Taylor Swift, (who was sporting straight hair and bangs in NYC this week), will celebrate her 20th birthday on Sunday, and she received quite a nice birthday present from the music industry! Taylor has been named Artist of the Year by Billboard magazine, and she is also queen of the Female Artist of the Year chart. Ironically, her infamous VMA bully, Kanye West, takes the king's crown on the Male Artist of the Year tally. Other country acts who made the the Artist of the Year list include Rascal Flatts at #19 and Zac Brown Band at #20.
Swift tells Billboard that she has done a lot of reflecting this past year. She shares, "I'll be driving down the streets I used to drive down in Nashville and my song will come on the radio or I'll pass my high school and something will remind me of how my life was before all of these crazy dreams started coming true. We wished for this, my parents and I, every single day without actually believing it would come true." She says the high moment of this year was her "Fearless" tour, noting, "Every night of that tour felt like a celebration. I never expected it to be as successful as it was." And her low point? Taylor elaborates, "I've had a few days - and everyone has them - where you feel humiliated or you're shocked by something or something knocks you down a few pegs. But in those moments I've been very quick to realize and remind myself that there are people out there with real problems. To get hung up on any bad moment that happened this year would be unfair to all the good moments I've had this year." As for spending more weeks on the Billboard 200 than any other artist this decade, Swift admits she is absolutely floored, adding, "It's really hard for me to wrap my mind around that one."
And Taylor can add another accomplishment to her already impressive list this year as her 2009 tour ranks fourth among StubHub's Top 10 Concert Tours. Also snagging a spot at #9 is Kenny Chesney, who hit the road with his "Sun City Carnival" tour this year.The list is based on gross sales.
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