fitness articles

,  Font size

Motivation Point

Top 10 Celebrities with Finest and Fittest Physique 2013

6)  Taylor Swift

Taylor Alison Swift was born on 13th December 1989. She is an American singer-songwriter. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed with the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's eponymous debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008. Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless became the best-selling album of 2009 and was supported by an extensive concert tour. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Swift's third album, 2010's Speak Now, sold over one million copies in its first week of US release and was supported by the Speak Now World Tour. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards. Swift's fourth album, Red, was released in 2012.

Its opening US sales of 1.2 million were the highest recorded in a decade, with Swift becoming the only female artist to have two million-plus opening weeks. The singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble" were worldwide hits. The Red Tour is visiting worldwide venues in 2013 and 2014. Swift is known for her narrative songs about her experiences as a teenager and young adult. As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Swift's other achievements include seven Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, fifteen American Music Awards, eleven Country Music Association Awards and six Academy of Country Music Awards. She has sold over 26 million albums and 75 million digital single downloads worldwide. Forbes estimates that she is worth over $220 million. In addition to her music career, Swift has appeared as an actress in the ensemble comedy Valentine's Day (2010) and the animated film The Lorax (2012). As a philanthropist, Swift supports arts education, children's literacy, natural disaster relief, LGBT anti-discrimination efforts, and charities for sick children.

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a Merrill Lynch financial adviser. Scott was raised in Pennsylvania and is the descendant of three generations of bank presidents. Her mother, Andrea (n�e Finlay), is a homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive. Andrea spent the first ten years of her life in Singapore, before settling in Texas; her father was an oil rig engineer who worked throughout Southeast Asia. Swift has a younger brother, Austin, who attends the University of Notre Dame.

She and her brother were raised in the Presbyterian faith and attended bible school. She spent the early years of her life on an eleven-acre Christmas tree farm in Cumru Township, Pennsylvania. She attended preschool and kindergarten at the Alvernia Montessori School, run by Franciscan nuns, and was later educated at the Wyndcroft School, a co-ed private school. When Swift was nine years old, the family moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where she attended West Reading Elementary Center and Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. Swift summered at her parents' waterfront vacation home in Stone Harbor, New Jersey and has described it as the place "where most of my childhood memories were formed."

Swift's family owned several Quarter horses and a Shetland pony and her first hobby was English horse riding. Her mother first put her in a saddle when she was nine months old and she later competed in horse shows. At the age of nine, Swift became interested in musical theatre. She performed in many Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions and traveled regularly to Broadway for vocal and acting lessons. Swift then turned her attention to country music; Shania Twain's songs made her "want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything." She spent her weekends performing at local festivals, fairs, coffeehouses, karaoke contests, garden clubs, Boy Scout meetings and sporting events.

At the age of eleven, after many failed attempts, Swift won a local talent competition by singing a rendition of LeAnn Rimes's "Big Deal", and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels at a Strausstown amphitheater. This growing ambition began to isolate Swift from her middle school peers. After watching a Behind the Music episode about Faith Hill, Swift felt sure that she needed to go to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a music career. At the age of eleven, she traveled with her mother to Nashville for spring break to leave a demo of Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks karaoke covers with record labels along Music Row.

She received label rejections and realized that "everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do. So, I kept thinking to myself, I need to figure out a way to be different." At the age of twelve, Swift was shown by a computer repairman how to play three chords on a guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You". She had previously won a national poetry contest with a poem titled "Monster in My Closet" but now began to focus on songwriting.

In 2003, Swift and her parents started working with New York-based music manager Dan Dymtrow. With Dymtrow's help, Swift modelled for Abercrombie and Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign, had an original song included in a Maybelline Cosmetics compilation CD and took meetings with major record labels. After performing original songs at an RCA Records showcase, the eighth-grader was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother.

When Swift was fourteen, her father transferred to the Nashville office of Merrill Lynch and the family relocated to a lakefront house in Hendersonville, Tennessee. "My parents took all the pressure off by saying, �We�re just moving because we love the area, so don�t worry.� They knew nothing about the industry and had no involvement in entertainment, but I was obsessed with it and so they did their research and read up about it to help me in every way they could. They�re amazing people." In Tennessee, she attended Hendersonville High School for her freshman and sophomore years. Later, to accommodate her touring schedule, Swift transferred to the Aaron Academy, a private Christian school which offered homeschooling services. She earned her high school diploma in 2008, having completed her final two years of course work in twelve months.

