An abridged version of this article appeared in The Mayo News on Tuesday, January 2, 2024.

2023 has been declared ‘The Year of Taylor Swift’. The pop icon’s recent anointment as TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year 2023 simply acknowledges what most of us already knew – that she is the biggest superstar on the planet, and possibly of all time.

Predictably, among a certain, mostly male, mostly conservative cohort, reaction to TIME’s decision has ranged from the denouncement of Swift’s music as ‘saccharine’ and bland, to full-on apoplectic meltdowns among those who believe the award is just more proof that the musician is being ‘used’ as a political weapon in the 2024 US Presidential election.

Swift’s music and career have been scorned because of what she writes about – frequently, her relationships and her ex-boyfriends – and the nerve she has to have ex-boyfriends in the first place. Vocally anti-Trump, and publicly aligned to the pro-choice movement, it is unsurprising that Swift is feared by conservatives, particularly given that an Instagram post of hers in September encouraging her followers to register to vote resulted in a surge of over 35,000 registrations.

But for the most part, reaction to TIME’s decision has been greeted with rapture (by Swifties) and at the very minimum, a grudging respect by the rest of the world. That respect is very much earned, and if you’re not familiar with this musical behemoth, allow me to introduce you to some of her achievements.

Swift released her first single 17 years ago, at the age of 17. Since then, she has released 10 original studio albums, as well as four re-recorded albums (more on those later) and four live albums. At just 34 years of age, she has excelled artistically, culturally, commercially and as a celebrity, smashing records set by artists like Elvis, Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Her most recent tour, Eras, is now the highest grossing music tour of all time, and her net worth has been reported by Bloomberg at over $1.1 billion. Swift has been credited with directly affecting local economies; the average Eras attendee is reported to spend an average of nearly $1,300. When Eras started in Glendale, Arizona, it generated more revenue locally than the Superbowl, which had been held there earlier in the year. And, when Swift started dating Kansas City Chief NFL footballer Travis Kelce, his games saw a massive increase in viewership. The power of Taylor.

Quite the string of achievements for any musical artist in the modern era, but particularly and notably for a young woman, who over the past two decades has been typically and relentlessly scrutinised and criticised for everything from her outfits to her relationships, her appearance and even her music – all of which she has written or co-written herself.

The secrets to Swift’s success? Resilience and re-invention combined with an extraordinary talent for songwriting and storytelling. As a 19 year old, she was publicly denigrated, on stage, and later, framed and humiliated publicly by Kanye West, an artist almost twice her age. Later, the rights to her first albums were sold against her will to a friend of West’s. She retreated into isolation, and into a dark place, and threw herself into work.

Her response was to defiantly re-invent herself as an artist – “it’s harder to hit a moving target” – and she has since in turn become country starlet, pop icon, rock chick and thoughtful folklorist. Unashamedly, she has bled her emotions into her songwriting, fearlessly challenging her detractors in stinging lyrical ripostes designed for fans to decode. This, combined with a ferocious appetite for work, and a genius for marketing has endeared her to fans the world over.

But the love is not unrequited; what has made Swift a superstar is her own devotion to her fans, which they repay in spades. Her audience, primarily women, responds almost viscerally to her vulnerability, her triumph, her generosity on stage – 3.5-hour sets are typical – but most of all to her lyrics, which consistently validate the feelings, dreams, experiences and emotions of people, particularly but not exclusively women, who have regularly felt, overlooked underestimated and dismissed.

Swift is not unproblematic. She is a billionaire, for starters. She has been accused of cultural appropriation, performative activism, feuding, and of promoting an exclusive brand of white feminism. None of these criticisms are without merit, and some of them, she has addressed.

But the real reason Swift is Person of the Year is because of what she represents, in an incredibly dark time for the world. 2023, the latter part in particular, has shown us horrors we have never before seen, combined with callous indifference from the global powers we have been traditionally taught to believe are “good”. Watching what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza has shaken our faith in institutions and in the very premise of right and wrong to the core, and combined with events closer to home, it often feels like the good in the world is succumbing to evil.

Somehow, Swift finds a way to transcend this, moving people on a global level, bringing them what they want, and more and more, need – joy, colour, celebration, and love, combined with razor sharp lyrics and music with meaning.

Her triumphs, her ambition and her acumen mark her as both a trailblazer and a role model, particularly for girls and younger women, while demonstrating that success is possible without being ruthless, and that you can be vulnerable and scared at times but ultimately powerful because of this.

A lesson some of our so-called world leaders could do with learning.