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Rice University, a private research university in Houston, Texas, is offering multiple courses centered on pop star Taylor Swift, including one class examining far-left themes such as “American nationalism and whiteness” through Swift’s lyrics and public image. Rice will offer “COLL 118 Mastermind: The Taylor Swift Eras” this fall, in which students will analyze Swift’s albums as “primary texts” and examine “how a single artist can shape global culture and shift industry standards.” “We will decode the history, narrative themes, and lyrical depth of each distinct ‘Era’ to understand how she builds a cohesive universe through her work,” the course...

Steven Spielberg praised Taylor Swift while inducting her into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday: “I am honored to be here tonight to introduce the youngest female ever to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame...A woman who has no peer when it comes to shattering records as a writer, singer, and storyteller. A singular artist and a genuine phenomenon whose place in our culture rivals that of the composers of the American Songbook, Lennon and McCartney of the ’60s, and the singer-songwriters of the 1970s like Carole King and Stevie ‘Let’s Go’ Nicks.” He continued by lauding...

Less than two years after the "Champagne Problems" singer's estimated net worth was revealed to be $1.6 billion, Taylor's net worth jumped once again to a whopping $2 billion, according to Forbes. Per the business magazine's "Iconoclast 50" list, published June 3, the Grammy winner's net worth doubled since she first became a billionaire in 2023, due to her record-breaking Eras Tour...and the sales of multiple re-recorded albums. In addition, Taylor, 36, has also released two new albums...And not only that: she bought back the rights to her first six albums last year. The "Opalite" singer's financial value is made...

Sir Paul McCartney has finally named an artist he would rank alongside his former band – pop queen Taylor Swift. In an interview with BBC Radio 2’s Tracks Of My Years, the 83-year-old music veteran expressed his admiration for the American pop singer, describing her as “clever” and a “very good” performer... He said: “You do see the parallel of the amount of fame and the worldwide fame that Taylor Swift has and that we had [as the Beatles]… But Swift questioned comparisons with the Beatles during an interview in December. Stephen Colbert, the host of The Late Show, suggested...

Colin Jost and Travis Kelce bonded over their high-profile relationships with Scarlett Johansson and Taylor Swift, respectively. The SNL star shared he is more "approachable" than his wife, who people fan over constantly. "I'm probably approached more because she's less approachable... Because I'm on TV ... I'm in their living room, so they're just like, 'Hey what's up man, how's it going?'" "She's actually almost so famous that they don't believe it a lot of times," he said of passersby. "We've been traveling and we've been standing at the passport check and the person's looking at her passport and he'll...

As she accepted the award for Artist of the Year at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards tonight, Taylor Swift chose not to further spotlight her hit album The Life of a Showgirl but, instead, offered some revealing advice to emerging artists. Perhaps her most poetic quote of the night soon followed: “I’m a firm believer that anything you feed your mind, it will internalize,” she told the crowd. “Anything you feed the internet, it will attempt to kill. And I don’t want that for your dreams.” Swift arrived at the ceremony this evening with nine nominations, and by the time...

Taylor Swift's three concerts in Vienna this week have been canceled after two suspects were arrested for allegedly plotting a terror attack, authorities said. "We have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone's safety," a message from Barracuda Music said. "All tickets will be automatically refunded." The cancellation comes hours after authorities announced a 19-year-old Austrian citizen was arrested Wednesday morning and a second suspect was arrested in the afternoon. The suspects allegedly radicalized themselves online, Franz Ruf, director-general for public safety in the Ministry of the Interior, said at a press conference. The 19-year-old suspect...

Two weeks after organizers scrubbed Taylor Swift's concerts in Vienna amid a foiled terror plot, the singer issued her first statement on the cancellations. “Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.” She thanked authorities — “thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote — and said she waited to speak until the European leg of her...

Remember the Taylor Swift terror plot that led to the cancelation of her ‘concerts’ in Austria? We’re finally getting more details about that and it appears to involve a Muslim terror cell operating in the small nation. The leading figure in the attack ‘Beran A’ is an Albanian Muslim. He had begun making a TATP bomb. Muslim terrorists were able to kill quite a few people, including children, during their terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert using a TATP nail bomb. They were not doubt looking for similar numbers from their terror plot involving the...

Owning a private jet is one of those far-fetched luxuries the average person can only dream about during a five-hour domestic flight cramped up in economy class. For the uber-wealthy, a private jet is not just a luxury, but it can also be a pretty lucrative business. Celebrities can enjoy traveling anywhere on a moment’s notice, and when they themselves aren’t in the air, they can rent the jet out for others to use. Experts estimate that an hour of flight time aboard a private jet introduces about two tonnes (also known as metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the...

