Taylor Swift Is Time’s Person Of The Year 2023

12 months ago

The global star beat royalty and presidents

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What do Taylor Swift, Vladimir Putin and King Charles III have in common? Answer: not a lot, apart from the fact they were all some of the most talked about figures of 2023. That’s why they all made the shortlist for Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year – but, lo and behold, Swift has taken home the gong.

Taylor Swift Is Time’s Person Of The Year 2023

Each year, Time awards the title to ‘the individual, group, or concept that has had the most influence on the world throughout the previous 12 months’. Previous winners have included Greta Thunberg, Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelensky – and now Swift will join the canon of names who sum up the zeitgeist.

Speaking about the announcement on NBC’s Today programme, the magazine’s editor in chief Sam Jacobs said: ‘Picking one person who represents the eight billion people on the planet is no easy task. We picked a choice that represents joy. Someone who’s bringing light to the world,’ He added: ‘She was like weather, she was everywhere.’

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It feels like the perfect end to what’s arguably been Swift’s biggest year ever. After ticket sales nearly broke Ticketmaster, her Eras tour is on track to become the highest grossing tour of all time – having already turned Swift into a billionaire. A film documenting the tour has also become the biggest concert film of all time. And she’s been busy recording new (Taylor’s Version) albums: Speak Now in July, and 1989 in October, with rumours that Reputation is next. Her new romance with NFL player Travis Kelce, meanwhile, has graced the pages of pretty much every media publication on the planet.

Swiftie or not, it’s hard to disagree that the star has had a massive global impact – musically, culturally, and even academically. Harvard University now offers a ‘Taylor Swift and Her World’ course, and earlier this year US newspaper Gannett hired a reporter to solely cover Swift.

Swift told the magazine that she is ‘the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt’, but admitted her lengthy 180-minute concerts leave her feeling exhausted. Much to fans’ excitement, she also touched on her relationship with Kelce, which first hit the headlines after she was spotted watching one of his games in September this year. ‘By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple,’ she said. ‘I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard-launch a first date.’

Who Were Time’s Person Of The Year Finalists For 2023?

Time’s list of finalists was certainly diverse. Other contenders included the Chinese president Xi Jinping and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, alongside a couple of groups of people, including the Hollywood stars who went on strike this year. It wasn’t limited to real people either: Barbie also made the list, Mattel’s doll who saw its big return on the big screen with Greta Gerwig’s box office hit. Here’s the full shortlist.