Taylor Swift is a highly successful artist, as evidenced by her strong music sales and loyal fan following. Sunday night, the American Music Awards will recognize Swift’s place in the industry by presenting her with its inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence.
Clark started the AMAs in 1972, and the award recognizes artist achievement as well as “someone whose spirit and excellence capture the visionary passion that Dick Clark himself incorporated into everything he did,” as reported by the Los Angeles Times .
Swift’s latest release, 1989 , sold over a million copies in its first week. That makes Taylor the first artist in history to have three albums that each have sold one million copies each in its first week of release.
E! Online reported today that music legend Diana Ross will present Swift with the award. Ross started her career with Motown as a member of The Supremes, and went on to have a successful career as a solo artist and film actor.
At 24, Swift is one of the few artists who demonstrates a willingness to be young and have fun while remaining on top of the business side of her career. As The Inquisitr reported , her romantic life is followed closely, including rumors she’s back with One Direction’s Harry Styles, whom she dated for a couple of weeks in 2012. She was recently TIME magazine’s cover girl, and gave a thoughtful response when asked why she removed her music from Spotify.
“I tried it and I didn’t like the way it felt. I think there should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify. Everybody’s complaining about how music sales are shrinking, but nobody’s changing the way they’re doing things. They keep running towards streaming, which is, for the most part, what has been shrinking the numbers of paid album sales…With Beats Music and Rhapsody you have to pay for a premium package in order to access my albums. And that places a perception of value on what I’ve created. On Spotify, they don’t have any settings, or any kind of qualifications for who gets what music. I think that people should feel that there is a value to what musicians have created, and that’s that.”
Swift is always quick to acknowledge her fan base when she hits a new benchmark of success. Her “Taylor Nation” Twitter account sends out tweets of thanks, such as one that went out last week when 1989 sold 2 million copies.
We did it!!! Thanks to the the BEST #Swifites in the WORLD #TS1989 OFFICIALLY crossed the 2 million mark. We think you all are TOTALLY BAE.
— Taylor Nation (@taylornation13) November 20, 2014
Taylor is set to open the AMAs with a performance of her song “Blank Space.” The show airs on ABC.
[Taylor Swift Image: Google]