Taylor Swift delivers an inspiring speech as she accepts the iHeartRadio Innovator Award

Taylor Swift It’s in the building! The 33-year-old star accepted the 2023 iHeartRadio Innovator Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday, March 27 with a pep talk that encouraged fans not to fear failure. In her heartfelt speech, the global superstar admitted that she never set out to become an innovator, but simply followed her instincts. “I’ve never woken up in the morning and said, ‘You know what I’m going to do today? I’m going to innovate things’” she said with a smile. “What I did was make the decisions that were right for me. People want an example of something that has worked before, but I think the best ideas and movements and choices are new ones that set a new precedent.”

He then thanked his fans for their continued support as he tried new things like switching genres and re-recording his first studio albums. “The thing about these emotional nights and moments and especially this award that I’m so lucky to have received is that they’re shedding light on the choices I’ve made that have worked, right?” She continued. “I really want everyone to know…the hundreds or thousands of stupid ideas I had were the ones that led to my good ideas. You have to give yourself permission to fail. I try my best not to fail because it’s embarrassing, but I allow it.”

“So take it easy,” the “Lavender Haze” singer added, concluding her tirade. “And you just make the right decisions that feel right and one day someone might think you’re an innovator.”

Though Taylor skipped the red carpet, she still came to rock an outfit that seemed to reflect her. Reputation era. The Grammy winner showed off “Bejeweled” in a shiny black hooded jumpsuit by Alexandre Vauthier Couture. Matching pointed toe boots completed the outfit. His hair was completely straight and he looked great with smoky eyes.

The Innovator Award had already been awarded to Justin Timberlake, u2, Alice Keys, and more. Taylor was tied for the most nominations of the night with lizzo AND Styles of Harry with seven nominations each. Both were nominated for Song of the Year, with Taylor for “Anti-Hero”, Lizzo for “About Damn Time” and Harry for “As It Was”. Taylor won the award at the end of the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Taylor, who embarked on her highly anticipated Eras Tour on March 17, has made an undeniable impact on the music industry. In 2014, she pulled her music from Spotify to protest the minimum royalty payments the popular streaming platform paid artists for streams of their music. The following year, she refused to let Apple Music play her album. 1989 because the platform didn’t pay artists any money for streams of their music during the customers’ free trial period. “I find it shocking, disappointing and completely different from this historically progressive and generous company,” she wrote. Apple quickly changed its policy after the letter he wrote to them.

And as fans know, he undertook the daunting task of re-recording his first six studio albums so he could own them after they were sold to the music executive (and the man who discovered Justin Bieber) Brown scooter. Since then, Scooter has sold them into a profitable business. “For years I have begged, begged for a chance to own my work,” Taylor wrote in a 2019 Tumblr post explaining her side of things. “Instead, I was given the option to re-sign with Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album at a time, one for each new one I delivered.” Taylor said he refused to accept that deal because he was sure of it scottwho founded Big Machine and hired Taylor, would eventually sell the company, “so selling [her and her] future.”

It was this offer that influenced Taylor to leave Big Machine without owning his music after more than a decade of hard work. In November 2018 he moved to universal musical groupafter which he released his 2019 album, Lover, which became his first album he owned. She has so far released two re-recorded albums: Fearless: Taylor version AND Red: Taylor version. The albums also include songs from “From the Vault” that were written but never released in the original versions. The 12-time Grammy winner still has four albums to release: Taylor Swift (2006), Speak Now (2010), 1989 (2014), e Reputation (2017).

In addition to his musical moves, Taylor’s impact has extended to social causes. She is an advocate for women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community and has used her platform to inspire young people to vote.

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