Taylor Swift's opening act for her 2012 Grammy Awards performance was her "Hunger Games" soundtrack collaborators the Civil Wars, who took the stage to perform their track "Barton Hallow." The duo praised Swift for already winning two prizes for the night, Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for "Mean."

"It's our great honor to welcome a two-time winner already tonight, our friend Taylor Swift," they said before the singer took the stage. Playing a banjo, Swift wore a baggy light-pink dress and her hair done up in a loose braid for her performance of her Grammy-winning song. Her band, also wearing vintage-style clothing, backed her surrounded by abandoned-looking relics like big wooden doors and floorboards that evoked the country twang of the track.

Mid-song, Swift made her way across the stage, keeping the honky-tonk going, as she sassily looked into the camera and sang the Speak Now track. As she wrapped up the performance, she earned a standing ovation, and in true Swift style, she seemed stunned by all the love radiating her way.

The video for Taylor and the Civil Wars' "Hunger Games" song "Safe & Sound" will premiere on "MTV First: Taylor Swift" on Monday at 7:54 p.m. ET on MTV, followed by an exclusive chat with Swift.

After Monday's video premiere — which will also air live on MTV's channels in Canada, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Asia and Africa — the Grammy winner will sit down with MTV News' Sway Calloway for a 30-minute interview on MTV.com. Fans of the superstar can get in on the action by submitting questions via Twitter @MTVNews with the hashtags #AskTaylor or #MTVFirst.

CMT will air "Safe & Sound" at 8 p.m. ET, the same time the music video will debut exclusively online at MTV.com, CMT.com, VH1.com and MTV's international sites. On Tuesday morning, VH1's "Big Morning Buzz Live" will feature the video at 10 a.m. ET/PT.

The "Hunger Games" soundtrack, which also features Arcade Fire and the Decemberists, drops March 20. The movie hits theaters days later, on March 23.

Read the rest of this entry »

Taylor Swift‘s Speak Now tour was a global, 98-city trek that we are still talking about even though it’s long over. That’s because it was one of the hottest tours of 2011, as the singer traveled the world, strumming her guitar, singing her confessional songs, covering regional artists from the city in which she was playing and inviting big name locals to perform on stage with her. All three of those elements contributed to the tour’s success. StubHub (as reported by The Boot) reports that Swift’s tour was incredibly well-attended. In fact, she drew the largest crowd of 2011, beating out some pretty big names in the process.

Swift trumped the likes of U2, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and her fellow country superstar Kenny Chesney. Additionally, Swift’s show was the most popular music event in three different cities last year: Hartford, Atlanta and Orlando.

These impressive statistics are a testament to Swift and her fans, and their mutual admiration and dedication. If Taylor Swift comes to town, her fans turn out in droves. She, in turn, will put on a memorable show. Congrats to Taylor Swift on yet another concert business accolade.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few days shy of Taylor Swift's "Safe & Sound" video premiere from "The Hunger Games", a preview of the upcoming clip is unleashed. It gives a brief glimpse at the country music singer walking around in a barren woods and The Civil Wars lingering in a dimly-lit room.

The upcoming music video will premiere globally on February 13 at 7:54 P.M. ET on MTV during "MTV First: Taylor Swift". After the premiere, Taylor will do an interview to answer fans' questions that could be submitted via Twitter @MTVNews with the hashtags #AskTaylor or #MTVFirst.

The soundtrack album for the Jennifer Lawrence-starring movie will line up tracks by The Decemberists and Arcade Fire. Also, Lawrence, who plays Katniss, will sing "Rue's Lullaby", a tear-jerking tune she sings to her dying friend in the Arena. The CD will come out in the U.S. on March 20.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pop star Taylor Swift has reportedly been dumped by her so-called boyfriend Eddie Redmayne. The 22-year-old is believed to have embarked on a secret relationship with the "My Week With Marilyn" actor after meeting him at the auditions for film adaptation of "Les Miserables" last year.

However, the British-born Redmayne, 30, is not ready to continue a long-distance relationship with Swift, who is based in Nashville, US. "Taylor loved this image of a British boyfriend. Eddie's not interested in a long-distance relationship. The elements were against them. It's a shame," femalefirst.co.uk quoted a source as saying.

Read the rest of this entry »

A New Mega-Premiere: A week after Madonna blanketed the world with her new song “Gimme All Your Luvin’,” MTV is preparing a global, multiplatform unveiling of Taylor Swift’s video “Safe & Sound.” On Monday at 7:54 p.m., the song, from the film “The Hunger Games,” will be shown on MTV’s channels around the world, and Ms. Swift will sit for a 30-minute interview with MTV News. At 8 p.m. the video will run on CMT (like MTV, owned by Viacom) and MTV’s network of 300 Web outlets around the world. If that is not enough, VH1 will play it again the next morning on its “Big Morning Buzz Live” show. And if that’s not enough, you’ll have to DVR it.

Apple’s ‘Magic Money’: TuneCore, an independent distributor of digital music, announced that it had received $10,000 in royalty checks from Apple for the first two months of its new cloud service, iTunes Match. Apple charges $25 a year for users to access music on any device, and the company pays artists and labels whenever their music is played. “This is magic money that Apple made exist out of thin air for copyright holders,” Jeff Price, the company’s founder, wrote in a blog post. Still, the money has not been magical enough for some, like the Numero Group, a specialty label in Chicago that does not make its music available for iTunes Match because it says that Apple’s royalties are too small.

