13 reasons why we made Taylor Swift a Guinness World Records ICON

Taylor Swift is an ICON… literally.

She was given our highest honour in the latest edition of Guinness World Records after, quite frankly, breaking more records than anyone could have ever imagined.

Whether she’s picking up more award nominations than any other artist, making more money from a tour than anyone else ever has or breaking streaming records on Spotify, there’s just no stopping her.

A quick search in our system at the time of writing tells us Taylor has 80 records to her name, but depending on how much later you’re reading this, that number could well have changed.

The last time we counted them up (back in February when her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team the Kansas City Chiefs were taking on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII) she had 70.

So, she’s broken an average of one record a month since then.

If you’re still wondering why we made her an ICON, we’re going to give you 13 good reasons why.

And what better time to do it than today (13 December) as she celebrates her 35^th birthday.

1. Highest-grossing music tour

Taylor’s Eras Tour, which recently wrapped up in Vancouver, was the highest-grossing music tour of all time, and the first to make over $1 billion.

Up to November 2023, it had grossed an estimated $1,039,263,762 (£840,238,516) from 60 shows played in the USA, Mexico and Argentina.

That figure will be considerably higher now.

She took the record from Sir Elton John, who had grossed $817.9 million (£660.06 million) from his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.

2. Greatest seismic activity caused by a music concert

Eras Tour shows at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington, USA, on 22–23 July 2023 registered seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3-magnitude earthquake.

72,171 “Swifties” were in attendance for the first night of the Seattle double-header and 144,000 across the weekend, with seismologists pinning the near-identical results for both gigs on the noise generated by an enthusiastic crowd and the sound system.

3. Most Video of the Year wins at the MTV Video Music Awards

Taylor bagged her fifth – and third consecutive – MTV Video Music Awards gong in September for “Fortnight” (feat. Post Malone) from her album The Tortured Poets Department.

She also won for “Anti-Hero” (2023), “All Too Well: The Short Film” (2022), “You Need to Calm Down” (2019) and “Bad Blood” (featuring Kendrick Lamar, 2015).

4. Most “Time Person of the Year” titles (female)

Taylor has been named TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year” more times than any other woman.

She was handed the honour in 2017, and again in 2023.

5. Most streamed act on Spotify (female)

Of all the countless incredible female artists in the world, nobody is streamed on Spotify as much as Taylor.

According to chartmasters.org, Taylor had amassed 72,414,032,090 lead-artist streams and 662,095,048 as a featured artist, for a grand total of 73,076,127,138 as of 24 February.

6. Most followed act on Spotify (female)

It’ll come as no surprise, but Taylor is also the most followed female artist on the whole of Spotify, with 109,436,455 followers as of 7 May.

7. Most streamed act on Spotify in 24 hours

On 21 October 2022, the day her 10th studio album Midnights was released, Taylor’s tracks racked up a reported 228 million streams on Spotify.

This figure was dominated by the number of plays for the standard 13-track version of Midnights (161,571,832) and the additional seven tracks on the extended “3am Edition” (23,123,777) – accounting for 184,695,609 of the total number.

In all, 28 of Taylor’s tracks recorded one million streams on Spotify’s “Daily Top Songs Global” Top 200 chart that day, with older, million-streamed favourites “Blank Space”, “Don’t Blame Me”, “Cruel Summer”, “august”, “Lover”, “cardigan”, “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” and “Style” adding a further 9,671,557 plays.

8. Longest song to reach No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100

Taylor’s epic “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” became the longest song to top the Billboard Hot 100.

It clocks in at 10 min 13 sec and was released on her re-record of album Red.

9. Most Grammy nominations for Song of the Year

Taylor has been nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys more times than any other artist – a total of 7 as of the 2024 ceremony.

She’s been nominated for “You Belong with Me” (2010), “Shake It Off” (2015), “Blank Space” (2016), “Lover” (2020), “cardigan” (2021), “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” (2023) and “Anti-Hero” (2024).

10. Most Album of the Year awards won at the Grammys (female)

Her albums are just as celebrated as her individual songs.

In February, she won Album of the Year for Midnights, breaking a four-way tie with Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, who have all won three times.

Taylor also won for Fearless (2010), 1989 (2016) and folklore (2021).

11. Most simultaneous entries on the US singles chart (female)

Taylor made history on the Billboard Hot 100 on 4 May when all 31 tracks from the extended Anthology version of The Tortured Poets Department, plus established hit “Cruel Summer”, occupied 32 chart positions in the same week – including the entire Top 10.

She broke her own record of 26 that she’d set in 2021 when her re-recorded Red (Taylor’s Version) flooded the chart.

12. Most simultaneous albums on the US Billboard 200 (living artist)

Taylor is the only living artist to have placed as many as 10 albums on the US Billboard 200 chart.

She did it twice in 2023 with 10 albums, but then broke her record again later that same year when 11 of her albums were all in the chart at the same time.

They were Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) at No.1, Midnights at No.5, Lover (No.7), folklore (No.10), Red (Taylor’s Version) (No.18), 1989 (No.19), Reputation (No.21), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No.23), evermore (No.38), Speak Now (No.67) and Taylor Swift (No.138).

13. Youngest solo winner of the BRITs' Global Icon award

In 2012, Taylor became the youngest person to be handed the Global Icon award at the BRIT Awards.

She was 31 years 149 days old when she was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the music industry.

If those 13 reasons didn't convince you, we don't know what will.

Happy birthday, Miss Taylor Alison Swift – you’ll forever be an ICON.

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