Taylor Swift is in the building! The 33-year-old star accepted the 2023 iHeartRadio Innovator Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday, March 27 with an empowering speech that encouraged fans to not be afraid to fail. In her heartfelt speech, the global superstar admitted she never intended to become an innovator, but simply followed her gut. “I never a single time woke up in the morning and said, ‘You know what I’m gonna do today? I’m gonna innovate stuff,’” she said with a smile. “What I did do was make the right decisions for me. People want an example of something working before, but I think the coolest ideas, moves and choices are new ones, ones that set a new precedent.”
She then thanked her fans for their continuous support as she tries new things, like switching genres and re-recording her first siz studio albums. “The thing about these exciting nights and moments and specifically this award that I’m so lucky to have gotten is that you know, they’re shining a light on the choices I made that worked out, right?” she continued. “I really really want everyone to know … the hundreds or thousands of dumb ideas that I’ve had are what led me to my good ideas. You have to give yourself permission to fail. I try as hard as I can not to fail because it’s embarrassing, but I give myself permission to.”
“So go easy on yourselves,” the “Lavender Haze” singer added, wrapping up her speech. “And just make the right choices that feel right for you and someday someone might think that you’ve been innovative.”
Although Taylor skipped the red carpet, she still came to slay in an outfit that seemed to reflect her Reputation era. The Grammy Award-winner looked “Bejeweled” in a sparkling black Alexandre Vauthier Couture jumpsuit with a hood. Pointed booties that matched the suit completed the outfit. She wore her completely straightened hair down and looked cool with a smokey eye.
The Innovator Award has previously been presented to Justin Timberlake, U2, Alicia Keys, and more. Taylor was tied for the most nominations for the night with Lizzo and Harry Styles with seven nominations each. They were each up for Song of the Year, with Taylor for “Anti-Hero”, Lizzo for “About Damn Time,” and Harry for “As It Was.” Taylor won the prize at the end of the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
Taylor, who embarked on her highly anticipated and record-breaking Eras tour on March 17, has made an undeniable impact on the music industry. In 2014, she took her music off of Spotify to protest against the minimal royalty payments the popular streaming platform paid artists for streams of their music. The next year, refused to let Apple Music play her album 1989 because the platform did not pay artists any money for streams of their songs during customers’ free trial period. “I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” she wrote. Apple Swiftly changed its policy following the letter she wrote to them.
And as fans know, she undertook the huge task of re-recording her first six studio albums so she could have ownership of them after they were reportedly sold out from under her to music executive (and the man who discovered Justin Bieber) Scooter Braun. Scooter has since sold them in a lucrative deal. “For years, I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Taylor wrote in a 2019 Tumblr post, explaining her side of things. “Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.” Taylor said she refused to agree to such a deal because she was certain that Scott Borchetta, who founded Big Machine and signed Taylor, would eventually sell the company, “thereby selling [her and her] future.”
It was that offer that influenced Taylor to leave Big Machine without owning her music after more than a decade of hard work. In Nov. 2018, she made the move to Universal Music Group, after which she released her 2019 album, Lover, which became the first album of hers that she owned. She has released two re-recorded albums so far: Fearless: Taylor’s Version and Red: Taylor’s Version. The albums also include “From the Vault” tracks that were written for but never released on the original versions. The 12-time grammy winner still has four albums to go: Taylor Swift (2006), Speak Now (2010), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017).
In addition to her musical moves, Taylor’s impact has reached social causes. She’s an advocate for women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community and has used her platform to inspire young people to vote.