world found out.
Silver lining: Because Swift writes her music, she still has publishing rights. Thus began the process of rerecording her past discography.
COVID-19 cancels ‘Lover’ live shows
Saying goodbye to a scheduled Swift tour was death by a thousand cuts. The singer announced a series of summer festival-esque “Lover Fest” shows in 2019. But when the pandemic called off the circus and burned the disco down, Lover Fest was caught in the crossfire.
At least Swifties will always have Paris – her 2019 “Live From Paris” live album, that is.
4 new original albums ...
Of course, there’s the aforementioned “Lover.” But Swift then released surprise quarantine folksy album “Folklore” in summer 2020, which would go on to win her third album of the year Grammy, and sister album “Evermore” a few months later.
And in 2022, Swift dropped “Midnights,” an introspective return to pop that explored “13 sleepless nights” scattered through her life.
... and 2 more rerecorded albums
And then there were the rerecords.
Swift has made good on her promise to rerecord, releasing two out of her first six albums so far: “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version).” Each includes songs from the original albums, plus tracks she refers to as “From the vault” – updated versions of songs that originally were left on the cutting room floor featuring artists including Phoebe Bridgers, Maren Morris, Keith Urban and Chris Stapleton.
Awards won, records broken and honors received
Swift knows a thing or two about collecting accolades. These are some of the awards, records and honors she’s received in the past five years – since the Reputation Tour broke the record for highest-grossing U.S. tour.
⬤ Grammys: Two, including 2021 Album of the Year, which made her the first female artist to win AOTY three times.
⬤ American Music Awards: 17, and became the winningest honoree in the awards’ history.
⬤ Billboard Music Awards: 6.
⬤ MTV Video Music Awards: 7.
⬤ People’s Choice Awards: 5.
⬤ Woman of the Decade at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music Awards.
⬤ Artist of the Decade at the 2019 American Music Awards.
⬤ Icon Award at the 2019 Teen Choice Awards.
⬤ Songwriter-Artist of the Decade at the 2022 Nashville Songwriters Awards.
⬤ Honorary doctorate from New York University in 2022.
‘I think I’ve seen this film before’: Taylor Swift at the movies
Swift is no stranger to the big screen – remember “Valentine’s Day” (2010) and “The Lorax” (2012)? But the past few years have brought us a variety of films involving Swift. There was the star-studded, live-action version of “Cats” (2019), Swift documentary “Miss Americana” (2020), concert films “City of Lover” and “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” (2020) and Swift’s cameo in David O. Russell’s mystery/thriller “Amsterdam” (2022).
She also has taken to working behind the scenes: Following the success of 2021’s “All Too Well: The Short Film,” which Swift wrote and directed, Searchlight Pictures announced last year that Swift would add feature film writer and director to her résumé.
And even more new music
Those six albums in less than five years weren’t enough? These singles, features and other releases also join Swift’s lengthy discography.
⬤ “Lover (Remix)” featuring Shawn Mendes (2019).
⬤ “Macavity” from the “Cats” soundtrack (2019).
⬤ “Beautiful Ghosts” from the “Cats” soundtrack (2019).
⬤ “Christmas Tree Farm” (2019).
⬤ “Only The Young” from the “Miss Americana” soundtrack (2020).
⬤ “Renegade” by Big Red Machine (2021).
⬤ “Birch” by Big Red Machine (2021).
⬤ “Gasoline” by Haim (2021).
⬤ “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” (2021).
⬤ “The Joker and the Queen” by Ed Sheeran (2022).
⬤ “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” (2022).
⬤ “Carolina” from the “Where the Crawdads Sing” soundtrack (2022).