meta-scriptJAY-Z & Beyoncé, Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn: 9 Couples Who Have Been Nominated For GRAMMYs — And One Notable Set Of Exes | GRAMMY.com
JAY-Z & Beyoncé, Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn: 9 Couples Who Have Been Nominated For GRAMMYs — And One Notable Set Of Exes
Beyoncé & JAY-Z

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JAY-Z & Beyoncé, Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn: 9 Couples Who Have Been Nominated For GRAMMYs — And One Notable Set Of Exes

Some of music's biggest power couples have made sweet music together — and subsequently, earned GRAMMY nominations. As Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn and Maren Morris & Ryan Hurd celebrate 2022 nominations, take a look at eight other GRAMMY-worthy pairings.

GRAMMYs/Mar 17, 2022 - 10:48 pm

From modern-day country music fairy tales to bona fide pop dynasties, several sets of lovebirds have earned GRAMMY nods — and even trophies — together.

While many have proven to be superstars in their own right, their GRAMMY prowess has been amplified by coming together with a musical partner. JAY-Z and Beyoncé are perhaps the prime example of that, putting the "power" in "power couple": As JAY-Z adds three more nominations in 2022, they're officially the most-nominated couple in GRAMMY history with 162 combined nods.

Though Bey and Jay aren't nominated together this year, there are a handful of couples who are, including Taylor Swift and her actor beau, Joe Alwyn. The pair collaborated on Swift's evermore, which is up for Album Of The Year — an award they won together for folklore last year.

There's even one 2022 GRAMMY nominee who famously found musical success while romantically linked: ABBA. Though their romantic relationships didn't work out, the '70s group earned their first-ever GRAMMY nomination for a project they released after a four-decade break.

Below, get to know some of the couples who have won or been nominated for GRAMMYs.

JAY-Z & Beyoncé

JAY-Z and Beyoncé's love story is one for the musical history books. From being "Crazy in Love" to confronting cheating rumors in their respective projects 4:44 and Lemonade, the music monoliths have been through just about every up and down of love (and fame) since they were first linked in 2001.

Even despite their public struggles, the couple have kept plenty of their life together private. Through it all, they've braided their personal love story with their art.

Their musical pairing started when JAY-Z recruited Beyoncé for his 2002 single "'03 Bonnie & Clyde." But their status as one of music's most powerful couples came with Beyoncé's 2003 smash "Crazy In Love," a duet with JAY-Z that won the duo their first GRAMMYs together (for Best R&B Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration).

They've since gone on to earn 13 total nominations together, winning five. Their hit collab "Drunk In Love" won Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance in 2015, and their collaborative album, Everything is Love (which they released as The Carters), won Best Urban Contemporary Album in 2019.

Separately, Beyoncé and Jay-Z hold two GRAMMY records. Beyoncé has won more GRAMMYs than any other female artist, bringing home 28 in total. JAY-Z has 83 total nominations — including three this year — making him the most-nominated artist of all time. (He has won 23.)

Johnny Cash & June Carter

Arguably the greatest country music love story of all time, Johnny Cash and June Carter's romance began backstage at the Grand Ole Opry in 1956. At the time, Carter — who was born into the legendary Carter family, and had been performing since the age of 10 — was singing backup for Elvis Presley.

Songs like "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire," both of which have since been inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame, immortalize their fiery early attraction and enduring devotion to each other. Still, it took some time (and several proposals) for Carter to agree to marry Cash. They were married for 35 years, up until Carter's death in 2003, and during that time, Carter helped Cash overcome his chronic struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. They were parents to one son, John Carter Cash.

They were also an iconic musical duo. Cash, who has received 13 GRAMMY trophies and 35 nominations, won his very first GRAMMY Award in 1968 thanks to "Jackson," one of his most well-known collaborations with Carter. The duo were nominated for four GRAMMYs together, sharing one more win in 1971 for their hit "If I Were A Carpenter," which took home Best Country Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group.

