‘Taylor had a plan’

Taylor Swift comes back into the spotlight for a new profile exploring the fame, fortune and feuds of the pop icon

- WORDS: JEN PHARO

Taylor Swift has dominated the charts for almost 20 years — but her love life and public feuds have at times threatened to obscure her talent. Now, a new documentary reveals how Taylor's songwriting skill has always been her superpower, enabling her to clap back at critics with lyrical precision. Songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall worked with Taylor in 2003 — when she was just 13to record a demo featuring three tracks called Invisible, Just South Of Knowing Why and Need You Now.

Recalling their studio sessions, Robert tells the documentary: "Right from the get-go, Taylor directed the session. We wrote three songs in the first two days that we were together and two of those are on the debut album Taylor Swift. After we'd written a few songs, her dad said, 'Here's another 15 that she wrote.”

Showing a CD to camera, Robert says he has 16 more songs written by Taylor that have never been heard by the public. “I have tons of these from way back,” he says on the show, which features interviews with Taylor's early collaborators. “Here are 16 songs copyright 2003, the same year we started writing. None of those is anything you've ever heard.”