Taylor Swift: Fearless Tour

Although country music is serious business in the US, it hasn't always been that welcomed by the mainstream pop scene. Country pop singer, Taylor Swift, is changing all that. Not only was she the biggest selling artist in 2008 in her home country, she became the first artist in Nielsen SoundScan's 18-year history to have two top 10 albums on the year-end album chart. Forbes ranked her as the 69th most powerful celebrity this year; most impressive for a 19-year-old country singer.

Swift also became the very first country artist to win an MTV Video Music Award, an extremely difficult feat considering the American mainstream music scene is dominated by glittery pop acts like Lady Gaga rock bands like Green Day, and of course, Beyonce - which a certain rapper made sure she knew. Hopefully for the singer-songwriter, any loudmouthed rappers who go by the name Kanye West are on the other side of the Pacific Ocean when she tours Australia in 2010.

She is currently touring to promote her latest album, Fearless, which was released in Australia on 15 November 2008. Australia is Swift's largest market outside of the US, with Fearless reaching double-platinum certification in Australia. It reached number one on the Australian Country Chart and peaked at second position on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart.

Paige X. Cho, October 2009