Taylor Swift gave an emotional, 20-minute speech during her induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York on Thursday evening, expressing her life-long passion for crafting songs, the sacrifices her family made to let her follow her dreams as a young girl and her advice for the next generation of hitmakers.
“If I look back at my entire 23-year career in music, the ups and downs, the industry battles, the trials and tribulations, the tears and the cheers, and the dog piling of doubt, the criticisms of fair and unfair, the complete loss of privacy, the world tours and the ego wars and the twists of fate, the absolute magical chaos of this path that I chose when I was too young to remember it ever being a choice at all: songwriting was the easiest thing I ever did,” Swift told the crowd on Thursday.
Expanding on that statement, Swift said that writing was easy because it was “instinctual.”
”No one taught me how to do it,” Swift said, adding that she had to learn over “massive amounts of trial and error” and that “everything came together when I learned to play guitar at 12.”
“It was easy to choose songwriting over everything else in my life, but it couldn’t have been easy for my parents and my brother,” Swift said, fighting back tears, “to pick up and move our entire family from Pennsylvania to relocate to Nashville, so that I could hone my craft in the songwriting capital of the world… they uprooted their entire lives to move me to music city. Even though words are kind of supposed to be my thing, I’ll never be able to express my gratitude to you guys for doing that for me. You’re the reason I’m here tonight.”
Swift, who performed alongside Randy Newman at the Toy Story 5 premiere this week, was inducted by none other than Stephen Spielberg, who Swift personally asked to handle the honor. In his speech, Spielberg said that with her latest achievement, “Taylor Swift continues to fulfill her destiny as the most successful female artist not just of her time, but of all time.”
”Tonight is a recognition that while she wrote ‘you belong with me,’ in the most profound way, we belong to her,” Spielberg said.
Sombr, who Swift has lauded as one of the best young songwriters of his generation, kicked off Swift’s induction with performances of her classics “Cardigan” and “Dear John.”
Swift is now the youngest woman to ever be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the second youngest person overall, behind only Stevie Wonder.
Other than Swift, this year’s Songwriters Hall inductees were Kenny Loggins, Alanis Morissette, KISS’s Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, Tricky Stewart, Graham Lyle, Terry Britten and Walter Afanasieff. John Fogerty was given the Johnny Mercer Award,a prestigious lifetime achievement honor for those who’ve already been inducted into the Songwriters Hall in years past.
Stewart was inducted first, with Tamar Braxton performing his Beyoncé smash “Single Ladies,” while upcoming act Kylie Cantrell performed Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”
Britten and Lyle came next, introduced by Jane Seymour, with Steve Miller following up to introduce Fogerty. Fogerty gave an extensive, career-spanning speech recalling falling in love with songwriting as a young child thanks to his mother, and touching on his decades-long battle to win back his song rights.
“Who’d have thunk,” he said as he took the stage. “As a child I dreamed that someday there’d be a night like this. As a grown man in the dark times of my life, I thought this might never happen for me.”
He then performed “Oh Susannah,” a nod to the first song he recalled hearing, then played his CCR classics “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and “Run Through the Jungle.”
Jeremy Renner introduced Afanasieff, and Billy Corgan covered “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Shout it Out Loud” to kick off the induction for Stanley and Simmons.
“Given the bombast and the bombs and the laser, all the things the band is known for, it means nothing without a song,” Stanley told the crowd. “To be in this rarified company and to be accepted into this group that inspired and motivated us is something we never could’ve imagined.”
Brandi Carlile inducted Morissette, emphasizing the singer’s outsized impact as a powerful female voice in rock and roll. “Who wasn’t blown away by the righteous indignation of “You Oughta Know”?” Carlile asked in her introductory speech.
In her own speech, Morissette called songwriting “not a hobby, nor is it a profession or a career. It’s a survival strategy.”
“Writing helps me understand,” Morissette said, calling for the education system to continue to champion the arts. ”It helps me locate and find myself from inside out versus outside in.”
She finished her induction with rousing renditions of “Mary Jane,” and “You Oughta Know,” which received a sizable standing ovation from the crowd.
Raye was the final honoree before Swift’s induction began, as the rising British star was given the Hal David Starlight Award, an honor for earlier career songwriters. She performed an impressive take of her Hans Zimmer co-written track “Click Clack Symphony” from her latest album This Music May Contain Hope. Before her performance, she used her speech to call for better pay and master royalties for songwriters so they can sustain themselves.
”It needs to not just be rich people who can afford to write songs,” Raye said, earning a standing ovation of her own.