Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. With her maternal grandmother being a professional opera singer, it was in Taylor's blood to be a performer. She started out singing at fairs and karakoke contests and decided that she needed to go to Nashville to pursue her dreams. After taking several trips there with her family it bcame apparent to Taylor that she needed to stick out in the crowd of people who were there all for the same reason she was. "I realized that there are thousands of girls going up and down Music Row who are gorgeous and who have amazing voices and who can sing higher and louder than me. Somehow I had to find a way to stand out and be the differant one," Swift said in an interview at her record lable, Big Machine Records.

So at age 12 Taylor picked up a guitar and began to learn to play as well as write her own music. During one of her music lessons, Taylor asked her instructor what the difference was between a six string and a twelve string guitar. Instead of answering her question, he told her that he did not need to answer because she would not be able to play a twelve string because she was too little. Taylor did not like that too much and after Christmas that year she did not put her twelve string down.

In 2003, Taylor and her family finally moved to Tennesse where Taylor got a chance to write songs with some of the local songwriters and by 14 Taylor had a publishing contract for her songs. Taylor caught the attention of a man named Scott Borchetta while singing at a restaurant called Bluebird Cafe. Scott wanted to sign Taylor to his label, Big Machine Records.

Taylor's self titled debut album was released October 24, 2006 and was certified gold (500,000 copies sold) in just three months. The first single off her album "Tim McGraw" reached #6 on the charts by January and the video made it to #1 on the CMT video charts! The video set a record by appearing for 30 consecutive weeks on GAC's fan-voted weekly Top 20 music countdown show. Taylor's career quickly took off and she landed spots as the opening act on several tours including Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and even Tim and Faith!