Taylor Swift: Turning Singapore into Swiftapore

"Who's afraid of little old me?" American pop star Taylor Swift howls on her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD).

- Yamini Chinnuswamy

United States President-elect Donald Trump might have been just a wee bit afraid of the 35-year-old singer-songwriter in 2024.

"I hate Taylor Swift!" he wrote on social media in September, capital letters, emphatic punctuation and all, a few days after her endorsement of US Vice President Kamala Harris for the November presidential election.

A funny response, if one recalls that Swift released a song about him, titled You Need To Calm Down, back in 2019.

Ultimately, Trump taking umbrage was unnecessary, as he went on to win the presidential race.

Nevertheless, his fear of Swift's outsized influence—an even more dominant force in pop culture in 2024 than ever—was not unwarranted.

TTPD, released on April 19, became the most streamed album on major streaming services—including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music—while she was the top-streamed artiste of the year.

TTPD also earned five nominations for the Grammy Awards to be held in February 2025. Even if it nets zero wins at the ceremony, Swift already made Grammy history in 2024 when her 10th album, Midnights, won Album of the Year—the event's most prestigious category. It was her fourth time clinching the accolade, an unprecedented feat.

In the same week in September that Swift endorsed Ms Harris' presidential bid—generating dozens of think pieces about her political influence—she won seven "moon man" statues at the MTV Video Music Awards. This made her the most-awarded solo artiste in the event's 40-year history, having racked up 30 trophies since 2009.

In December, she followed that feat with a haul of 10 prizes at the annual Billboard Music Awards, making her the most decorated artiste in that awards show as well, with an all-time tally of 49 wins.