Carter also won three GRAMMYs for her own music, winning Best Traditional Folk Album for her solo albums Press On and Wildwood Flower — the latter of which also earned her a Best Female Country Vocal Performance gramophone for "Keep On The Sunny Side."

Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift and her "London Boy," actor Joe Alwyn, may keep much of their relationship away from the spotlight. But in the last couple of years, they've teamed up in the studio — and have seen GRAMMY-winning results.

Alwyn served as a co-producer on Swift's folklore, which won Album of the Year at the 2021 GRAMMYs. Like much of their life together, Alwyn's participation in folklore was a bit shrouded in mystery. But Alwyn's contributions were revealed in Swift's film about the album, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, as the singer confirmed that William Bowery — a co-writer on two of the tracks — was actually a pseudonym for Alwyn. Alwyn also co-produced six songs on the project, Swift revealed when his producer credit became public.

The actor returned for folklore's sister record, evermore, co-writing three songs (including the album's title track). The project's December 2020 release made it eligible for the 2022 GRAMMYS, where it earned Swift and Alwyn another joint Album Of The Year nod.

The couple began dating in late 2016, according to diary entries dated from early January 2017 that Swift would later release as part of the album notes to her Lover album. They've remained fiercely private, though they are occasionally spotted together at events, on red carpets and in each other's social media pictures.

Cardi B & Offset

While Cardi B and Offset's path to wedded bliss has been anything but smooth — the couple has surmounted cheating scandals, a divorce filing, public breakups and equally public reconciliation efforts — they've proven to be great partners in the studio.

The two rappers first started dating in early 2017, teaming up for "Lick" before they were even publicly a couple. Later that year, Cardi hopped on "Motorsport" with Offset and his Migos bandmates, and Offset proposed to Cardi during their first performance of the song.

Migos featured on Cardi B's GRAMMY-winning album, 2019's Invasion Of Privacy, but Offset and Cardi first celebrated a GRAMMY nomination together with "Clout," a track from his solo debut, Father of 4. Cardi has nine GRAMMY nods to date, and Offset has three nominations in total.

Tim McGraw & Faith Hill

From their first meeting at a Nashville country radio event to their recent co-starring roles on the Yellowstone prequel, 1883, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have grown and changed throughout their 25-year marriage. But they've always remained devoted to each other.

Their story began after McGraw invited Hill to be an opening act on his tour in 1996, quickly falling in love and marrying the same year. The following year, they released "It's Your Love" — not only the first of many duets, but the first of six GRAMMY nominations they would eventually earn together.

Hill and McGraw celebrated their first GRAMMY win in 2001, when their power ballad, "Let's Make Love." They took home another gramophone five years later thanks to their hit "Like We Never Loved At All" (ironically, a breakup song).

The country stars have continued to find ways to be together: Long before they teamed up to star on the same TV show, they embarked on a series of joint tours (titled Soul2Soul) in 2000, 2006 and 2017/2018. They've also joined forces for a number of other duets, including "It's Your Love" and "The Rest of Our Life" — the title track to their 2017 joint album.

Maren Morris & Ryan Hurd

This modern-day Nashville fairy tale began when Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd were both up-and-coming songwriters who were paired together for a co-writing session in 2013. The result? A song called "Last Turn Home" that wound up on Tim McGraw's 2014 album, Sundown Heaven Town.

Morris and Hurd stayed friends for a couple of years, but in 2015, their relationship turned romantic — and like any songwriting couple, they detailed their love story in their songs. Hurd's "Love in a Bar" and "Diamonds or Twine" were inspired by Morris, while Morris' "To Hell & Back" is a love letter to Hurd.

The pair married in 2018, and welcomed their son, Hayes, in 2020. Music is still the foundation of their relationship — and it's proving to be more impactful than ever. They earned their first No. 1 country radio hit (via Mediabase) together with 2021's "Chasing After You," a song that also earned them a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance this year.

