Taylor Swift Reflects on the Past 10 Years, Says She ‘Would Have Done Everything Exactly the Same’
As the 2010s come to a close, Billboard has named Taylor Swift Woman of the Decade. To accompany the accolade, the outlet published an extensive, reflective interview with the pop star looking back on the last 10 years. And though she's been high highs and low lows, the 29-year-old wouldn't change a thing.
“Oh, God — I wouldn’t give myself any advice,” the singer proclaimed. “I would have done everything exactly the same way. Because even the really tough things I’ve gone through taught me things that I never would have learned any other way. I really appreciate my experience, the ups and downs.”
“Maybe that seems ridiculously Zen," she admitted, "but I’ve got my friends, who like me for the right reasons. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my boyfriend [Joe Alwyn]. I’ve got my fans. I’ve got my cats.”
In the last 10 years, Swift transitioned from country to pop, putting out five albums along the way (Speak Now, Red, 1989, Reputation and Lover) and selling out massive tours; however, she's gone through her fair share of hardships as well, from her very public feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian to fighting over the rights to her masters with her former record label, but she uses those experiences to not only strengthen herself but also help other artists.
“I’ve had several upheavals of somehow not being what I should be. And this happens to women in music way more than men,” she said. “That’s why I get so many phone calls from new artists out of the blue — like, ‘Hey, I’m getting my first wave of bad press, I’m freaking out, can I talk to you?’ And the answer is always yes! I’m talking about more than 20 people who have randomly reached out to me. I take it as a compliment because it means that they see what has happened over the course of my career, over and over again.”
Read Swift's full Woman of the Decade interview here.