• by Ray Schultz , December 6, 2023

Taylor Swift, who is said to rival the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson in impact, has been named Time’s 2023 Person of the Year, its first to be chosen for success as an entertainer. 

The selection was somewhat predictable. 

The person chosen for this yearly honor “has typically been a ruler over traditional domains of power…very often a politician or a titan of industry,” writes Sam Jacobs, editor in chief of Time.  

But “the person whose singular influence was revealed throughout 2023 has held none of these roles — or anything remotely similar,” Jacobs adds. “Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light…Swift is the rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story.” 

Sam Lansky, author of the cover story on Swift’s selection, writes, “She’s the last monoculture left in our stratified world. It’s hard to see history when you’re in the middle of it, harder still to distinguish Swift’s impact on the culture from her celebrity, which emits so much light it can be blinding. But something unusual is happening with Swift, without a contemporary precedent.” 

The issue features an extensive interview with Swift.