TIME magazine has selected Taylor Swift as 2023’s “Person of the Year”, making history as an entertainment figure
On December 6, TIME released an article hailing Taylor Swift as their 2023 Person of the Year. According to the magazine, Taylor Swift’s popularity has been on the rise for over a decade, but something shifted this year and the pop star became “the main character of the world”, making an empire for herself.
This marks the first time an entertainment figure has been selected as TIME’s “Person of the Year” for their main job since the tradition began in 1927.
Moreover, Swift is the first entertainment figure to win this title alone.
Irish rock band U2 was selected for this title in 2005, and in 2017, several actresses alongside Taylor Swift were honored (as part of “The Silence Breakers”), but all were selected for reasons separate from their primary professions.
U2 was selected due to their various charitable activities, sharing the honor with Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft. Meanwhile, “The Silence Breakers” were jointly selected due to the impact of the #MeToo movement.
This year, Taylor Swift garnered overwhelming popularity for her “The Eras Tour”, which started in North America and spanned various countries.
Wherever her concerts were held, there was a significant increase in spending at restaurants, hotels, etc., leading to the creation of the term ”Swiftonomics” (refering to how Taylor Swift is boosting the economy) in the United States.
Additionally, Swift’s public relationship with Travis Kelce, a player for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, intensified public interest, making Swift’s popularity a significant economic and societal phenomenon.
As a result, Harvard University has decided to offer a course in the spring semester to examine Swift’s music world in a cultural context.
TIME also disclosed that along with Swift, nine others, including the UK’s King Charles III, Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), and Barbie, were finalists for the award.