Swift's fourth studio album, Red, was released in October 2012. She wrote nine of the album's sixteen songs alone. The remaining seven were co-written with Max Martin, Liz Rose, Dan Wilson, Ed Sheeran and Gary Lightbody. Nathan Chapman served as the album's lead producer but Jeff Bhasker, Butch Walker, Jacknife Lee, Dann Huff and Shellback also produced individual tracks. Chapman has said he encouraged Swift "to branch out and to test herself in other situations." Musically, while there is experimentation with heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop, it is "sprinkled among more recognisably Swiftian fare."

Jon Caramanica of The New York Times found Red "less detailed and more rushed than her usual fare" but placed it at number two on his end-of-year list, characterizing it as the album on which Swift "stops pretending she�s anything but a pop megastar, one with grown-up concerns, like how two bodies speak to each other and how taste in records can be a stand-in for moral turpitude." The Times praised her "sublime" lyrics, particularly those on the "brooding" "All Too Well". Rolling Stone enjoyed "watching Swift find her pony-footing on Great Songwriter Mountain. She often succeeds in joining the Joni/Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping ... Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop."

In the Red era, Swift's romantic life became the subject of intense media scrutiny. Gawker remarked that Swift had dated "every man in the universe." The Westboro Baptist Church protested Swift's concerts, labelling her "the whorish face of doomed America," while Abercrombie and Fitch marketed a slogan t-shirt with a "slut-shaming" Swift reference. The New York Times asserted that her "dating history has begun to stir what feels like the beginning of a backlash" and questioned whether Swift was in the midst of a "quarter-life crisis." The Village Voice suggested that Swift's embrace of "traditional femininity" was the cause of the backlash: "She's young, she can be contentiously dramatic, she puts herself in the center of her stories, and obviously she's dated a lot of famous people in a relatively short amount of time. But none of that is exceptionally rare."

At the Golden Globes award ceremony, comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler poked fun at Swift's serial dating reputation, with Fey warning her to "stay away" from young men in the audience: "She needs some 'me' time to learn about herself." Swift was later asked about the incident in a Vanity Fair profile: �I was just sort of like, Oh well, you know, I can laugh at myself. But what it ended up adding to was this whole kind of everyone jumping on the bandwagon of �Taylor dates too much��which, you know, if you want some big revelation, since 2010 I have dated exactly two people.� Elsewhere in the article, whilst discussing what the journalist describes as "the Golden Globes, and mean girls in general," Swift approvingly quoted Madeline Albright's remark that �There�s a special place in hell for women who don�t help other women.�

Swift began writing songs for her fifth studio album in July 2013. While she hopes to re-team with some past collaborators, she also has "a really long list of the people I admire and I would really love to go and contact." In November 2013, Billboard reported that Swift has been "doing much of her work with Max Martin again." Also that month, Swift told Billboard that, "There are probably seven or eight songs that I know I want on the record. It's already evolved into a new sound, and that's all I wanted.

Swift has high Q Score and Davie-Brown Index ratings, reflecting a high level of public awareness (90 percent) and popularity (80 percent) in the United States. The singer considers it her "responsibility" to be conscious of her influence on young fans. A Rolling Stone journalist who profiled Swift in 2009 remarked upon her polite manners: "If this is Swift's game face, it must be tattooed on because it never drops." In 2012, Rolling Stone remarked upon Swift's "ease with glad-handing ... it's not hard to imagine her running for office someday" while The Hollywood Reporter referred to her as "the Best People Person Since Bill Clinton." It has been said that she is "the kind of driven, intensely ambitious person who�d thrive regardless of her profession."

A 2012 Vogue cover story described Swift as "clever and funny and occasionally downright bawdy" in person. Grantland describes Swift as "dorky" and "openly neurotic in a way you'd never see from a blonde country princess like Faith Hill or Carrie Underwood. She is more like Diane Keaton in Annie Hall: overly gracious and eager to please but full of a nonstop, nervous, fluttering energy." There has been much media commentary about Swift's surprised reactions when she is recognized at award ceremonies. Swift laughingly noted that "people make so much fun of me." Although she sometimes tries to act blas�, "it's just hard when you get excited about stuff. It's like, if you win an award, isn't that crazy? ... How do you sit there and be like 'Oh, another Grammy. I guess I'm gonna get that now'?"