Julia Michaels & JP Saxe

Singer/songwriters Julia Michaels and JP Saxe have a love story that's truly built on their shared passion for music. They met for the first time when they wrote "If the World Was Ending," which Saxe released in 2019 as the lead single off his Hold it Together EP.

Not only did the song bring the lovebirds together, but it helped earn the pair a GRAMMY nomination for Song Of The Year in 2021. The nom was Saxe's first and Michaels' third; Michaels has an Album Of The Year nod at the 2022 GRAMMYs thanks to her contributions on H.E.R.'s album, Back Of My Mind.

Saxe and Michaels officially confirmed their relationship in January of 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic made "If the World Was Ending" take on a whole new life. The pair even released a star-studded charity video that benefitted Doctors Without Borders.

As their romance has bloomed, both Michaels and Saxe have continued to musically influence each other. In separate 2021 interviews with People, they each revealed that their respective projects — Michaels' Not In Chronological Order and Saxe's Dangerous Levels of Introspection — were inspired by their relationship.

Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi

Banjo player and singer/songwriter Rhiannon Giddens has been collaborating for much of her career. Perhaps best known as a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Giddens was also a member of the roots outfit Our Native Daughters. What's more, she dueted with country star Eric Church on his 2016 single "Kill a Word."

But in 2019, her love for collaboration resulted in real love: Giddens made her 2019 album, there is no Other, with her then-relatively new partner, Italian jazz player Francesco Turrisi. The project was as complex and multifaceted as the pair's own musical backgrounds, and amalgamation of Giddens' old-time musical roots with songs like "Wayfaring Stranger" and Turrisi's European influence with songs like "Pizzica di San Vito."

The couple's second collaborative album, They're Calling Me Home, resulted in two nominations at the 2022 GRAMMYs: Best Folk Album, and Best American Roots Song for the track "Avalon."

Laura Sullivan & Eric Sullivan

While Laura and Eric Sullivan's love story might not be as high-profile as some of the other GRAMMY-nominated couples, they are prolific, classically-informed New Age musicians with a lengthy history of being partners in both music and in life.

A pianist and composer, Laura makes music that bridges genres: You can hear her compositions on TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance and 48 Hours, but her style also extends into World Music, Native American Music and classical music. Meanwhile, her husband, Eric, is her producer and talent manager.

He's also the co-owner of Sentient Spirit Records, the label behind much of Laura's work. Her new album, Pieces of Forever, is currently up for Best New Age Album at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards.

If they win, Eric and Laura will share the award, since Eric produced the project. It's the second album to take them to the GRAMMYs; Eric produced Laura's 2013 album, Love's River, which won Best New Age Album in 2014.

ABBA

Though there aren't technically any current couples in ABBA, there are a couple of exes. Upon their 1972 formation, the Swedish pop quartet consisted of one married couple — Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus, who'd gotten married a year prior — and another pair, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, who would eventually marry in 1978.

Neither marriage lasted: By 1981, both sets of couples had called it quits. The group dissolved the following year, and it seemed as if their musical partnership had soured as quickly as their romantic relationships.

However, after a staggering four-decade break between albums, ABBA made a triumphant return in 2021. Releasing the album Voyage in November 2021, the project both served as the band's highest-charting album and earned ABBA their first-ever GRAMMY nomination (the appropriately titled single, "I Still Have Faith In You," is up for Record Of The Year).

While the bandmates never found romantic reconciliation, they arguably found something better: The power of lasting friendship and musical camaraderie.

Nnenna And Pierce Freelon Are The First Mother & Son Nominated Individually At The Same GRAMMYs Ceremony: How They Honor A Husband & Father Through Music

8 Country Crossover Artists You Should Know: Ray Charles, The Beastie Boys, Cyndi Lauper & More
Photo: Martin Philbey/Redferns

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8 Country Crossover Artists You Should Know: Ray Charles, The Beastie Boys, Cyndi Lauper & More

Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' is part of a proud lineage of artists, from Ringo Starr to Tina Turner, who have bravely taken a left turn into country's homespun, heart-on-sleeve aesthetic.

