The choice of Taylor Swift as Time’s Person of the Year is explained: she beat out Putin

Singer Taylor Swift became Person of the Year according to the American Time magazine. The publication chose the pop star from a field of finalists that included Hollywood strikers, Barbie, British King Charles III and Vladimir Putin.

Time magazine named Taylor Swift its Person of the Year on Wednesday. “Choosing one person to represent eight billion people on the planet is not an easy task. We have chosen a person who represents joy. “Someone who brings light to the world,” magazine editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs said on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday morning. “It was like the weather, it was everywhere.”

Swift beat out eight other finalists who were announced on Today this week, including King Charles III and Barbie.

“Swift’s accomplishments as an artist—culturally, critically and commercially—are so numerous that listing them seems almost inappropriate,” the magazine wrote.

The magazine’s shortlist noted that Grammy Award-winning artist Taylor Swift has had a big year, from re-releasing her albums to record-breaking sales to creating one of the most successful concert films in history. Swift’s tour is also on track to become the highest-grossing world tour of all time. The pop star previously appeared on the cover of the magazine’s 2017 Person of the Year alongside other “silence breakers” who spoke out against sexual harassment.

This year’s finalists also included Hollywood writers and actors, who have been on strike all year, halting production and filming of new and ongoing shows and films – a rare display of both the workforce and the entertainment industry.

Also on the shortlist was Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has cemented his role as one of China’s most powerful modern leaders over the past year. Xi Jinping has been named on the TIME100 list, which ranks the world’s 100 most influential figures, more than 10 times. He was also the runner-up for TIME’s Person of the Year in 2017.

Also on the list is Sam Altman, who was recently forced to step down as CEO of OpenAI, the company that released the groundbreaking ChatGPT that defined the modern artificial intelligence landscape.

Trump’s prosecutors were also listed – as Donald Trump became the first US president to be indicted in the country’s history, brought in four separate cases with more than 90 counts. Prosecutors in Florida, Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C., filed felony charges for election interference, illegal possession of classified documents and falsification of business records.

Barbie was an unusual finalist, following the success of the most anticipated film of the year starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The strip earned $1.4 billion and sparked an explosion of fashion, accessories and other pink-colored merchandise in stores around the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was already Time’s “Person of the Year” in 2007 and has repeatedly been included in the TIME100 list, including in 2022, also had a high chance of becoming Time’s “person of the year.”

King Charles III was also among the favorites – after decades of waiting to ascend the throne, King Charles III finally took office as the main monarch of the United Kingdom and other territories in May this year. At a moment of change for the monarchy, he demonstrated the power of tradition.

Finally on the shortlist was Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve who has played a key role in managing high inflation in the US, trying to engineer a so-called soft landing to reduce inflation by raising interest rates without causing a recession – a goal felt by Americans’ wallets and economies around the world. He has been named to the TIME100 list twice (in 2019 and 2020).

Time awards the title to “the person, group or concept that has had the greatest impact on the world in the previous 12 months.” Established as a marketing gimmick in the 1920s, the “award” continues to generate fanfare as weekly print magazines struggle to remain relevant.

Last year, the magazine awarded the title of “person of the year” to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and the “spirit of Ukraine.”

The magazine named Elon Musk Person of the Year for 2021. “At the snap of his finger, the stock market rises or collapses,” Time wrote at the time.

As the New York Times recalls, in 2020, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris—then president and vice president-elect of the United States—were on the cover of the magazine, and in 2019, it was climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

In 2018, the Time Person of the Year title went to opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, and other journalists. The year before, the title went to “silence breakers,” women who came forward accusing powerful men of sexual harassment and assault. And in 2016, the main person was President-elect Donald Trump, whom the magazine called “the president of the divided states of America.”

The selection of persons of the year was not always without controversy. In 1938, Time chose Adolf Hitler, and the magazine twice gave the dubious honor to Joseph Stalin, in 1939 and 1942, notes the New York Times.

In 1972, the magazine chose the “improbable partnership” of President Richard M. Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger.

In other cases, the magazine chose ordinary citizens. In 1969, Time magazine honored “middle-income Americans” for continuing to pray in public schools in defiance of a United States Supreme Court ruling.

Nearly 40 years later, the magazine put a mirror on the cover and named “You” Person of the Year in 2006. And in other cases it was not a person at all. In 1982, the “machine of the year” appeared: the computer.