Taylor Swift makes Grammy history with fourth album of year win
Taylor Swift accepts the award for Album of the Year for 'Midnights' during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. Reuters
Pop superstar Taylor Swift set another music industry record on Sunday, winning the Grammy award for album of the year for an unprecedented fourth time in an honor roll dominated by women.
Swift, now in the middle the world's highest-grossing concert tour, also announced she would release a new album in April.
The 34-year-old won album of the year for "Midnights," eclipsing music legends Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder, who each claimed the prize three times.
On stage, Swift said she was thrilled by the honor and that she would keep writing and singing songs.
"It makes me so happy," she said. "All I want to do is keep doing this."
Earlier, Swift claimed the prize for best pop vocal performance and used the moment to announce that she will release "The Tortured Poets Department" on April 19. "I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I've been keeping from you for the last two years," Swift said as she disclosed the new album.
Female artists swept the major awards on Sunday.
Winners were chosen by the musicians, producers, engineers and others who make up the Recording Academy. The group has worked to diversify its membership in recent years by inviting more women and people of color to its ranks.
Accepting the Grammy for best pop vocal album, Taylor said she’d been keeping a secret for two years. "My brand-new album comes out April 19. It’s called ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’ I’m going to go and post the cover right now backstage,” she announced. And so she did.
On her Instagram, Swift posted a black-and-white image of her reclining across pillows. The top half of her face and lower half of her legs are cut off in the low-contrast image.
"All’s fair in love and poetry...” her caption read. In a little over an hour, the Instagram post alone had amassed nearly 7 million likes - a figure that swelled to an apt 13 million in under a day.
"And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink,” read what appeared to be handwritten lyrics posted after the album cover.
Inside Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena, Swift's album announcement elicited screams from the upper levels.
Swift had provoked mass speculation earlier in the night when her site seemed to go down. Some theorized she was gearing up to release "Reputation (Taylor’s Version),” but cryptic clues on the "crashed” site indicated that might be a misdirect. And so it was.
The site’s back up now, focused around the upcoming album, with preordering and merchandise options. The album will feature 16 tracks, with some editions offering a bonus track, "The Manuscript,” according to product descriptions.
This will be Swift's 11th studio album, not counting her re-recordings. Her last original album was "Midnights,” released in October 2022. Since then, she's launched the billion-dollar Eras Tour and released "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)” and "1989 (Taylor's Version).”
Swift was accepting the Grammy for "Midnights” when she made the surprise announcement. She later picked up album of the year, the show's final award, for the album.
"I would love to tell you this is the best moment of my life, but I feel this happy when I finish a song, or when I crack the code to a bridge that I love, or when I’m shortlisting a music video, or when I’m working with my dancers,” she said after accepting her album of the year award from Celine Dion. With it, she broke the record for the most wins in that category (her other albums of the year: "Fearless,” "1989” and "Folklore”).
As she walked the red carpet in custom Schiaparelli Couture, she paid homage to her album title, donning a Lorraine Schwartz choker with a small clock embedded. And yes, the time was set to the midnight - even if the viewer had to tilt their head to see the hands pointing to "12.”
While a nod to the album - and reminiscent of the "tick, tick, tick” in "The Tortured Poets Department” post - the watch seemed particularly apt, given the superstar's seemingly packed schedule over the next week. Swift is set to head back out on her Eras Tour this week, performing for four nights in Tokyo. She still will be able to make it back to the US later in the week to catch her boyfriend Travis Kelce playing in the Super Bowl.
Agencies
