Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans… Read Full Bio ↴Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her narrative songwriting, which is often inspired by her personal life, has received widespread media coverage and critical praise.

Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 2004 to pursue a career in country music. She broke into the country music scene with her eponymous self-titled debut studio album, Taylor Swift in 2006, which included the singles "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song". Swift also released the holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, later titled as The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007.

Swift rose to mainstream prominence with her sophomore studio album, Fearless (2008), a country pop record with crossover appeal. Aided by the top-five singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Swift's third studio album, Speak Now (2010), blended country pop with elements of rock and featured the top-ten singles "Mine" and "Back to December".

Drawing inspiration from various pop, rock, and electronic genres, Swift's fourth studio album Red (2012) saw her transcending her country roots. She completely moved to pop with her synth-pop fifth studio album, 1989 (2014), and expanded the electropop sound on her next two studio albums, reputation (2017) and Lover (2019), which respectively embraced urban and retro styles. The four albums spawned a string of international top-five singles, including "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "I Knew You Were Trouble", "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", "Look What You Made Me Do", "ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco)", "You Need to Calm Down", and "Lover".

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift experimented with folk and alternative rock on her eighth and ninth studio albums, folklore and evermore (both 2020), whose lead singles "cardigan" and "willow" topped charts around the world. She also released the critically acclaimed documentaries Miss Americana and Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions that year. Swift's tenth studio album, Midnights (2022), marked her triumphant return to pop after two folk albums. The album set the record for biggest first day and first week ever on Spotify, spawned the hits Anti-Hero and Lavender Haze, and sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week becoming not only the biggest debut of the decade but also Swift's biggest debut ever. She would make history by becoming the first artist to occupy the entire top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with tracks from Midnights. Following Midnights, Taylor Swift announced her upcoming eleventh studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department” (2024) which is set to be released on April 19, 2024. She announced this record at 66th Annual Grammy Award Show accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album for her previous album, Midnights (2022) in honour of receiving her 13th Grammy.

Additionally, Swift began re-recording her back catalog in November 2020 as a result of a publicized dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine, regarding the acquisition of the masters of her back catalog. In April 2021, Swift released a re-recorded issue of her 2008 album Fearless, titled Fearless (Taylor's Version). It debuted at number one in the US. Swift continued releasing re-recorded versions of her back catalog in November, 2021 with the release of Red (Taylor's Version), a 30 track re-issue of her 2012 critical smash. The album debuted at #1 in the US, spawned the #1 hit All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault), and broke the record at the time for biggest first day for a female album on Spotify. Red (Taylor's Version) was a critical and commercial hit, and proved that Swift's ambitious plan to re-record her first 6 albums was well worth it.

Along with the release of Red (Taylor's Version) came All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), Swift's filmmaking debut. The 15 minute romantic drama was based on the lyrical content from Swift's 2012 fan favorite "All Too Well" starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien. It had a limited theatrical release in major cities, and Swift held special screenings of the film throughout 2022 at various film festivals. In December, 2022 Taylor announced that she would be making her feature directorial debut with Oscar-winning studio Searchlight Pictures.

Following the release of Midnights, Swift would embark on her first tour in five years, The Eras Tour.

Swift has released several songs for film soundtracks. She co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack— "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier", and contributed two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, including the single "Today Was a Fairytale", which was her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100, and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. She also contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album: "Safe & Sound - from The Hunger Games Soundtrack", co-written and recorded with The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, and "Eyes Open". "Safe & Sound" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In 2013, Swift recorded "Sweeter than Fiction", a song she wrote and produced with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance film soundtrack, which received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. Swift and English singer Zayn Malik, mononymously known as Zayn, released a single together, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker (2017). She also recorded an original song called "Beautiful Ghosts", which she wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Cats's soundtrack (2019). In 2020, Swift's documentary Miss Americana featured the song "Only the Young" which was written after the 2018 United States elections. In 2022, she released an original song titled "Carolina" for Where The Crawdads Sing (2022) inspired by the novel written by Delia Owens.

With sales of over 200 million records worldwide, Swift is a best-selling music artist. Her accolades include 14 Grammy Awards, including four Album of the Year wins, which makes
Swift the artist with the most awards for that category in history, two Brit Awards (including a Global Icon award), an Emmy Award, 28 [https://guinnessworldrecords.com/]Guinness World Records, 32 American Music Awards (the most wins by an artist), and 23 Billboard Music Awards (the most wins by a woman). She ranked eighth on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Artists Chart (2019) and was listed on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (2015). Swift has been included in various power rankings, such as Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015 and 2019) and Forbes Celebrity 100 (placing first in 2016 and 2019). She was named Woman of the Decade (2010s) by Billboard, Artist of the Decade (2010s) by the American Music Awards, and Person of the Year (2023) by Time Magazine.

