- Judith Akatugba
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With her current “Eras” tour, which has seen her perform in 151 stadiums on five continents, Taylor Swift is solidifying her status as a cultural icon. She is strengthening her financial position as well.
Swift, who will become a billionaire officially in 2023, appears certain to triple her income in the ensuing years.
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The following are the seven facts we learned about Taylor Swift:
1. She could have been a stockbroker
Swift is descended from three generations of bank presidents and grew up in an affluent middle-class family in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, despite developing a down-to-earth, folksy persona when she came to Nashville to advance her early career.
Given that her father was a stockbroker and her mother worked in finance, Swift had believed she would follow in her family’s footsteps.
Her family moved to Nashville, the “capital of country music,” when she was barely 14 years old because she had a genuine love for country and western music.
2. At sixteen, she was a millionaire
It turns out that becoming a stockbroker wasn’t necessary for Taylor Swift to achieve financial success. Swift balanced her education with songwriting in Nashville, and at the age of sixteen, she finally published her self-titled debut album in 2006.
It topped Shania Twain’s “Come On Over” to become the longest charting album of the decade, spending 24 weeks at the top of the country music chart. It also peaked at number five on the US Billboard chart.
Swift wrote all of her own songs, so this wasn’t just a symbolic passing of the torch; it was also a significant turning point in her career as her net worth rose to $4 million.
3. At one point, President Obama supported her.
Swift’s second album, Fearless, marked the conclusion of the 2000s. It was the best-selling album of 2009 and topped the US Billboard chart for 11 weeks.
This triumph was followed by her first headline tour, which brought in over $63 million and 1.1 million tickets over its 15-month run.
Swift also took home several honors, including the Grammy for Album of the Year and the MTV Music Awards’ Best Female Video in 2009.
Naturally, Kanye West’s stage invasion and his complaint that “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time” for Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) made the latter prize notorious.
West was referred to as a “jackass” by President Obama for this behavior in an audio clip that was leaked off-the-record. Swift’s notoriety was greatly increased by Kanye’s takeover, despite what seemed unsettling at the time.
4. Her re-released albums have all made number one all over again
2014 saw the publication of Taylor Swift’s 1989—the year of her birth—her debut true pop album.
The following tour brought in nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue, which is four times more than Fearless did throughout its 472-week run on the charts.
Swift’s estimated net worth by the end of the decade was $360 million, thanks to her momentum, which was fueled by her relationship with her fans on social media, her public disputes with streaming providers over royalties, and her dating life.
She proceeded to rerecord six of her records in an attempt to maintain copyright rights after releasing two more albums during the pandemic.
She has published four albums thus far, and each one has returned to the top of the charts. Now, a large portion of her loyal followers, known as Swifties, will only hear these renditions.
5. The Eras tour has given us ‘Swiftonomics’
Swift began her Eras tour in March of last year. Over 150 stadium performances throughout the globe are scheduled for her astounding 3.5-hour act, which features 44 performers. Although they often cost $250 apiece, tickets have been offered for significantly more on resale websites.
With estimates for the tour’s total income of $4 billion, it is hardly surprising that it is the greatest grossing tour of all time and the first to reach $1 billion in revenue.
The massive tour is responsible for coining the term “Swiftonomics,” a phenomena in which the revenue of every city the tour visits increases.
The Federal Reserve has recognized that the 53 days in the US alone have increased the country’s gross domestic product by $4.3 billion.
6. She’s become a billionaire based on her music alone
In October 2023, Bloomberg and Forbes verified Taylor Swift’s billionaire status, citing $1.1 billion from the Era tour, the movie (which is the tenth highest grossing movie in the US for 2023), and the reissued albums.
Analyzing it further, they calculated that $500 million came from touring and song royalties, $500 million from her back catalogue, $125 million from real estate (she has six properties), and $10 million from her private jet at the time.
Without the help of her fellow artist billionaires Jay-Z and Rihanna, Swift’s net worth has reached an unprecedented level. According to Forbes, Swift is now “in a class with legends like Bruce Springsteen.”
Over $1 billion has been earned by the Boss in pre-tax earnings over his lifetime, “the majority of which was earned on the road touring,” the report continued.
7. Of all the celebrities, she is thought to have the biggest carbon footprint.
The usage of Taylor Swift’s two private jets has drawn criticism from some quarters.
One estimate mentions 170 trips that were made in the first half of 2022, accounting for more than 8000 tons of carbon emissions.
This indicates that Swift’s personal jet footprint was 1,928 times larger than the average worldwide.
Alternatively, to put it more modestly, it was 637 times the 13 tons of carbon emissions per person in the US.
Unsurprisingly, Swift is ranked #1 on the list of “biggest celebrity CO2 polluters.”
Swift has stated that she plans to employ carbon offsets, but in the interim, her “karmic offsetting” has taken the shape of her charitable giving, which has included contributions of $1 million to disaster relief programs as well as tens of thousands to libraries, schools, and pandemic victims.
It has been reported that she has awarded bonuses to her Eras tour crew totaling over $55 million, with the truckers receiving $100,000 apiece.