GRAMMYs/Mar 28, 2024 - 01:07 pm

When Beyoncé announced her upcoming album, Cowboy Carter, with the drop of two distinctly country tracks, she broke both genre and barriers. Not only did Queen Bey continue to prove she can do just about anything, but she joined a long tradition of country music crossover albums.

Country music is, like all genres, a construct, designed by marketing companies around the advent of widely-disseminated recorded music, to sell albums. But in the roughly 100 intervening years, genre has dictated much about the who and how of music making.

In the racially segregated America of the 1920s, music was no exception. Marketing companies began to distinguish between "race records" (blues, R&B, and gospel) intended for Black audiences and hillbilly music (country and Western), sold to white listeners. The decision still echoes through music genre stereotypes today.

But Black people have always been a part of country music, a message that's gained recognition in recent years — in part because of advocacy work by those like Rhiannon Giddens, who plays banjo and viola on "Texas Hold 'Em," one of two singles Beyoncé released in advance of Cowboy Carter.

And since rigid genre rules' inception, many artists from Lil Nas X to Bruce Springsteen have periodically dabbled in or even crossed over to country music.

In honor of Beyoncé's foray, here are eight times musicians from other genres tried out country music.

Ray Charles — Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962)

In 1962, the soul music pioneer crossed the genre divide to cut a swingin' two-volume, 14-track revue of country and western music.

Part history lesson and part demonstration of Charles' unparalleled musicianship, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music covers country songs by major country artists of the era, including Hank Williams, Don Gibson, and Eddy Arnold. An instant success, the record topped album sales charts and was Charles' first atop the Billboard Hot 200 charts.

Ringo Starr — Beaucoups of Blues (1970)

The Beatles' drummer loves country music. Ringo Starr cut this album, which sounds like something you'd two-step the night away to at a honky tonk, as his second solo project. He was inspired by pedal steel guitar player and producer Pete Drake, who worked on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

With Drake's help, Starr draws out a classic honky tonk sound — pedal steel, country fiddle, and bar room piano — to round out the album.

Beaucoups includes a textbook country heartbreak song, "Fastest Growing Heartache in the West," a bluesy ramblin' man ballad, "$15 Draw," and a surprisingly sweet love song to a sex worker, "Woman Of The Night."

The Pointer Sisters — Fairytale (1974)

Remembered for their R&B hits like "I'm So Excited" and "Jump (For My Love)", the Pointer Sisters dropped "Fairytale," a classic country heartbreak song into the middle of their second studio album, That's A Plenty.

Full of honky tonk pedal steel and fiddle, the track earned the band a GRAMMY award for Country and Western Vocal Performance Group or Duo in 1975, beating out Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Bobby Bare, and the Statler Brothers; they were the first, and to date, only Black women to receive the award.

The same year the song came out, the Pointer Sisters also became the first Black group to play the Grand Ole Opry, arriving to find a group of protesters holding signs with messages like 'Keep country, country!'

Tina Turner Tina Turns the Country On! (1974)

Also in 1974, Tina Turner cut her first solo album, Tina Turns the Country On!, while she was still performing with then-husband Ike Turner as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

Containing the seeds of the powerful, riveting voice she'd fully let loose in her long solo career after separating from her abusive husband, the album presents a stripped down, mellow Turner.

She covers songs like Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and Bob Dylan's "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," and delivers a soaring rendition of Dolly Parton's "There Will Always Be Music."

Turner was nominated for a GRAMMY award for the album, but in Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female, category.

The Beastie Boys — Country Mike's Greatest Hits (1999)

This Beastie Boys cut only a few hundred copies (most reports say 300) of this spoof country album — reputedly conceived of as a Christmas present for friends and family, and never officially released.

