WASHINGTON — Taylor Swift has been named Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2023.
Swift's place at the top of the magazine's shortlist was announced on the TODAY Show on Wednesday morning. In his sweeping profile covering Swift that dropped after the announcement, Time Magazine writer Sam Lansky pointed out how fully the singer has entered daily life for people around the world: "To discuss her movements felt like discussing politics or the weather—a language spoken so widely it needed no context. She became the main character of the world."
Each year Time chooses one person for its Person of the Year award, placing a person or concept (such as the #MeToo movement in 2017) as the most talked-about of the year. The award isn't necessarily reserved for positive worldshakers (Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have both won the title) but is instead reserved for the newsmaker who shaped the year and changed the cultural discussion over the past 12 months.
And Taylor Swift has done nothing if not dominated headlines in 2023.
Swift's Eras Tour has taken the U.S. and the world by storm, with highly coveted tickets sold out within minutes of them popping up online. In fact, the U.S. Senate in January held a hearing on consolidation in the ticket industry after massive difficulty arose when fans were trying to score tickets through Ticketmaster.
She's also released a movie. The Eras Tour concert film was released in October and broke records for first-day ticket sales, grossing more than $200 million at the box office.
Swift's relationships and dating status frequently becomes headline-making news, with fans dissecting every lyric of her songs to determine who they're about. She broke up with boyfriend Joe Alwyn in April. When the 2023 NFL season kicked off five months later, there was a flurry of headlines wondering if she was dating Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce.
The general consensus at this point, for the record, is that they are in fact dating.
Swift herself opened up to Time about the relationship, saying they were already a pair by the time fans spotted her cheering from the VIP box.
""By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple," she said. "I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard-launch a first date.”
Although Swift won this year's award, she wasn't the only one in the running. A few days before announcing the winner, Time released a list of finalists, whose names will likely be familiar:
Hollywood strikers - The actors and writers who went on a widespread strike this year in Hollywood, partly over concerns about AI.
Xi Jinping - China's president, who has had a rocky relationship with President Joe Biden, including when Biden called him a dictator.
Sam Altman - The CEO of OpenAI, who was unexpectedly overthrown by the company's board, then reinstated days later after massive public backlash.
Trump Prosecutors - The attorneys in New York, Georgia, Florida and Washington attempting to convict former president Donald Trump of a variety of crimes.
Barbie - The star of the 'Barbenheimer' phenomenon. Need we say more?
Vladimir Putin - The Russian president spearheading the invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was Time's 2022 Person of the Year.
King Charles III - The new British monarch, crowned after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II after more than 70 years on the throne.
Jerome Powell - The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, who executed the so-called "soft landing" of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic despite analysts warning it was all but impossible.