Choosing TIME’s Person Of The Year: Taylor Swift vs. Vladimir Putin.
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| Photos by Inez and Vinoodh for TIME magazine cover artwork (Credits: TIME/Reuters) |
By Dennis Robaugh
Once upon a time, the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned — and a 33-year-old songwriter became TIME magazine’s Person of the Year in 2023, joining presidents, popes, tyrants, royalty, social justice heroes, business magnates, battle commanders, life-saving scientists and world-changing inventors on an exclusive list that started in 1927.
To not see or hear anything about Taylor Swift these days, one must live a hermit’s life.
As TIME puts it, she’s become the “main character of the world.” She is the first performing artist to be recognized as a TIME Person of the Year, a special someone selected not for popularity but for significant impact and influence on our planet.
Who else made the shortlist for 2023 TIME Person of the Year? Two notorious dictators, the striking Hollywood actors and writers, the CEO of OpenAI, Trump prosecutors, and Barbie.
Remarkably, one of those dictators was Russia’s warmonger, Vladimir Putin. And how does Putin stack up against Swift?
- Putin is adored by fawning fanboy Donald Trump and reviled by millions of freedom-loving people. Swift is adored by tens of millions of enthralled women (and men) across the globe and mocked by humorless incels.
- Putin assassinates political enemies with poison. Swift dismantles ex-loves with beautiful music.
- Putin maneuvers to undermine American democracy with social media hate-bots and disinformation. Swift moves fans en masse to register to vote.
- Putin launches the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. Swift launches music history’s first billion-dollar world tour.
- Putin sends Europe into economic turmoil. Swift delivers a coveted financial boost to every nation and city her tour visits. (World leaders literally plead for her to perform in their countries. Economic analysts describe the impact of her Eras Tour on a nation’s economy as “the Taylor effect.”)
In choosing Swift over the likes of Putin, TIME’s editors favored the impact of joy over pain, hope over despair and a kind, supportive heart over wicked calculation and destruction.
Our world desperately needs this.