Taylor Swift Is Officially The ‘Time’ Person Of The Year After Her Absolutely Massive 2023

Earlier this week, the shortlist for Time‘s 2023 “Person Of The Year” was revealed. It included Hollywood strikers, Chinese president Xi Jinping, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Donald Trump prosecutors, Barbie, Vladimir Putin, King Charles III, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Taylor Swift. It was teased at the time that the announcement would come today (December 6), and now it’s here: Time has chosen Swift as the 2023 Person Of The Year.

When the shortlist was announced, Time summarized Swift’s 2023, “Grammy-award winning artist Taylor Swift has had a major year, from re-releasing her albums with record-setting streams to making one of the most successful concert films in history. Swift’s Eras tour is also on track to become the highest-grossing global tour of all time.”

Aside from their new Swift cover story, Time also shared a piece explaining why Swift was given the Person Of The Year honor. They wrote in part, “For building a world of her own that made a place for so many, for spinning her story into a global legend, for bringing joy to a society desperately in need of it, Taylor Swift is TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year.” They also noted, “In a divided world, where too many institutions are failing, Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light. No one else on the planet today can move so many people so well. Achieving this feat is something we often chalk up to the alignments of planets and fates, but giving too much credit to the stars ignores her skill and her power.”

In another article outlining the superlatives associated with Swift’s selection, Time explained:

“Taylor Swift was named TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year — making her the first woman to appear twice on a Person of the Year cover since the franchise began in 1927. Swift was also named Person of the Year in 2017, when she was recognized as one of the Silence Breakers who inspired women to speak out about sexual misconduct.

Swift’s Person of the Year designation marks several other firsts for the TIME franchise, which began nearly a century ago as a way to capture the year through the individual, group, or concept that has had the most influence on the world in the previous 12 months — for good or ill.

She’s the first person to be selected because of her achievement in the arts, and is only the fourth individual selection who was born in the last 50 years. As the first woman to be recognized more than once, Swift joins a small group of repeat designees, alongside several U.S. presidents and world leaders.”