Luke Bryan Reigns At Spring Break Panama City

TAYLOR SWIFT HONORED AS “WOMAN OF THE YEAR” AT BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS Las Vegas, NV – May 21, 2012 – Taylor Swift was awarded the coveted Woman of The Year Award at last night’s Billboard Music Awards. The top award honors “the achievements of a trailblazing female artist over the past 12 months, and acknowledges her overall success in the music business and her leadership in embracing the changing industry.” At 22 years old, Taylor is the youngest Woman of the Year winner in history. Taylor Swift is the only woman in music history to release three #1 albums in a row, each selling more than 5 million copies, putting her in the company of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson. With the release of her most recent album, Speak Now, on which every song was written solely by Taylor, she made history on the Billboard Hot 100, charting a record-breaking 11 songs from one album in a single week. In addition, Taylor also currently holds the Billboard Hot 100 record for the most Top 10 debuts by an artist in the 53-year history of the chart. Further, her self-titled debut album holds the record for the longest-running album on the Billboard 200 chart – ever. Taylor has won 6 GRAMMY Awards, and is the youngest-ever winner of the music industry’s highest honor, the GRAMMY for Album of The Year. She is the reigning American Music Awards Artist of the Year (all genres), and is the first artist in history to win this top prize twice. Taylor has written every song on each of her three studio albums (all released on Big Machine Records), and has career record sales of more than 22 million albums and 50 million song downloads. She has earned Multi-Platinum and Platinum album sales certifications in 17 countries around the globe. Speak Now is one of only 17 albums in the entire history of music to sell more than 1 million copies in a single week. Taylor’s blockbuster Speak Now World Tour played 111 shows to more than 1.5 million fans in sold-out stadiums and arenas in 19 countries spanning 4 continents. The Times (London) wrote, “Swift’s superb voice and musical ability marked her out as a rare talent. She had the entire arena swooning,” and The New York Times calls Taylor “important” and “one of pop’s finest songwriters.” Rolling Stone has praised her as “a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift.” Taylor has twice been named Entertainer of the Year by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. In addition to her music successes, Taylor has established herself as one of the world’s most philanthropic celebrities – raising money and awareness for causes ranging from clean water to literacy to disaster relief. It was just announced this week that Taylor will fund a new education center for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.