Taylor Swift is the princess of pop right now. Album after album, she draws in new listeners, while maintaining her appeal to devoted Swifties. The city of New York even designated one of her songs — "Welcome to New York"— as it's unofficial anthem. Apologies to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" and Jay Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind." You had a good run. But Swift has been a big deal in the music industry for almost a decade now. Her first album came out in 2006, and she started attending and performing at major awards shows like the Country Music Awards, Grammys, and Video Music Awards in 2008.
So far, Taylor Swift has won seven Grammys and been nominated almost 30 times. When she accepted the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2010, Swift was the youngest-ever recipient of the award.
She is opening this year's show, which airs Monday, February 15, and it's sure to be quite the production. According to reports, she'll kick off with a song from 1989. Swift is also nominated for seven golden gramophones this year. If she happens to win them all, let's hope she doesn't drop any this time.
In honor of the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, we're throwing it back to Swift's very first performance at the ceremony and looping all the way back to the present.
2009
Swift went to her first Grammys in 2008, but only as a spectator. In 2009, however, she took the stage to perform an acoustic duet with fellow rising star Miley Cyrus. The two showed off their very country roots. Swift was not nominated for any awards that year.
2010
The video quality is poor, but so is the singing. This performance was met with major criticism. It's clear Swift's come a long way since this cringe-worthy duet.
The performance started with an acoustic version of "Today Was a Fairytale." Then, Swift was joined onstage by Stevie Nicks for out-of-key renditions of "Rhiannon" and "You Belong With Me."
2010 (continued)
Regardless of the iffy live vocals, Swift won Album of the Year for Fearless. She beat out Beyoncé, The Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band, and Lady Gaga. She went on to win three more Grammys that night: Best Country Album, Best Country Vocal Performance, and Best Country Song.
2012
At the 54th Grammys, Swift took home two awards for her song "Mean" before performing it live. Swift had to make up for her rocky performance with Nicks the previous year, and said her motivation for the song came from the critics of her 2011 performance.
2013
Swift opened the Grammys in 2013 with a playful circus routine that many suspected featured a call-out to her ex Harry Styles. Similar speculations circulated again this year after the release of her "Out of the Woods" music video.
She also won a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media for "Safe & Sound," featuring The Civil Wars.
2014
Two words: hair flip.
This was the break-out year for Swift's lob and her impressive head-flipping skills. She was also nominated for four Grammys, but wasn't able to snag any of them.
2015
This performance was at the Grammy Museum, not on the Grammy stage, but it's good listening prep for Monday night's show. The acoustic take showed a whole new side of the song, and fans have been requesting a rerelease of the stripped-down version.
Following the announcement that Swift will perform a song she's never performed on TV before at this year's Grammys, we figured out that a possible 11 of the 17 songs on 1989 are possible candidates.
"Out of the Woods" is still a contender, and it's our best guess for Swift's opening performance this year.
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