Forbes Women says that Taylor Swift is the artist of the moment, and we’re not one to say otherwise. She is the female artist with the most number one albums in history and has a net worth of 1.1 billion dollars. Also, ‘The Eras Tour’ has had a great economic impact that can be seen in figures: Trainline calculates that those attending the concerts on her US tour spent an average of 1,300 euros per show, adding tickets, travel and hospitality. This Wednesday and Thursday the artist will perform at the Santiago Bernabéu (Madrid) and the swifties have been camping out at the venue for days. But how did she become ‘the new queen of pop’?

There is no doubt that she is a great songwriter and turns everything she touches into gold. But let’s not forget that behind all that effort there was a great support: her parents. Just as Taylor is an expert on stage, selling more than four million tickets on ‘The Eras Tour’ in the United States, her parents are experts in business. This aspect has been fundamental in Taylor’s first push to land on the music scene, as thanks to their business, financial and marketing skills, her parents have literally been the ‘godparents’ of the mass phenomenon that Taylor Swift is now.

Father and financial supervisor

Following his background in finance and his stockbroking, Scott Swift served until 2019 as a vice president at Merrill Lynch, one of Wall Street’s largest investment banks. This talent for numbers with a more than sturdy financial background came in handy in boosting his daughter’s early career.

In addition to becoming a key supporter, Scott took the reins of the financial aspects of Taylor’s musical career, which allowed the first push towards a proper projection of her professional interests in a difficult industry such as the music industry. Thanks to this financial base, the family had no qualms about moving to Nashville when their daughter decided she wanted to be a country singer.

Even though Taylor is now independent and the new ‘queen of pop’ with a billion dollars in her bank account, her parents’ support still plays an important role. They were recently spotted at the opening night of her ‘The Eras Tour’ in March 2023, at the premiere of the film of the same tour, The Eras Tour Concert, this past October and at one of the concerts in Buenos Aires, together with her daughter’s current partner, American football player Travis Kelce.

Mother and creative director

Her mother, Andrea, was a marketing director at an advertising agency, and her knowledge has also been fundamental in selling the product that her daughter was initially creating with her guitar and her country-based lyrics. With a stable financial base, a good advisor and a professional branding and advertising professional, the result could not be other than a solid and very prosperous business, and that is what Taylor has become.

Like her husband, Andrea’s support is essential to the singer and she is always with her whenever she can, despite her health problems. On three occasions she has been diagnosed with cancer, from which she has emerged victorious. Taylor has always shown her love and support for her mother and her family in general, both on social media and in song (‘Soon You’ll Get Better’).

Her daughter has a natural talent for music, but her parents have a natural talent for success, and even when choosing her name, they thought about her professional future. Taylor is a neutral name that can refer to either male or female, and that is ‘a positive trait on a face card for being a business person in a business world’, as Taylor herself told Rolling Stone in 2009.

A star is born

Andrea and Scott raised their two sons, Taylor (1989) and Austin (1992), on a Christmas tree farm in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, later moving to another house in the same town. From an early age, Taylor demonstrated his musical abilities, as his father recounted in a 2009 interview with the University of Delaware newspaper: ‘He was always singing when he was 3, 5, 6, 7 years old. It was Taylor doing what she loves”, and for this very reason, in 2003, they decided to move to Tennessee, just outside Nashville, to get this natural talent off the ground.

A young Taylor, knocking on the door of Music Row, known as the epicentre of Nashville’s country music industry, said, ‘Hi, I’m Taylor. I’m 11 years old. I want a record deal, call me,’ she revealed to Entertainment Weekly in 2008. Although she wasn’t called back, Taylor Swift became the youngest artist ever signed under the Sony/ATV Music Publishing House wing, at just 14 years old on Big Machine Records.

Nappies as a recommendation for Taylor Swift concerts.