Presenting the supposed greatest hits of a slightly dodgy, enigmatic character – Country Mike, who shares a name with band member "Mike D" Diamond — the album sounds like vintage steel guitar country. Think Hank Williams and Jimmy Rodgers with a dash of musical oddballs Louden Wainwright III and David Allen Coe's humor and funk.

Country Mike appears just briefly in the liner notes of the band's anthology album, The Sounds of Silence, (which also includes two of the album's tracks: "Railroad Blues" and "Country Mike's Theme"), as part of an alternate universe wherein Mike temporarily lost his memory when he was hit on the head.

"The psychologists told us that if we didn't play along with Mike's fantasy, he could be in grave danger," the notes read. "This song ('Railroad Blues') is one of the many that we made during that tragic period of time."

Cyndi Lauper — Detour (2016)

The "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" singer enjoyed herself thoroughly by deviating from her typical style with 2016's Detour.

Road tripping into country music land, Lauper covered country songs of the 1950s and 1960s, including Marty Robbins' "Begging You," Patsy Montana's "I Want to be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas" with guest appearances by Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and Vince Gill.

Jaret Ray Reddick — Just Woke Up (2022)

It might be hard to imagine the Bowling for Soup frontman, known for teenage pop-punk angst hits like "Girl all the Bad Guys Want" and "Punk Rock 101" crooning country ballads.

But in 2022, under the name Jaret Ray Reddick, he cut his solo debut, Just Woke Up. Drawing inspiration from Reddick's native Texas, the steel guitar and twang driven album features duets with Uncle Cracker, Cody Canada, Frank Turner, and Stephen Egerton.

Self-effacing and personable as ever, Reddick heads off questions about the viability of his country music with the album's first track, "Way More Country," acknowledging the questions listeners might have:

"I sing in a punk rock band/ And I know every word to that Eminem song "Stan"/ And I've got about a hundred and ten tattoos / But I'm way more country than you."

Bing Crosby — "Pistol Packin' Mama" (Single, 1943)

Legendary crooner of classic Christmas Carols and American standards, Bing Crosby decided to try his hand at country music with his cover of Al Dexter's "Pistol Packin' Mama," the first country song to appear on Billboard's charts.

The song, which tells the story of a man begging his woman not to shoot him when she discovers him out on the town fooling around, has since also been covered by Willie Nelson, Hoyt Axton, and John Prine.

How Beyoncé Is Honoring Black Music History With "Texas Hold Em," 'Renaissance' & More

Run The World: Why Beyoncé Is One Of The Most Influential Women In Music History
Beyoncé at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

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Run The World: Why Beyoncé Is One Of The Most Influential Women In Music History

Relive a few of the moments that made Beyoncé the global icon she is today, from her debut with Destiny's Child in 1997 to becoming the most awarded musician in GRAMMY history in 2023.

GRAMMYs/Mar 27, 2024 - 08:15 pm

Since her debut with Destiny's Child in 1997, Beyoncé has become one of the most decorated, record-breaking artists of all time.

In 2023, Queen Bey became the artist with the most GRAMMYs in history with 32 wins, after her seventh album, RENAISSANCE, won Best Dance/Electronic Music Album. That same LP also helped Beyoncé become the first female musician to have their first seven studio albums debut at No. 1 in the United States.

Earlier this year, she became the first Black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart with "TEXAS HOLD 'EM," the lead single from her forthcoming album, COWBOY CARTER.

Beyond her chart achievements, Beyoncé has dedicated much of her work to uplifting women and exploring the Black experience, from Destiny's Child's "Independent Women, Part 1" to 2011's "Run the World (Girls)" and her 2016 album, Lemonade.

