Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
A community in grief, a young life that ended too soon
manchestereveningnews.co.ukClutching onto balloons and lighting candles, hundreds turned out to remember a 'smart, talented and loving' teenager whose life ended far too soon.
A broken Manchester community embraced one another as heartbreaking tributes were paid to schoolboy Eric Lin. Eric, who had been reported missing from the Beswick area of Manchester on the evening of July 2, was tragically found dead days later, on July 6. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. The teenager, who was just 14 was found in the Manchester Ship Canal in Stockton Heath, near the Moor Nature Reserve.
A week after his death, on Thursday evening (July 13), crowds came out in their hundreds to mourn the loss of Eric, who was a student at the Co-op Academy in Failsworth and described as having a 'big heart and a cheeky smile'.
The streets outside the school turned into a sea of blue, as balloons with heartfelt written tributes and flowers were tied to the railings and his school peers, along with their parents, cradled one another. "Fly high", "14 - forever young" and "you will forever be in my heart" were just some of the tributes left on handwritten cards, banners and balloons that swayed gently in the wind.
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