Taylor Swift celebrated her 34th birthday on Wednesday after a life-changing year.
The past 12 months has been rollercoaster ride for the songstress, who kicked off with her record-breaking tour in March.
And while her career continues to sky-rocket with the singer achieving billionaire status and becoming the most streamed artist in the world for 2023, Taylor has also had her fair share of heartache.
Earlier this year, the singer split from her long-term partner Joe Alwyn and had a short-lived fling with The 1975 bandmember Matty Healy.
Her fan Ana Clara Benevides, 23, died during the singer’s concert in Brazil in November.
But as Taylor finds love with America footballer Travis Kelce, 34, we take a look at the highs and lows of her whirlwind year…
March – Eras Tour
In March, Taylor kicked off her Eras Tour – which was a mammoth 151 shows across five continents.
The tour celebrates all ten of her albums and is the highest-grossing tour of all time and the first tour to surpass $1 billion in revenue.
April – Split from Joe Alwyn
In April it was reported Taylor split from Joe Alwyn, 32, after six years of dating (Joe and Taylor pictured in 2019)
In April it was reported Taylor split from Joe Alwyn, 32, after six years of dating.
‘The relationship had just run its course. It’s why [Alwyn] hasn’t been spotted at any shows,’ an insider said at the time.
Fans believe one of the first signs Taylor and Joe had gone their separate ways was when she switched out one song for another during a concert.
After news of the pair’s split broke on April 9, fans took to Twitter to point out that Swift played performed song ‘The 1’ for the first time ever on March 31.
Fans speculated her performance of the song – in which a narrator laments about breaking up with a possible soulmate – was Swift’s way of hinting she had split from Alwyn. The song replaced ‘Invisible String’ on the setlist – a song about soulmates being drawn together by fate.
May – The 1975’s Matty Healy fling
Taylor and The 1975 rocker Matty Healy, 34, shocked the world when their romance was revealed in April
Taylor and The 1975 rocker Matty Healy, 34, shocked the world when their romance was revealed later in April.
They had first connected – and been at the center of romance rumours – back in 2014.
Matty had been seen publicly supporting the singer on her The Eras Tour, shooting the star loving glances as he attended her Nashville concerts.
The pair were also seen in NYC numerous times, leaving a recording studio and heading for dinner with her pals, Margaret Qualley, Phoebe Bridgers and Zoe Kravitz.
But Taylor and Matty split after two months of dating.
The singer and Matty were last seen together on May 25 in New York City. The split also came three days after Matty was seen kissing a male security guard at a Denmark concert.
A source told People at the time: ‘She had fun with him, but it was always casual. They are no longer romantically involved.’
July – Swift released Speak now
Taylor released the re-recording of her third studio album Speak Now
Taylor released the re-recording of her third studio album Speak Now.
The multi-Grammy Award-winner said it felt nostalgic to revisit the songs she wrote while on the cusp of womanhood and how ‘proud’ she is to share tracks that didn’t make the original album.
‘It’s here. It’s yours, it’s mine, it’s ours. It’s an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20,’ Taylor wrote on Instagram.
September – Travis Kelce romance
Taylor sent the NFL ablaze when she became the headliner at the Chiefs’ win over the Chicago Bears to cheer on Travis, 34, on September 24
In the months since kickstarting her romance with the two-time Super Bowl champion, Swift has attended five of her NFL beau’s games
Taylor sent the NFL ablaze when she became the headliner at the Chiefs’ win over the Chicago Bears to cheer on Travis, 34, on September 24.
In the months since kickstarting her romance with the two-time Super Bowl champion, Swift has attended five of her NFL beau’s games, watching him lose for the first time in her presence on Sunday in frigid Green Bay.
But the 12-time Grammy Award winner has revealed that they only brought their relationship into the footballing – and global – spotlight after a while of dating behind closed doors.
‘This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was mental as hell,’ she told TIME magazine.
‘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. 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.’
October – Eras tour opened in theatres, 1989 released and billionaire status
In October, Taylor released the film The Eras Tour which was filmed during her six-night run at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles back in August.
The movie – which has grossed an estimated $250 million worldwide – may earn the singer her first ever Golden Globe after she was nominated for Cinematic and Box-Office Achievement.
The Eras Tour will compete against Barbie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, John Wick: Chapter 4, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, Oppenheimer, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Taylor also re-released her 2014 album 1989.
She added five new tracks to the album, which originally featured 13 songs on the standard version and 16 songs on the deluxe edition.
Hits on 1989 included Shake It Off and Blank Space among others.
To top off October, Taylor officially reached billionaire status.
Bloomberg reported the songstress is now worth $1.1billion and joins the likes of Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey.
The success of the multi-Grammy Award-winning singer’s Eras Tour — which is on track to becoming the highest grossing tour in history — is credited for skyrocketing her net worth.
This is on top of huge earnings from her first six albums, which she re-recorded as she negotiating with streaming platforms how her music is monetised.
November – Most streamed artist of 2023
Taylor also re-released her 2014 album 1989 this year. She added five new tracks to the album and was crowned the most listened to artist on Spotify Wrapped 2023
Taylor continued to take the world by storm as she was crowned the most listened to artist in the UK and the rest of the world on Spotify Wrapped 2023 with more than 26.1 billion global streams.
The singer boasts over 108 million monthly listeners on the streaming platform, after previously bagging the UK top spot in 2022.
November – Heartache as fan dies at Taylor’s Brazil concert
Taylor Swift fan Ana Clara Benevides, 23, died during the singer’s concert in Brazil at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro in November.
The city came under a heat warning. Temperatures in the stadium were at around 100 Fahrenheit during the performance which at one point saw the pop star stop her show in order for water to be given to some members of the excited crowd.
Ava fainted while at the show and is believed to have had a cardiac arrest.
Shortly after the show was over, Swift wrote of her shock at what had happened on Instagram.
‘I can’t believe I’m writing these words, but it is with her shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show. I can’t even tell you how devastated I am by by this,’ Swift wrote.
‘There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far two young,’ she continued.
‘I’m not going to be able to speak about this from the stage because I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it. I want to say now I feel this loss deeply, and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends. This is the last thing I ever thought would happen when we decided to bring the show to Brazil.’