In the early years of her career, Swift's signature look consisted of sundresses and cowboy boots. This fashion style is still copied by many of the young fans who attend her concerts. At formal events, Swift became known for "sparkly, beaded dresses." Her naturally curly hairstyle is replicated by fans, and Swift has remarked: "I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It's just funny." She was asked by Vogue to cut bangs for a cover shoot in late 2011, and now straightens her hair. Swift favors retro style and it has been said that she has the look of "a nineteen-thirties movie siren ... red lipstick, thick mascara." She was named an Icon of American Style by Vogue in 2011. She has named Fran�oise Hardy, Jane Birkin, Brigitte Bardot, and Audrey Hepburn as her own style inspirations.

While promoting her self-titled debut record, Swift appeared as a spokesmodel for l.e.i. jeans and as the face of Verizon Wireless' Mobile Music campaign. In the Fearless era, she launched a l.e.i. sundress range at Wal-Mart, and designed American Greetings cards and Jakks Pacific dolls. She became a spokesperson for the NHL's Nashville Predators and Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras. She performed in a commercial for the Band Hero video game, with Rivers Cuomo, Pete Wentz and Travis Barker appearing as her backing band. In the Speak Now era, Swift became a CoverGirl spokesmodel, launched two Elizabeth Arden fragrances, Wonderstruck and Wonderstruck Enchanted, and released a special edition of her album through Target.

While promoting her fourth album Red, Swift offered exclusive album promotions through Target, Papa John's and Walgreens. She became a spokesmodel for Diet Coke and Keds sneakers, released her third Elizabeth Arden fragrance titled Taylor by Taylor Swift, and continued her partnerships with Sony Electronics and American Greetings. She also maintains an unofficial brand tie-in with Ralph Lauren.

Swift lives between a three-bedroom duplex penthouse in Midtown Nashville, Tennessee and a three-bedroom cottage in Beverly Hills, California. She owns an eight-bedroom summer home in coastal Watch Hill, Rhode Island. In addition, Swift purchased a four-bedroom mansion in Belle Meade, Tennessee for her parents. She owns a Dassault Falcon 900 private jet and an airport hangar at Nashville International Airport.

According to Forbes's Celebrity 100 list, released annually in the month of May, Swift earned $18 million in 2009, $45 million in 2010, $45 million in 2011, $57 million in 2012 and $55 million in 2013.

Swift dated singer Joe Jonas from July to October 2008, and actor Taylor Lautner from October to December 2009. She was romantically linked to musician John Mayer from late 2009 until early 2010. She dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal from October to December 2010. Following their break-up, they were seen together in January and February 2011. Swift dated political heir Conor Kennedy from July to September 2012. She dated One Direction singer Harry Styles from October 2012 to January 2013.
Musicians including Jonas and Mayer have written songs about Swift.

Swift says she registered to vote on her eighteenth birthday. During the 2008 presidential campaign, she supported the Every Woman Counts campaign, aimed at engaging women in the political process, and was one of many country stars to record a public service announcement for the Vote (For Your) Country campaign. She stated: "I don't think it's my job to try and influence people which way they should vote." Following President Obama's inauguration, she told Rolling Stone that she supported the president: "I've never seen this country so happy about a political decision in my entire time of being alive. I'm so glad this was my first election."

In 2010, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush attended the taping of a Swift television special in Kennebunkport, Maine, and later described Swift as "unspoiled" and "very nice." In 2012, Swift was presented with a Kids' Choice Award in recognition of her charitable work by Michelle Obama, who praised her as someone who "has rocketed to the top of the music industry but still keeps her feet on the ground, someone who has shattered every expectation of what a 22-year old can accomplish." Swift later described the First Lady as "a role model."

In a 2012 interview, Swift remarked that, although she tries to keep herself �as educated and informed as possible,� she doesn�t �talk about politics because it might influence other people." She has spoken of her interest in American history and has read books about Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, the Founding Fathers and Ellis Island. Swift is a friend of the Kennedy family and has spoken of her admiration for Ethel Kennedy.

Swift has been the recipient of seven Grammy Awards, fifteen American Music Awards, eleven Country Music Association Awards, six Academy of Country Music Awards, and twelve Billboard Music Awards. As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2013 she became the second person (and first woman) to receive the Country Music Association's Pinnacle Award.

Dated 25  December 2013