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NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Taylor Swift became the youngest woman ever inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame Thursday night at age 36.<\/p>\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Taylor Swift became the youngest woman ever inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame Thursday night at age 36.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it,\u201d she said of songwriting through a raspy voice she attributed to screaming along to the night\u2019s performances and Wednesday night\u2019s historic NBA game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n
She told the room about her family uprooting their lives to move her from Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee, as a tween.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never be able to express my gratitude,\u201d the singer-songwriter said while holding back tears \u2014 crediting their sacrifice for her career.<\/p>\n
She offered young songwriters advice: \u201cYou really have to prioritize what you love, down to your very core. Because you\u2019ll need that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steven Spielberg introduced Swift with a surprise speech about the power of songwriting. \u201cThere is something undeniable about how songs imprint on our souls,\u201d he said, before changing his focus to Swift. \u201cSomehow Taylor knows us all too well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swift started her speech by acknowledging Spielberg. \u201cBecause of examples like Steven\u2019s, I trusted my imagination,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Gen Z singer Sombr launched Swift\u2019s segment by performing \u201cCardigan\u201d and \u201cDear John\u201d in front of her.<\/p>\n
Swift has brought new eyes to this year\u2019s ceremony and undeniably shaped contemporary pop music trends with her songwriting. Swift is the youngest woman inducted, but Stevie Wonder, who started his recording career at 13, was the youngest ever inducted, it was announced on stage.<\/p>\n
It was a notable moment in an evening full of them, where Swift, Kiss\u2019 Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, Christopher \u201cTricky\u201d Stewart, Alanis Morissette, Kenny Loggins and more were honored. Tamar Braxton opened the gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City with a spirted tribute to a new inductee \u2014 the game-changing R&B songwriter, producer and rapper Christopher \u201cTricky\u201d Stewart \u2014 with one of the biggest songs he\u2019s known for: Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cSingle Ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s also responsible for singer-songwriter Rihanna\u2019s \u201cUmbrella,\u201d Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cTouch My Body\u201d and Justin Bieber\u2019s \u201cBaby.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas Austin, a songwriter and producer known for work with Boyz ll Men and Madonna, introduced Stewart. \u201cThink about that catalog,\u201d he said, listing off those zeitgeist-shifting records. \u201cThose are cultural moments.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart thanked God, his family, artists he\u2019s worked with and mentors \u2014 giving a special shout out to Grammy award-winning music producer Antonio \u201cL.A.\u201d Reid and the iconic singer-songwriter Babyface. \u201cI wanted to be like L.A. and Baby,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n Kiss founders Simmons and Stanley \u2014 two and a half years after the band\u2019s farewell \u2014 were also recognized for their glam rock classics \u201cRock and Roll All Nite\u201d and \u201cI Love It Loud.\u201d The Smashing Pumpkins\u2019 Billy Corgan covered the former, a fittingly fiery introduction for the band. He was joined by Goo Goo Dolls\u2019 frontman John Rzeznik for the latter.<\/p>\n Simmons wasn\u2019t present; Stanley said that he had a family emergency.<\/p>\n \u201cSongs are the messenger,\u201d he said \u2014 the foundation of \u201cevery show.\u201d<\/p>\n Soft rock legend Kenny Loggins (\u201cFootloose,\u201d \u201cDanny\u2019s Song\u201d) and the alt-rock icon Morissette were also inducted.<\/p>\n For the latter, Brandi Carlile performed \u201cUninvited\u201d alongside SistaStrings, before introducing Morissette.<\/p>\n \u201cWriting to me is not a hobby,\u201d Morissette said, it\u2019s critical. \u201cIt\u2019s write or die.\u201d Then she performed \u201cMary Jane\u201d and \u201cYou Oughta Know\u201d from her 1995 album \u201cJagged Little Pill.\u201d<\/p>\n For Loggins, Gavin DeGraw performed \u201cDanny\u2019s Song,\u201d before Loggins told the story behind the tune in his acceptance speech. Taylor Dayne and Madison Cunningham performed Tina Turner classics written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle in honor of their induction; John Fogerty was honored with the Johnny Mercer Award.<\/p>\n \u201cI got my songs back!\u201d Fogerty said, ending a nearly 30-minute speech, referencing the fact that he won the rights back to his catalog at age 80. Then he ran through a medley of his hits: \u201cProud Mary,\u201d \u201cFortunate Son,\u201d and \u201cHave You Ever Seen the Rain\u201d among them.<\/p>\n The songwriter Walter Afanasieff (Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You\u201d) was also recognized, a segment that began with an introduction by actor Jeremy Renner and included a monster medley of his biggest songs by R&B singer Shel\u00e9a, kicking off with his Christmas classic six months early.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to be The Beatles,\u201d he said of falling in love with songwriting in his speech. \u201cSixty years later, I got to produce Paul McCartney.\u201d British singer-songwriter RAYE received the prestigious Hal David Starlight Award. She ended her speech by stating that songwriters deserve a cut of master royalties.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s inductees included George Clinton, The Doobie Brothers, Ashley Gorley, Rodney \u201cDarkchild\u201d Jerkins, The Beach Boys\u2019 Mike Love and Tony Macaulay.<\/p>\n The Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 1969 to honor those creating popular music. A songwriter with a notable catalog of songs qualifies for induction 20 years after the first commercial release of a song.<\/p>\n Some already in the hall include Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Brian Wilson, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Lionel Richie, Bill Withers, Neil Diamond and Phil Collins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Taylor Swift became the youngest woman ever inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame Thursday night at age 36. \u201cIt was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it,\u201d she said of songwriting through a raspy voice she attributed to screaming along to the night\u2019s performances and Wednesday night\u2019s historic … Continue reading Taylor Swift becomes the youngest woman inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at age 36<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1515231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1451],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-entertainment-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-14 12:53:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1515229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1515232,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515229\/revisions\/1515232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1515231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1515229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1515229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1515229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA night of celebrating songwriters<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAcknowledging writers and their hits<\/p>\n
\nAn established tradition<\/p>\n