The superstar, 36, made history after grossing a record $2billion in ticket sales for her career-spanning, 21-month Eras Tour - which consisted of 149 shows in 21 countries. As a reward to her team, Taylor is said to have handed out more than $197million in bonuses to everyone working on the tour. The Lover singer is notably a benevolent boss, and the moment she gives the mammoth bonuses to the performers and crew, complete with personal notes, is shown in her new Disney+ docuseries, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour/The End of an Era. Those who received a bonus included truck...

Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce is set to marry Taylor Swift in the Watch Hill neighborhood of Westerly, Rhode Island on Saturday, June 13, 2026, according to multiple reports Saturday. The venue, Ocean House, is a glamorous, Victorian-style luxury hotel where the couple has spent plenty of time, per Harper's Bazaar. The date, of course, is a nod to the superstar’s lucky number, 13. There were rumors that Swift's desired date of June 13 was already held for another bride and groom and that she and Kelce dropped a pretty penny to buy the date from them....

Billie Eilish’s acceptance speech at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards stayed with the attendees and resonated with the global audience. “I love you all, but there are a few people here with a lot more money than me,” she said. “If you’re a billionaire—why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties,” Billie said. Social media got flooded with one looming question: How Much Has Taylor Swift Donated? Swift reportedly donated about $6.5 million to charity in 2025. The total amount, however, is expected to be much higher as many charities didn’t reveal the exact...

"I figured I’d see what all the hype was about"Mangione, who was arrested in December for allegedly shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside of a Manhattan hotel, has turned into somewhat of a cultural phenomenon over the last year, earning himself a large base of fans, some campaigning for his freedom, while others praise his looks. The suspect has spent the last 10 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he awaits charges for second-degree murder. He turned 27 in May, and now, a letter that he wrote to an undisclosed recipient reflecting on his birthday...

Prince Harry showed off his take on an American accent during a recent podcast appearance. He said: "This is the most American sentence I could think of: 'I ordered breadsticks with ranch dressing at Applebee's.'" Harry attempted to start, then laughed and asked the host to repeat the sentence. "That was decent," Hasan commended the Prince. After Harry repeated the host’s second line, “Hey, do you like my Cybertruck?”, Hasan turned to people off camera and said: "You guys out there, you cannot laugh like this. We're having a real thing." "No, but by the way, the laughter, it's encouraging....

Not content with dominating the music scene, Taylor Swift is apparently now taking on the art world, with hundreds of her fans making the pilgrimage to a German museum to catch a glimpse of a certain painting. Earlier this month, the Grammy winner released the music video for her latest single The Fate Of Ophelia, the opening shot of which seems to have been inspired by artist Friedrich Heyser’s painting depicting the iconic Shakespearean character. Heyser’s painting now lives in Museum Wiesbaden in Germany, and dedicated Swifties have been paying it a visit in their droves much to the surprise...

The latest exercise in Swiftiana combines bawdiness with a certain impulse toward conservatism, as the singer embraces suburban dreams of marriage and white-picket fences while rhapsodizing about her fiancé’s reproductive organ. In that sense it’s an appropriate text for the Trump era, when coarseness and right-wing politics have been married in a distinctive way

"Taylor Swift is one very canny operator — developing her fan base, working incredibly hard writing some of the most popular pop tunes of the last decade, and cementing a good friendship with the future king Prince William over 10 years ago — a relationship that has culminated in private letters, inspirational cards and good wishes to Princess Catherine during her difficult year," the insider said. In June 2024, William celebrated his 42nd birthday by attending Swift's Eras Tour concert with George and Charlotte at London's Wembley Stadium. Middleton, who was undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer at the time, did...

How does a mere mortal—in this case, an average American girl in a stars-and-stripes dress with a red cardigan—transform into a Beatles-esque global phenom? Taylor Swift was performing from a young age and showed potential for success, surely, but few could have anticipated the unprecedented level of stardom she’d reach. By pairing her talent and artistry with incredible entrepreneurial instincts, Swift is not only building a musical legacy; she has built a reputation for bold, effective fanbase development. Swift’s early success as a teenage country music star was straight out of the entrepreneur’s playbook. She seized an opportunity that other...

If you listened to “Father Figure” and thought it sounded familiar, you’re not crazy. In Taylor Swift’s newest album, “The Life of a Showgirl”, her song “Father Figure” uses bits of George Michael’s 1987 classic of the same name, including the lyrics, “I’ll be your father figure” as well as some of the melody. However, the message Swift sends couldn’t be more different than the one Michael sent. You want a fight, you found it I got the place surrounded You’ll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you’re drowning Whose portrait’s on the mantle? Who covered up your...