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Taylor Swift · S3 E5
Album of the Year, Age 20
The youngest Album of the Year winner in Grammy history. What she says, and what she knows she still has to prove.
On January 31, 2010, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a twenty-year-old from Hendersonville, Tennessee holds a Grammy for Album of the Year. She is the youngest person to ever win it.
"22" -- Taylor Swift, official music video (2013). Taylor and her friends, young and unstoppable, celebrating the feeling of being alive when everything is going right. For an episode about a twenty-year-old standing on top of the music industry with four Grammys, the energy is exactly right.
22
Produced by Max Martin and Shellback, "22" is a deliberate departure from everything Taylor has done before. The production is synth-driven pop built on a four-on-the-floor beat and a chanted chorus designed for stadiums. No acoustic guitar, no fiddle, no country. Listen for how Taylor delivers "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two." The vocal is loose, almost sloppy, which is unusual for someone who normally sings with meticulous control. Max Martin reportedly encouraged her to stop singing and start shouting, to match the energy of someone at a party who doesn't care how she sounds. The precision is in the imprecision.
“I just want to say to all the young girls out there: if you keep writing and playing and performing, the dream can come true. I'm living proof of that.”
— Taylor Swift, Grammy acceptance speech, January 31, 2010
TAP TO REVEAL: What happened during Taylor's Grammy performance that nearly derailed the celebration?
Four Wins in One Night
Taylor wins Album of the Year and Best Country Album for Fearless, Best Country Song for "White Horse," and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The Album of the Year category includes Beyonce's I Am... Sasha Fierce, Lady Gaga's The Fame, and the Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D. She is the first country artist to win the top prize since the Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way in 2007.
Bonus Listening
"Superstar" -- a dreamy Fearless deep cut about watching a famous person from a distance and wondering what it would be like to know them. In the context of this episode, the irony is almost unbearable: the girl who wrote about stardom from the outside is now the biggest star in the room.
Taylor Swift was the youngest Album of the Year winner at the Grammys when she won in 2010. Who held the record before her?
She has four Grammys and the biggest album in the country. But the personal life that fuels the songs is about to go public in a way she cannot control. A boy breaks up with her in a twenty-seven-second phone call, and the song she writes about it becomes one of the most famous revenge tracks in country music. Next: Joe Jonas, and the call that changes everything.
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