08. Stay Beautiful
Taylor Swift Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Cory's eyes are like a jungle
He smiles it's like the radio
He whispers songs into my window
In words that nobody knows
There's pretty girls on every corner
They watch him as he's walking home
Saying, does he know
Will you ever know?

You're beautiful
Every little piece, love don't you know?
You're really gonna be someone
Ask anyone
And when you find everything you've looked for
I hope your love leads you back to my door
Oh, but if it don't, stay beautiful

Cory finds another way to be
The highlight of my day
I'm taking pictures in my mind
So I can save them for a rainy day
It's hard to make a conversation
When he's taking my breath away
I should say "hey, by the way

You're beautiful
Every little piece, love don't you know?
You're really gonna be someone
Ask anyone
And when you find everything you've looked for
I hope your love leads you back to my door
Oh, but if it don't, stay beautiful

If you and I are a story
That never gets told
If what you are is a daydream
I'll never get to hold, at least you'll know

You're beautiful
Every little piece, love don't you know?
You're really gonna be someone
Ask anyone
And when you find everything you've looked for
I hope your love leads you back to my front door
Oh, but if it don't
Will you stay beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful?
Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, but if it don't
Stay beautiful

Stay beautiful
Na, na, na, na, na

Overall Meaning

In Taylor Swift's song Stay Beautiful, the singer is talking about a boy named Cory. She says that his eyes are like a jungle and his smile is like the radio. Cory whispers songs into her window using words that nobody knows, capturing her heart. Despite there being pretty girls on every corner, Taylor hopes that Cory will always know that he is beautiful and that he will be someone someday. She takes pictures of him in her mind so she can remember him on a rainy day. Taylor finds it hard to have a conversation with Cory because he takes her breath away, and she wishes she could tell him that he is beautiful.

The chorus of the song is about Taylor's hope that Cory will always remember that he is beautiful, regardless of whether they end up together or not. She hopes that if they do end up apart, Cory will continue to stay beautiful. The last lines of the song are an invitation for Cory to stay beautiful, expressed through a repeated phrase of "stay beautiful."

Line by Line Meaning

Cory's eyes are like a jungle
Cory's eyes are mysteriously expressive

He smiles; it's like the radio
His smile fills her with positive energy like a good tune on the radio

He whispers songs into my window
Cory speaks to her in secret, inspiring ways that only she can hear

In words that nobody knows
Cory's words are so exclusive to their personal relationship that nobody else knows what they are

There's pretty girls on every corner
Many pretty girls surround Cory, all vying for his attention

They watch him as he's walking home
Girls are interested in his every move and follow him when they can

Saying, does he know
The girls wonder if Cory even realizes how special he is

Will you ever know?
The artist doubts if Cory will ever truly grasp how extraordinary he is

You're beautiful
Cory's unique traits make him astoundingly beautiful to the artist

Every little piece, love; don't you know?
Every aspect of Cory is irreplaceable and special, and the artist wants him to understand that

You're really gonna be someone
The singer has faith that Cory will achieve great success and recognition

Ask anyone
The artist thinks that anyone who knows Cory would agree that he is special

And when you find everything you've looked for
The singer hopes that Cory will find what he is searching for in life

I hope your love leads you back to my door
If Cory discovers that the singer is what he was looking for, she hopes that he will come back to her

Oh, but if it don't, stay beautiful
If Cory does not realize that the singer is what he wanted, she hopes that he will always be his beautiful self

Cory finds another way to be
Cory always finds new reasons to be impressive and unique

The highlight of my day
Cory's influence on the artist's day is always the best part

I'm taking pictures in my mind
The singer wants to remember all of the special moments with Cory

So I can save them for a rainy day
She is saving those moments for times when she may be feeling down

It's hard to make a conversation
The artist has difficulty speaking when she is around Cory

When he's taking my breath away
Cory has such a strong presence that it makes it hard for the artist to speak fully

I should say "hey, by the way
The artist knows she should tell Cory how she feels

If you and I are a story
The singer and Cory's story is unique and interesting

That never gets told
Despite their story being interesting, it can never be told if it doesn't go anywhere

If what you are is a daydream
The singer hopes that Cory is more than just a dream

I'll never get to hold, at least you'll know
Even if the singer can never hold Cory, she wants him to understand how special he is

Na, na, na, na, na, na
A sound made by the singer to show excitement

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Anthem Entertainment
Written by: Elisabeth Wagner Rose, Taylor Alison Swift

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

TRACKS