To add to her extensive resume, Beyoncé is also an active philanthropist and businesswoman. Through her BeyGOOD charity, she has championed countless causes, including education for young girls. Earlier this year, Beyoncé launched her hair care brand, Cécred, alongside an annual student scholarship and salon grant.

Among the many ways Bey has uplifted women around the world, her message to 2020 graduates perfectly summed up her influence: "Make those power moves, be excellent."

Press play on the video above to learn more about Beyoncé's colossal career. Check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of Run the World, as well as for more news on Beyoncé's highly anticipated COWBOY CARTER.

Enter The World Of Beyoncé

The Taylor Swift Effect: 8 Ways The Eras Tour Broke Records & Shattered Sales
Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Nov. 24, 2023.

Photo: Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

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The Taylor Swift Effect: 8 Ways The Eras Tour Broke Records & Shattered Sales

As the Eras Tour hits Disney+ with 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version)', take a look at some of the mind-boggling feats the pop superstar has accomplished with her culture-shifting trek.

GRAMMYs/Mar 14, 2024 - 05:13 pm

Taylor Swift has continuously redefined what it means to be a pop superstar for almost two decades. But 2023 might have been her most defining year to date, thanks to the Eras Tour.

With 152 dates in stadiums across five continents, the Eras Tour isn't just Swift's personal biggest tour to date — it's a feat few other artists have accomplished. The sprawling 3 1/2-hour show is an impressive feat in itself, but the tour has gone on to break records and boost economies, firmly cementing Swift's stratospheric position as one of pop's all-time greats. 

There's a reason why the term "The Taylor Swift Effect" has been coined — it captures the impact Swift has had not just on music, but society as a whole. Swift's latest concert tour weaves through her 10- (and soon to be 11-) album discography, totaling a whopping 44 songs across 10 different acts for each "era." Between the allure of each set's surprise song and the next-level fan engagement, the tour has become far more than your average concert — it's a full-on cultural moment. 

Though the trek still has a bewildering nine months to go (it will hit Europe and another North America stretch from May to December), Swift is celebrating the Eras Tour's one-year anniversary by bringing its record-breaking concert film to Disney+ on March 14th. 

As fans get ready to stream Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version), GRAMMY.com looks at the impact of the Eras Tour so far, exploring the records Swift has shattered since it first began.

Becoming The Highest Grossing Tour Ever

In eight months, Swift's Eras Tour did something no other artist has ever done: gross over $1 billion on a single tour. Pollstar reported the news in December 2023, stating that the 60+ shows she played in 2023 accumulated to 4.3 million tickets sold. 

This number is even more staggering when compared to Elton John's farewell tour, which lasted five years and had 328 shows and accumulated $939 million. Not only has Swift been able to do the same with 152 shows, but she still has nine months to go — and at the pace she's going, Pollstar projects that she could pass the $2 billion mark.  

Shattering Attendance Records

From breaking the all-time record for attendance during her three shows at Nashville's Nissan Stadium in May 2023 to playing the largest shows of her career at Melbourne's Cricket Ground in February 2024 (performing to 288,000 fans over three days), Swift couldn't stop breaking attendance records at various stops. Including those venues, she's broken eight attendance records at seven so far: Seattle's Lumen Field, New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, Pittsburgh's Acrisure Stadium, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Sao Paolo's Allianz Parque (where she broke one-day and three-day attendance records).

Although her friend and collaborator Ed Sheeran already broke some of her attendance records during his own 2023 world tour, Swift has done the impossible again by creating an entirely new record to break: how many people are both inside and outside the venue. Cities like Tampa and Detroit all had "Taygating" — mass parties with thousands of fellow Swifties that include singalongs, cookouts, and trading handmade friendship bracelets like the fans inside. In Philadelphia alone, cell phone usage data in the area determined that around 57,000 fans "taygated" outside throughout the tour's three nights.

