{"id":536217,"date":"2026-06-15T12:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/536217\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T12:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:06:09","slug":"taylor-swift-enters-the-songwriters-hall-of-fame-with-tears-jokes-and-a-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/536217\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift Enters the Songwriters Hall of Fame With Tears, Jokes and a Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Swift\u2019s voice cracked repeatedly during her speech at Thursday\u2019s Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala in New York. And not just because she screamed for hours at the Knicks nail-biter<\/a> N.B.A. finals game the night before.<\/p>\n

In a 21-minute speech that balanced sincerity and self-deprecating humor, Swift spoke about her beginnings as a songwriter, the sacrifices her family made for her career and how artists can survive the modern music landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow more than ever, in an industry that seems to be consumed by metrics, data, analytics and we\u2019re all trying to predict whether something will trend or not, writers need to trust their human intuition,\u201d Swift said. \u201cAnd I think the thousands of hours I\u2019ve spent lovingly working at this craft have taught me to really be able to identify the ideas that jump out at me and sparkle and linger, the ones that matter to me most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such ideas over Swift\u2019s career evolved into songs like \u201cLove Story\u201d and \u201cAll Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor\u2019s Version),\u201d both designated as \u201ckey\u201d in Swift\u2019s discography by the Songwriters Hall of Fame<\/a>. Remembering the process of creating \u201cLove Story,\u201d Swift said the songwriter Craig Wiseman told her in a writing session that he didn\u2019t quite grasp her concept. The singer, then a teenager, went home and finished the song on her own.<\/p>\n

Now 36, Swift is the youngest woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Stevie Wonder holds the record for youngest overall, Linda Moran, the organization\u2019s chief executive and president, said onstage.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees also included Walter Afanasieff, who wrote hit songs with Mariah Carey and produced others for Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand; Terry Britten and Graham Lyle (Tina Turner); Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss; Kenny Loggins; Alanis Morissette; and Christopher Stewart, known as Tricky (Beyonc\u00e9, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige).<\/p>\n

Before Swift took the stage, the director Steven Spielberg delivered an introduction heavy with Swift lyrics, and described her as \u201ca singular artist and a genuine phenomenon, whose place in our culture rivals that of the composers of the American songbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swift, who has 14 Grammys and 14 No. 1 hits<\/a> among countless sales records<\/a>, seemed particularly moved to be honored for songwriting, which she called \u201cpretty much the only thing I ever just naturally did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt easy to nurture something I\u2019ve loved so much,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it couldn\u2019t have been easy for my parents and my brother,\u201d she said, assuring the crowd \u201cI\u2019m good\u201d as she got choked up, \u201cto just pick up and move our entire family from Pennsylvania to relocate to Nashville, so that I could hone my craft in the songwriting capital of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expressing her gratitude for her family\u2019s support, Swift fought back tears. Several times, her fianc\u00e9, Travis Kelce, dabbed his eyes with a white cloth napkin.<\/p>\n

Sombr<\/a> performed Swift\u2019s \u201cCardigan\u201d and \u201cDear John\u201d in a musical tribute that got Swift singing and dancing ahead of her speech.<\/p>\n

After, Swift said she was \u201cenvious\u201d of Sombr\u2019s songwriting, asserting that he would undoubtedly be at the top of her most-listened-to songs at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my late-night debates with my friends about the state of the music industry involve me saying very loudly, \u2018Sombr is the future, and he does it all on his own, and he doesn\u2019t need A.I., the kids are fine,\u2019\u201d Swift said.<\/p>\n

Swift closed her speech with words for her fans, who she said she\u2019s always surprised have stuck with her so long: \u201cI\u2019m humbled by the ways that fans have immortalized my songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the night, Swift grooved to several guest performances, as she is wont to do<\/a>, gleefully shaking her hands in the air during Tamar Braxton\u2019s rendition of \u201cSingle Ladies,\u201d co-written by Stewart for Beyonc\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Morissette in her induction speech spoke about her relationship to songwriting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting helps me understand, it helps me locate and define myself from inside out versus outside in,\u201d the \u201cYou Oughta Know\u201d artist said.<\/p>\n

Morissette also called for the preservation of public arts education, saying, \u201cI truly believe our future depends on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift\u2019s voice cracked repeatedly during her speech at Thursday\u2019s Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[197459,18,117,19,17,337,199788,83410,13448,4647],"class_list":["post-536217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-content-type-personal-profile","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-pop-and-rock-music","tag-songwriters-hall-of-fame","tag-swift","tag-taylor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116754041075751640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}