ILike Joins the Digital Graveyard: iLike, a pioneer in connecting music to social media, is officially defunct. The company was once a highly promoted start-up that was an early partner with Facebook and received investments from Ticketmaster and others. In 2009, it was bought by MySpace for $20 million. “Entrepreneurs and investors take note,” Billboard wrote. “iLike went from a leadership position in social music to nothingness in less than the span between summer Olympics.”

Read the rest of this entry »

We have a very highly anticipated announcement for Taylor Swift fans today! To celebrate her upcoming Australian tour and beautiful new fragrance Wonderstruck, we are giving her fans the chance to win tickets to Taylor Swift's 'Speak Now' tour AND a meet and greet with the gorgeous lady herself!

This is an amazing prize -- and is one of the last chances you'll get to win the opportunity to see Taylor's Speak Now tour! The Wonderstruck perfume bottle features some of Taylor's favourite symbols -- a Moravian star, a dove, a birdcage, and even her favourite number - 13. To be in the running for this fabulous prize, tell us in 25 words or less which of these symbols do you think best represents Taylor and why?

Read the rest of this entry »

The 2012 Grammy Awards is next Sunday and for those of us who can’t wait to see the show, we got another funny promo video starring LL Cool J(this year’s Grammy host) and Taylor Swift(one of the lead nominees). This week’s video features Swift beatboxing with legendary hip-hop artist LL. You can check it all out below!

Obviously, LL wins this one but Taylor certainly tries her best before she breaks out in laughs at the end. Beatboxing takes practice and skill, and I think if Taylor really wanted to, she could beatbox as as LL Cool J. I liked this video and I think you will too.

If you haven’t already, you should check out the two previous Taylor/LL 2012 Grammy Award promos from last week. The first video was called “Impressive” and featured Taylor admiring a large gold gramophone award while LL assumed that she was admiring him. The second video was about LL trying to teach Taylor how to properly clean the award. You can check out the cute video clips here.

It’s awesome that Taylor Swift has teamed up with LL Cool J for the Grammy advertising campaign. This year, she’s up for three nominations and a live performance. Let’s hope she wins big!

Read the rest of this entry »

Country queen Taylor Swift has been known to cross over audiences with her music, but she should draw the line on rap. Despite LL Cool J’s best efforts, Swift squeaks her part in a new Grammy commercial. Still it looked like it was good fun, and Taylor, 22, seems to have no problem laughing at herself at the end of the 30-second spot.

Cool J, 44, will be hosting the 2012 Awards show, and Swift will be one of the feature performers along with Katy Perry, Adele, Rihanna, Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Jason Aldean and Nicki Minaj .

Swift looks sassy in the spot for the Feb. 12 show. She’s wearing a little black cocktail dress with a plunging neckline and her hair is straight with bangs. Cool J starts things off with a steady beat and tossed to Taylor, who joined in with some springy boings. The sound is probably closest to the metallic sound of a Jew’s harp. But she quickly loses the beat.

“Oh my god,” Mr. Cool says. The spots goes the only place it can go; Cool J breaks out in laughter and Swift quickly follows. “I love it,” he laughs. Swift can’t keep it together either. Nonetheless, she looks super hot.

She’ll be joined on stage by Bruce Springsteen and Adele, 23, will be making a comeback from throat surgery. “It’s an absolute honor to be included in such a night, and for it to be my first performance in months is very exciting and of course nerve-wracking, but what a way to get back into it all,” she said in a statement.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pop star Taylor Swift will donate 14,000 books to a library in Tennessee. The 22-year-old is re-stocking the Nashville Public Library, while some of the new Scholastic titles will be sent to low-income children, pre-schools and daycare centres.

According to a website, each book will have a donation plate on the inside cover declaring: `A Gift to the Children of Nashville from Taylor Swift and Scholastic Inc.` Swift has previously shown her support for literacy in the US by donating $68,000 worth of reading material to a library in Pennsylvania.

Read the rest of this entry »

Taylor Swift has been replaced by Samantha Barks, to play the character of Eponine in the forthcoming musical adapted film ‘Les Miserables’. The 22-year-old ‘Fearless’ singer Taylor Swift replaced by Samantha Barks, 21-year-old British actress in the upcoming Hugh Jackman starrer musical adapted movie ‘Les Miserables’.

Earlier, Taylor Swift was considered for the role of Eponine, which now goes to Samantha, after she successfully portrayed the role in ‘Oliver’ play at the Manchester Playhouse in England. The Taylor Swift replacement by Samantha Barks was announced by producer Cameron Mackintosh on Tuesday, January 31, 2012.

Samantha Barks might be new to the big screen industry, but she had played the role of Eponine in the London production of 2010’s ‘Les Miserables’. She reprised the iconic character during the 25th anniversary of the play, which was held at the O2 arena, London in the year 2011.

Barks could not control her excitement, after she was picked to join the high-profiled project. Samantha said that, she could not believe that, she is going to play Eponine, the role that is close to her heart she had played in the West.

As per the Victor Hugo classic novel, the character of Eponine who is also known as Jondrette girl is a pampered child of her parents The Thenardiers, who later ends up as a street urchin and dies trying to save the life of Marius, the man whom she falls in love with. The stars like Scarlett Johansson, Evan Rachel Wood, Lea Michele have been circling for the role of Eponine.

It was also reported that, the ‘Speak Now’ hit maker Taylor Swift was formerly offered the role. Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Aaron Tveit and Eddie Redmayne are the cast of the movie. The upcoming musical adaptation ‘Les Miserables’ has been scheduled for US release on December 7, 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »