Time magazine has named Taylor Swift its 2023 Person of the Year, a week after Spotify announced the singer was the most played artist on the streaming platform.
Swift was picked from a group of nine finalists, which included King Charles III, Barbie, and striking Hollywood actors and writers.
Time said of Swift’s selection: “While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift, 33, achieved a kind of nuclear fusion: shooting art and commerce together to release an energy of historic force.”
Swift embarked on her The Eras Tour and performed shows across North and South America this year. Several special guests, including American singer Phoebe Bridgers and rock band Paramore, joined her.
She also released her concert movie, which was recorded during the US leg of The Eras Tour and features songs spanning her entire career.
The Time Person of the Year tradition began in 1927.
The first person to be named as Time's Man of the Year was Charles Lindbergh, an American aviator, military officer, and cultural icon. The title was changed to Time Person of the Year in 1999 to be more inclusive, reflecting the recognition of individuals, groups, ideas, or objects that have had a significant impact on the events of the year.
So who else has picked up the prestigious prize in the past? Here are 10 past winners.
2022 winner - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
The President of Ukraine was named the Time Person of the Year 2022 after vowing to remain in his country and fight with his troops when Russia invaded.
Time editor, Edward Felsenthal, said of his selection: "Whether one looks at this story of Ukraine with a sense of hope or a sense of fear, and the story is, of course, not fully written yet ... Zelensky has really galvanised the world in a way we haven't seen in decades."
2021 winner - Elon Musk
The 2021 winner was Elon Musk, the boss of X (formerly Twitter), Tesla and SpaceX and the world's richest person, Time described him as a hero for: "Aspiring to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars."
The publication said it was his dedication to furthering the knowledge on our planet that hurtled him to the top spot in 2021.
2020 winners - Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
In 2020 — at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic — the publication had joint winners: US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
They were hailed for "changing America's story" amid the hardship of the pandemic.
Time editor-in-chief and CEO, Edward Felsenthal, wrote that they were selected "for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world."
2019 winner - Greta Thunberg
The activist, known for her strong views on climate action and justice, was named Time's Person of the Year in 2019.
The Swedish campaigner was just 16 at the time but had turned heads by leading protests around the world, speaking at the UN, and meeting the Pope.
2018 winner - The Guardians
This was the year when the publication recognised a movement rather than a person.
The Guardians referred to a group of individual journalists who had battled to retain the use of free speech around the world.
They were several journalists who had been killed, attacked or jailed in the line of duty. Time produced several different cover images to recognise them.
One featured Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Another highlighted Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were jailed in December 2017 in Myanmar after reporting on a massacre of Rohingya Muslims.
Another paid tribute to Maria Ressa — a journalist and CEO of a news site in the Philippines. She had been threatened in her job and received a Nobel Peace Prize for her work.
2017 winner - The Silence Breakers
Again, this was a year for a collective winner.
The Silence Breakers referred to the brave people who stood up as part of the MeToo movement.
Following sexual assault claims made against famous Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and other prominent men, millions of people felt empowered to share their own stories of abuse.
The cover featured farm worker Isabel Pascual, lobbyist Adama Iwu, actress Ashley Judd, software engineer Susan Fowler, Taylor Swift, and a hospital worker who chose to remain anonymous.
2016 winner - Donald Trump
The US president at the time, Donald Trump, won the honour in 2016.
Time said of his award: "For reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrow's political culture by demolishing yesterday's, Donald Trump is Time 2016 Person of the Year."
2015 winner - Angela Merkel
Germany's leader was hailed as the 2015 Time Person of the Year for her work in office.
The German chancellor at the time was praised for playing a huge role in managing the Greek debt emergency and the European migrant crisis.
2014 winner - Ebola workers
The 2014 award was given to an entire sector of workers who gave up their time and safety to try to keep the world healthy.
Time lauded healthcare workers, scientists, nurses, ambulance staff and others who fought the devastating Ebola virus outbreak in 2014 as heroes. It praised their dedication to trying to get the virus under control.
Time produced five covers, which featured Dr Jerry Brown, a medical director in Monrovia, Liberia; Dr Kent Brantly, the first American to be infected in the 2014 Ebola outbreak; Ella Watson-Stryker, a health promoter for Doctors Without Borders; Foday Gallah, an ambulance supervisor and Ebola survivor from Monrovia; and Salome Karwah, a trainee nurse from Liberia whose parents died of Ebola.
2013 winner - Pope Francis
The head of the Catholic Church was handed the 2013 honour. He had just started his tenure and the magazine hailed him as being different and more down to earth.
It wrote: "John Paul II and Benedict XVI were professors of theology. Francis is a former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher."
Time's editor at the time, Nancy Gibbs, added: "Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly — young and old, faithful and cynical.
"He has placed himself at the very centre of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalisation, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power."
