Taylor Swift had one hell of a year in 2023 — from performing her highly-anticipated “The Eras Tour” concerts at sold-out venues across the country to being named Time’s 2023 “Person of the Year,” she totally dominated the world of entertainment.
The start of the year should’ve been a clue. In January, U.S. Senators from both sides of the political aisle quoted lines from Swift’s songs during a hearing on Capitol Hill into the crashing of Ticketmaster’s website months earlier when Swift’s tickets went on sale. The cringe-worthy moment made social media users lose their minds.
In March, Swifties finally got to see their favorite singer perform for the first time in five years when she kicked off “The Eras Tour” in Glendale, Arizona. The concert would be the first of nearly 66 dates for the singer across the country.
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Over the summer, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia credited the “Shake It Off” hitmaker as the reason local economies saw growth.
“Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city,” the reserve reported to CBS News.
Philadelphia was just one of numerous cities that claimed Swift coming to town was the spark that ignited many struggling economies as she took her monster tour from one state to the next overwhelming local businesses with concert-goers needing places to stay, food to eat, and places to shop, the outlet noted.
Career-wise it was an incredible year. In 2023, Swift was nominated and took home numerous awards for her music. In February, she made Grammy history by being honored as the first artist to win the award for directing their own music video for “All Too Well.”
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Swift continued breaking records she had previously set as her re-recorded albums exploded on the music charts.
Then, in September, the “Lover” hitmaker made history at the Music Television Video Music Award (MTV VMA’s) when she took home nine awards, tying for the most wins in one night.
In November, she took home not one or two but 10 Billboard music awards, at the 2023 awards show.
In her acceptance speech, Swift called it “Unreal,” saying, “The fact that you guys have given me 10 Billboard Awards — I’m talking to the fans specifically. None of this happens without you.”
“The Billboards base everything off of what you are listening to and what you’re passionate about, and I’m so honored that this year you made The Eras Tour so magical,” she added. “You went and saw the movie, you cared about my re-recordings. I just love you so much.”
Forbes reported in December that, based on the sale of her music alone, Swift was officially a billionaire. In the article, the outlet estimated Swift’s net worth is $1.1 billion. That total includes $500 million for her music catalog, $500 million from royalties and touring and $150 million in real estate.
Swift not only reigned supreme in the music industry but also ended up dominating the box office after she announced in August that her sold-out concert was headed to the big screen.
In October, “The Eras Tour” movie brought in $92 million opening weekend, smashing prior records, per Axios. The production hit theaters on October 13 and has made, at the time of this publication, $179 million at the domestic box office and $70 million globally, according to Box office Mojo.
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And with all this domination in almost every category of entertainment, it should’ve come as no surprise to anyone when Time magazine announced that its 2023 “Person of the Year” was none other than the “Love Story” hitmaker.
It’s also been a wild ride on the personal side for the superstar singer. Weeks into “The Eras Tour,” a source released that the “Bad Blood” hitmaker and Joe Alwyn had ended their 6 year relationship.
Speculation started surfacing that the split had happened months earlier, with Swifties throughout the year speculating that Swift’s “Midnights” album, which released in Oct. 2022, was actually a breakup album.
In July, Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce entered the singer’s orbit after he told everyone on his “New Heights” podcast that he was disappointed he didn’t get to meet Swift after making a friendship bracelet for Swift when she played Arrowhead in mid-July.
As Swift continued touring, her two surprise songs she played at each concert began changing from breakup songs to ones more uplifting and about falling in love. The change made Swifties begin speculating something more was going on.
In September, Swift rocked fans of the NFL when she showed up at Arrowhead Stadium to watch Kelce and the Chiefs take on the Chicago Bears.
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It is fair to say, the two seemed very cozy when they left the stadium together. In mid-October, the paparazzi pictures of them out in New York City confirmed weeks of rumors they were dating.
However, it would be weeks later, when Kelce traveled to Argentina to see her show, before fans knew for sure that Swift had indeed moved on from Alwyn. Video captured him reacting throughout the night to her music, especially when she changed the lyrics in one song to include the NFL player.
Later, video surfaced of Swift running off stage after her last song into the Chiefs’ player’s arms and the two shared a very passionate kiss and embrace.
By November, Kelce would share details about when their relationship really began, and confessed it didn’t all start with a friendship bracelet, or that first Chiefs football game Swift attended in September.
Kelce told the Wall Street Journal magazine that while it’s true he failed to meet the superstar singer when she was performing in Arrowhead Stadium in July, they did end up getting introduced to each other soon after.
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By December, Swift not only dominated the music scene and the box office, but weeks of NFL coverage after showing up at multiple games to watch Kelce.
In Time’s wide-ranging “Person of the Year” interview, Swift finally gave the timeline of her and Kelce’s relationship and said they were already a couple when she went to his first game back on September 24.
“This all started when Travis [Kelce] very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift said. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other.””
“By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple,” she added. “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.”
Swift rounded out the year donating $1 million to the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee following the deadly Nashville tornadoes in December. And lawmakers in the Pennsylvania state House of Representatives declared 2023 the Year of Taylor Swift.
House Resolution 282, which “recogniz[es] the year 2023 as the ‘Taylor Swift Era’ in Pennsylvania, was approved on December 13, which was also Swift’s 34th birthday. It passed 103-100. Most Republicans and a handful of Democrats voted against the measure.