American pop star Taylor Swift, who shook the music industry with a phenomenally successful tour, was named American Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year on Wednesday (December 6). “Much of what [Taylor] Swift has accomplished in 2023 is immeasurable (…) She is committed to giving value to the dreams, feelings and experiences of people, especially women, who felt neglected and regularly underestimated,” noted the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Sam Jacobs.
At 33, the country singer adds a new distinction to a long list of successes and records, her albums or their reissues frequently occupying the top spots in the American charts, as is currently the case with 1989 ( Taylor’s Version), topped the Billboard 200.
For the past year, she has also distinguished herself by criticizing the ticketing juggernaut Ticketmaster for the cacophony around ticket sales for her tour, The Eras Tour, which has led to the platform, often criticized for its monopoly position , having to explain himself to the American Congress.
“A world legend”
Against the backdrop of the phenomenal success of her tour, the concerts were also screened in cinemas and Taylor Swift topped the North American box office the weekend her film was released. Time points out that the Shake It Off and Cruel Summer singer, who succeeds Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is “the first person in the arts to be named Person of the Year for his success as an artist.”
The editor-in-chief of Time points out that the distinction often goes to heads of state or titans of industry, but “Taylor Swift has found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light.”
“For building a world that was her own but made room for so many people, for making her story a global legend, for bringing joy to a society that desperately needed it, Taylor Swift is the person the year 2023 of Time,” also writes Sam Jacobs.
Time published a list of finalists on Monday: alongside Taylor Swift, were Russian and Chinese leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, British King Charles III, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as well as the boss from OpenAI Sam Altman, the Hollywood strikers, the prosecutors who indicted Donald Trump and… the character of Barbie, at the center of the cinema hit of the year.