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Antonio Ferme
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Variety via Getty Images What do Buzz Lightyear, Steven Spielberg and the New York Knicks have in common? The answer is Taylor Swift.
The pop star has been everywhere this week: On Monday, she made a surprise appearance at the “Toy Story 5” premiere, performing her new song “I Knew It, I Knew You” — as well as a duet of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” with Randy Newman himself. On Wednesday, she was the celebrity guest of the night at Madison Square Garden as the New York Knicks pulled off the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. And on Thursday, the 36-year-old became the youngest artist inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Presenting her the award was none other than Steven Spielberg, who compared her to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. If three times is the charm, fans are already parsing what this all might mean. The burst of activity marks a shift from Swift’s more deliberate public strategy over the past 18 months, following the record-shattering Eras Tour, which remains the only concert tour in history to gross $2 billion. From there, how does one top a historic 149-date run, which was essentially an “Avengers: Endgame”-like culmination spanning the last 20 years of her career? Instead of pulling a Marvel and flooding the market with more content, Swift took a step back. Tabloids cast it as a kind of “hibernation” with boyfriend-now-fiancé Travis Kelce, and since then, every public appearance has sent fervent fans into overdrive, searching for clues about what next big move is in store. But even Kevin Evers, the Harvard Business Review editor who quite literally wrote a book about how Swift’s sharp business instincts made her a superstar (aptly titled “There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift”), doesn’t subscribe to the idea that Swift is the “megalomaniac” planner some corners of the internet make her out to be.
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