Spiking Craft Sales

Creating costumes for Taylor Swift concerts is something that fans have been doing since Swift's Fearless Tour in 2009 and 2010, but a lyric from MIdnights' "You're On Your Own Kid" created a new way for fans to engage with each other. The lyric "So make the friendship bracelets/ Take the moment and taste it" sparked a friendship bracelet frenzy, and caused a 40 percent chainwide increase in jewelry sales overall at Michaels craft stores, with locations within Eras Tour stops seeing a 300 percent sales increase in beads and jewelry categories leading up to the concert.

Since the start of the tour, Michaels has also helped Swifties create over 22,0000 bracelets in their bracelet-making classes in-store. And that simple lyric has inspired other fandoms to take part — Formula One fans are handing bracelets off to drivers before races, and British soccer players are making them to help boost team morale.

Spawning The Highest Grossing Concert Film Of All Time

When she announced that the Eras Tour concert film would be headed to the big screen, Swift opted to "bet on herself" by personally investing $10-20 million to bypass Hollywood entirely to facilitate a partnership directly with AMC. To say that bet worked would be an understatement: the Eras Tour concert movie became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, amassing $250 million in worldwide movie ticket sales. On the day it was announced, movie ticket buyers broke AMC's single-day advance ticket sales record, amassing $26 million within 24 hours.

The Eras Tour film would not only become a huge box office achievement, but would become the first concert film to ever be nominated for a Golden Globe, competing against other major box office blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Igniting Social Media

If fans can't physically be at the concert or "Taygate" outside the venue, they can tune in thanks to TikTok's live-streaming capabilities. Fellow fans provide streams of the entire concert for those who want to watch the gig. Although the viewer count varies, anywhere from 30k+ people can be tuning in on one stream (statistics have shown that most fans tune in for Swift's surprise songs).

Since the start of the Eras Tour, TikTok has been flooded with over 1.9 million videos, with Variety reporting that Taylor-related content can average around 380 million views per day and no day falling below 200 million views. Swift took note of some of the fan-fronted trends, too, including the viral "Bejeweled" dance, created by fan Mikael Arellano, as part of her choreography on tour.

Read More: Behind The Scenes Of The Eras Tour: Taylor Swift's Opening Acts Unveil The Magic Of The Sensational Concert

Boosting The Economy

Every weekend, cities that hosted the Eras Tour awarded Swift with something special — Nashville placed a bench in Centennial Park as a nod to a lyric in "Invisible String," Santa Clara made her an honorary mayor, Minneapolis renamed the city 'Swiftie-apolis,' and Rio de Janeiro projected Swift's junior jewels shirt from the "You Belong With Me" onto Christ the Redeemer. No matter how the cities honored Swift, her visit was certainly beneficial for their local economies — one stop of the Eras Tour averaged around $1,300 spending per person on travel, hotels, food, and merchandise. 

The U.S. Travel Association likened it to the Super Bowl, but happening 53 times across 20 cities, estimating the economic impact to be around $10 billion by the time the tour wraps. It's a tour that has single-handedly changing travel, according to CNN, with fans choosing their travel based on where they can get tickets. And since money talks, politicians and world leaders — from Canada's Prime Minister to the Chilean President — have come out in spades to beg for Swift to add their countries to the worldwide tour. 

Breaking Niche Records

Two nights in Seattle resulted in a "Swift Quake" after so many fans danced to "Shake It Off," which caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake. Seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach collected 10 hours of data — from the music to the speakers to the dancing — to see how that energy can impact the ground enough to shake it.

Although not an official record, within the Swiftie community, fans have had battles to see which city can have the longest-standing ovation after "champagne problems," as detailed on Reddit and Billboard. Right now, Swift's penultimate Los Angeles show at SoFi Stadium is the winner, clocking in at 8 minutes.

Elevating Swift's Discography

After the start of a tour, it's natural for artists to see their discography have a short influx of listeners and then taper off again. But after the first 10 weeks of the Eras Tour, Swift's catalogue was growing more and more with every stop — up to 79 percent more than where she was before the tour began. And instead of listeners streaming specific singles or albums, the streamers were all over Swift's set list; Billboard reported that 23 of the 42 songs performed have doubled in weekly streams. 

