Taylor Swift is standing tall. Not just because she's 5 feet 11.
No one has sold more albums in the past three years. No one in recent years has had as big a crossover from country to pop as she has with "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me." And no country artist had won an MTV Video Music Award until she did last month.
Of course, that was the award heard 'round the world because hip-hop superstar Kanye West barged onstage and sabotaged Swift's moment in the spotlight. Still, she stood tall, taking the sucker punch without losing her composure.
A month later, Swift was about as anxious to revisit that nightmare as a pitcher is to face Joe Mauer.
"I don't really feel like I should prolong it," she said from Nashville recently. "It's obvious what happened and everyone saw it happen."
A charming mix of thoughtful, even-keel businesswoman and giggly, OMG teenager, Swift -- who turns 20 in December -- talked about a wide range of subjects: tonight's concert at Target Center in Minneapolis, the final stop on her first U.S. headline tour; her new condo; her parody video with T-Pain, and, well, OK, Kanye West.
Q How has the tour compared with your expectations?
A What I never expected was going out on my first headlining tour and never having to worry about ticket sales. I look at things from a practical place and a very realistic place. I've always had crazy dreams, but I've never expected them to come true. That's why success has been really exciting for me, because I never expect it. In terms of performance, I think I expected that I would get bored playing the same show every night. But with the way we've paced this tour, we'll do a couple weekends where we do four shows and then we'll have five days off. It makes us really miss that tour.
