Dec. 13: country pop singer Taylor Swift is 21 today.

Taylor Alison Swift was born and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She does have some musical roots in her family; Her maternal grandmother, Majorie Finlay, was an opera singer.

At the age of 10, a computer repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar, sparking her interest in learning the instrument. At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town, but was roundly rejected.

After returning to Pennsylvania disappointed, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received excellent reviews.  

Swift started writing songs and playing 12-string guitar in earnest when she was 12. Afterwards, she wrote her first song, "Lucky You." She began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her loneliness from not fitting in at school. Taylor says she was bullied, and wrote songs to express her emotions. She also started performing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs around her hometown.

Swift began to regularly visit Nashville and wrote songs with local songwriters. By the time she was 14, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb.

When Swift was 15, she was offered a contract by RCA Records, but Taylor turned them down because the company wanted to keep her on an artist development deal.

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After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta,who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. At age 14, she became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.

 

At 17, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw," then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and was nominated for the Best New Artist award at 50th Grammy Awards.

In November 2008, Swift released her second album, Fearless, and the recording earned Swift four Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Fearless and Taylor Swift finished 2008 at number-three and number-six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million.

Taylor with Milly Cyrus

Fearless topped the Billboard 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks; the longest time an album has spent at No. 1 since 2000. Swift was named Artist of the Year by Billboard Magazine in 2009.

In 2008, her albums sold a combined four million copies, making her the best-selling musician of the year in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Taylor released her third album Speak Now on October 25, 2010. It sold 1,047,000 copies in its first week.

Taylor says her greatest musical influence is Shania Twain. Her other influences include LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner and her grandmother. In her younger years, she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton. She also credits The Dixie Chicks for demonstrating the impact you can make by "stretching boundaries."

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