The tour even helped the resounding fan favorite from 2019's Lover, "Cruel Summer," transform from beloved deep cut to chart topper. Streams of "Cruel Summer" went up 304 percent, resulting in the track becoming both her 10th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and her sole longest-leading No. 1 on Billboard's all-format Radio Songs chart.

Using the Eras Tour to work in tandem with her rerecording release schedule has also become an integral marketing tactic. So much so that coinciding the tour and the releases (as well as the announcements) has helped contribute to her having six albums in the top 20 of the year-end Billboard 200, more No. 1 albums than any woman in history with 13 (as of press time), and 1989 (Taylor's Version) outselling the original — a staggering 1.3 million albums in its first week. 

Swift wrapped her first 2024 Eras Tour leg in Singapore on March 9, as she's now preparing to release her highly anticipated 11th album, The Tortured Poet's Department, on April 19. Three weeks later, the Eras Tour will pick back up in Nanterre, France, on May 9, with dates nearly every week until it wraps in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Dec. 8. 

With an already record-breaking tour and a new album on the way, there's no doubt that the world will continue to feel the impact of Taylor Swift and her pop star prowess — throughout 2024 and beyond.

5 Reasons Why Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Will Be The Most Legendary Of Her Generation

Listen: GRAMMY.com's Women's History Month 2024 Playlist: Female Empowerment Anthems From Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Jennie & More
(Clockwise, from top left): Jennie, Janelle Monáe, Anitta, Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, Ariana Grande, Lainey Wilson

Photos (clockwise, from top left): Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella, Paras Griffin/Getty Images, Lufre, MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY, Paras Griffin/Getty Images, JOHN SHEARER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY, Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

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Listen: GRAMMY.com's Women's History Month 2024 Playlist: Female Empowerment Anthems From Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Jennie & More

This March, the Recording Academy celebrates Women's History Month with pride and joy. Press play on this official playlist that highlights uplifting songs from Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, Anitta and more.

GRAMMYs/Mar 8, 2024 - 04:44 pm

From commanding stages to blasting through stereos, countless women have globally graced the music industry with their creativity. And though they've long been underrepresented, tides are changing: in just the last few years, female musicians have been smashing records left and right, conquering top song and album charts and selling sold-out massive tours.

This year, Women's History Month follows a particularly historic 66th GRAMMY Awards, which reflected the upward swing of female musicians dominating music across the board. Along with spearheading the majority of the ceremony's performances, women scored bigtime in the General Field awards — with wins including Best New Artist, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Album Of The Year.

Female empowerment anthems, in particular, took home major GRAMMY gold. Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" took home two awards, while Victoria Monét was crowned Best New Artist thanks to the success of her album Jaguar II and its hit single "On My Mama." As those two songs alone indicate, female empowerment takes many different shapes in music — whether it's moving on from a relationship by celebrating self-love or rediscovering identity through motherhood.

The recent successes of women in music is a testament to the trailblazing artists who have made space for themselves in a male-dominated industry — from the liberating female jazz revolution of the '20s to the riot grrl movement of the '90s. Across genres and decades, the classic female empowerment anthem has strikingly metamorphosed into diverse forms of defiance, confidence and resilience.

No matter how Women's History Month is celebrated, it's about women expressing themselves, wholeheartedly and artistically, and having the arena to do so. And in the month of March and beyond, women in the music industry deserve to be recognized not only for their talent, but ambition and perseverance — whether they're working behind the stage or front-and-center behind the mic.

From Aretha Franklin's "RESPECT" to Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)," there's no shortage of female empowerment anthems to celebrate women's accomplishments in the music industry. Listen to GRAMMY.com's 2024 Women's History Month playlist on streaming services below.