Taylor Swift is joining country songwriting royalty, as the world’s biggest artist is set to be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame this fall, the organization announced on Tuesday, making Swift the Hall’s youngest-ever inductee.
It’ll be her second songwriter career milestone this year, after Swift had become the youngest-ever inductee in the broader Songwriters Hall of Fame back in June.
“From the time I started writing songs as a child, I fixated on Nashville as the perfect place to be,” Swift said in a statement read by Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame executive director Mark Ford on Tuesday, per Rolling Stone. “I wanted to learn with and from the best, and get to immerse myself in a community of storytellers. And thankfully, Nashville turned out to be exactly what I dreamed of, a town that validated and prioritized hard work, determination and imagination, where the writers show up to work every day, even when the mysterious muses and the magic don’t. To be honored by this city I love so much is a beautiful thing and I’m very grateful.”
Swift’s roots are of course in country music, and while much of her more recent career has leaned mainstream pop, she turned back the clock to country this year with Toy Story 5 track “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which itself has become an early contender for this season’s Oscar race for best original song.
Other than Swift, this year’s class also includes country songwriting icon Lyle Lovett, Shawn Camp and Bruce Channel.
