Spotlight On Taylor Swift And Her 'Red
Tour' In Glendale, Arizona Photos by
Glenda S. Paradee
Taylor Swift shared a magical 'Red' night with her fans May 29,
2013 at the Jobing.com arena in Glendale, AZ. It was a sold
out show. Swift put on a fantastic show, so when it comes to
your town - go see it.
Taylor Swift's fourth studio album, Red, was
released in October 2012. She wrote nine of the album's
sixteen songs alone. The remaining seven were co-written with Max
Martin, Liz rose, Dan Wilson, Ed Sheeran and Gary Lightbody. Nathan
Chapman served as the album's lead producer but Jeff Bhasker, Butch
Walker, Jacknife Lee, Dann Huff and Shellback also produced
individual tracks. Chapman has said he encouraged Swift "to branch
out and to test herself in other situations". Musically, while
there is experimentation with heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop,
it is "sprinkled among more recognizably Swiftian fare". Jon
Caramanica of The New York Times placed Red at number two on his
end-of-year list, characterizing it as the album on which Swift
"stops pretending she's anything but a pop megastar, one with
grown-up concerns, like how two bodies speak to each other and how
taste in records can be a stand-in for moral turpitude." The Times
praised her "sublime" lyrics, particularly those on the "brooding"
"All Too Well". Rolling Stone enjoyed "watching Swift find her
pony-footing on Great Songwriter Mountain. She often succeeds in
joining the Joni/ Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional
mapping ... Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in
pop."
As part of the Red promotional campaign, representatives from 72
worldwide radio stations were flown to Nashville during release week
for individual interviews with Swift. She also appeared on
many television chat shows and performed at award ceremonies in the
US, the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Australia. The album's lead
single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", became Swift's
first number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Three
further singles have been released: "Begin Again" (for country
radio), "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "22" (for pop and
international radio). Red debuted at number one on the Billboard 200
with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies; this marked the
highest opening sales in a decade and made Swift the first female to
have two million-selling album openings. As of May 2013, Red
had sold over 5.2 million copies worldwide. In her career, as
of November 2012, she had sold in excess of 26 million albums and 75
million song downloads.
The North American leg of Swift's Red Tour runs from March to
September 2013. She is playing 64 dates across North America,
including thirteen stadium shows. The Red Tour will visit
stadiums across Australia and New Zealand in December 2013. Swift
has collaborated with a number of other artists in the Red era. She
provided guest vocals for a Tim McGraw song entitled "Highway Don't
Care", featuring guitar work by Keith Urban . Ed Sheeran, who
features on Red and appears as a support act on the Red Tour, has
revealed that the pair plan to write further material together while
touring. In early 2013, Swift worked on an as-yet-unknown
studio project with producer Zedd. She also joined Florida
Georgia Line on stage during their set at the 2013 Country Radio
Seminar to sing "Cruise". Swift won three MV Europe Music
Awards in 2012, including the honors for Best Female and Best Live
Act. She was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012
American Music Awards. The Nashville Songwriters Association's
2012 Songwriter/Artist Award went to Swift for the fifth year in a
row. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was nominated for
Record of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
More on Taylor:
Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Wyomissing,
Pennsylvania, Taylor Swift started crafting songs at age 5, and at
age 16, released her debut album. Hits like "Love Song" and "You
Belong With Me" appealed to country and pop fans alike and helped
fuel the multiplatinum success of her albums, with Fearless the 2009
top-seller. She has won many awards, including several Grammys, and
modeled for Cover Girl.
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Wyomissing,
Pennsylvania. Swift spent her early years on her family's Christmas
tree farm. Her grandmother had been a professional opera singer, and
Swift soon followed in her footsteps. By the age of 10, Swift was
singing at a variety of local events, including fairs and contests.
She sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a Philadelphia 76ers game at
the age of 11, and began writing her own songs and learning guitar
at 12 years old.
To pursue her music career, Swift often visited Nashville,
Tennessee, the country music capital. There she co-wrote songs, and
tried to land a recording contract. Noting her dedication, Swift and
her family moved to nearby Hendersonville, Tennessee, in an attempt
to further Swift's career.
A stellar performance at The Bluebird Café in Nashville helped
Swift get a contract with Scott Borchetta's Big Machine Records. She
released her first single, "Tim McGraw" in 2006, and the song became
a Top 10 hit on the country charts. It also appeared on her
self-titled debut album in October of that same year, selling more
than 2.5 million copies. More popular singles soon followed,
including "Our Song," a No. 1 country music hit. "Teardrops on My
Guitar," "Picture to Burn," and "Should've Said No" were also
successful tracks.
In addition to commercial success, Swift received a lot of
critical praise for her debut effort. She won the Horizon Award from
the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music
Award for Top New Female Vocalist in 2007.
Thanks For The Music
Taylor!
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