footsteps. the 2014 cnn hero of the year -- a star-studded evening that's sure to inspire. cnn hero, an all star tribute, this sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. you won't want to miss it. she's a multiplatinum power house. >> her ability to connect with people is maybe better than anybody ever. >> who made a name in country music. ♪ all you're ever going to be is mean ♪ >> for a decade she's been building an empire and an image.

>> i think you could make an argument that she's the anti-miley. >> she's as cute as a truck load of baby ducks. >> so your advice to her then in the love life -- >> a shotgun. a shotgun. she's shaking up the music world. >> i really like to challenge myself musically. kind of push the envelope. tonight in the cnn spot light, the newly crowned princess of pop, taylor swift. >> i can't even believe that this is real. >> the country music awards, november 2007. >> i can't believe this. this is definitely the highlight of my senior year. [ applause ] thank you cma. >> a big night and a big prize for taylor swift, nabbing the

cma horizon award for best new artist. >> i'm not even an adult yet legally. it's really exciting. >> barely 18 years old and owning country music. a cma win. a platinum record and a grammy nomination. >> i never imagined that my life would be this magical. >> taylor allison swift has been writing her own ferry tail since she was born. >> do you want to see her daughter. she's all dolled up. >> oh, my god -- >> here she is just a few days old. taylor posted the home video for fans who preordered her latest album 1989 named for the year she was born. ♪ ♪ welcome to new york . i don't want to hear that we never did anything for her. not ever. >> taylor had a privileged and

ideal childhood. both of her parents had careers in finance and she and her little brother austin were raised on a 12 acre christmas farm in redding, pennsylvania. dolly moore and her son andrew lived next door to the swift family. dolly baby sat taylor for years. >> i didn't have a little granddaughter so she kind of fill that space for me. i loved her beautiful, almost white hair and her little clear blue eyes. you just wanted to hug her because she really was such a sweet heart. or the professional photographer snapped photo after photo of taylor for more than a decade every time i took that camera and pointed it at her, boom, boom. that's when i told her parents she's going to be a super star.

>> taylor was a natural and a ham. her hair saul ovis all over the. you can even tell at that young age there was something special about her. >> she had great schoolteachers at hello. >> i thought one day i'm going to read about her. one day i'm going to vote about her. one day she's going to perform open heart surgery. >> she was a very talented writer. used very colorful language, mature for a fifth grade writer. >> taylor performed in school plays, proving she had pipes taking the lead in the local musical bye-bye birdie.

next, she took on the karokee circuit. local country singer pat garrett took home the contest. >> she was very poised for a 11-year-old. when i was 11 i couldn't even tie my shoes. get out of here. she got better as she went along and in the finals -- >> next up, the national anthem at a philadelphia 76ers game. >> i think that that probably gave her a little taste of what superstardom is like looking around 10s of thousands of people and thinking this is what i want to do with my life. >> fountain audience but struggled socially during her middle school years.

she poured her heart into her music and relentlessly lobbied her mother to take her to music row. >> when i was 11 i came to nashville and knocked on the doo doors. i would walk into every major record label, hey, i'm taylor. i want a record deal. call me. >> the phone never range but taylor didn't stop. she mastered the guitar as seen here in her 2010 concert document and then wrote and recorded her first song. ♪ angels above you ain't so far away ♪

>> lucky you she wrote it the day she learned how to play guitar. if you listen to that song it is very characteristic of the way that taylor will write songs. it's about not fitting in at school. about being the outsider. >> turning hurts into hits would become her trade mark. ♪ when you're 15 and you're first kiss ♪ ♪ makes your head spin around >> coming up, taylor's unstoppable request for fame. the swift family sells the farm. her dad said, well, we're going. i said oh, yeah where are you going. he said nashville. i said how long are you going for? he said the rest of our lives. i said, what? ♪

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stars and big country dreams. >> i think about that move to nashville like the actresses in the 40s coming to hollywood. you know? they step off the bus. they've got big dreams, wide eyes. >> and in taylor's case, she was also carrying some middle school anxst she had turned into songs. >> i think everybody goes through a period like that where you're just so alone. instead of letting that drag me down into a down ward spiral, i let music lift me up and i wrote songs about it. ♪ ♪ >> even in a city full of talented performers like duo big and rich, it quickly became clear that taylor swift had something special. ♪ baby when i look at you >> some artists they've got magnets on them. you feel them when they come in. >> she has the it. she has the it. >> rca saw it and heard it signing her to a development

deal which she walked away from a year later. >> she had a collection of songs that she really wanted to get out there and rca didn't think that she was ready. >> she landed here nashville's blue bird cafe, the place for aspi aspiring singer/song writers. she was heart and signed by a music executive about to start his own company. >> taylor's first single, tim mcgraw dropped in june of 2006. ♪ >> it was from her debut album taylor swift. >> my album is selling like freakishly amounts -- i can't even believe the way that it's selling right now. >> and he says -- >> the single our song went to

number one is the billboard country chart. >> the first of many firsts. it was a platinum effort right out of the gate. she was just 16. >> taylor swift tapped into a young market that the country music industry was basically ignoring an they were young girls. >> oh, my gosh -- the best moment of my life. >> one thing that makes taylor swift unique is her relationships with fans. >> that's thanks in part to social media. >> my space has been one of the things that launched me as an artist. >> she had an energy in social media that no one had done up to that point so yeah she was connecting with her fans because she was on there talking to them all the time. >> my space morphed into video blogs. instagram and twitter. >> if you follow her on twitter

or on instagram, you feel like you could be best friends with taylor swift. >> she works hard to connect with followers in the real world, too. >> hosting hour long parties for randomly picked fans after every concert. >> she would go around to everybody in the room. she'd have a conversation with they. how did you like the show? >> frankly boward toured with taylor in 2011 and said nobody connects with an audience like she does. >> oh, hi, nashville. >> you know, i went to taylor's show here in nashville a year or so ago. >> thank you for coming tonight. >> i had never seen anything like it. i swear a couple of times i felt taylor was looking at me. the energy connection and the personal connection with the audience, i would compare it to springstein but it was a level above. the energy between her and the fans, it's phenomenal. >> good night, nashville.

[ applause ] >> it helps that she has bruce springsteen's song writing skills. >> taylor is one of the greatest song writers ever to put a pencil to a paper. >> many nashville artists agree. >> i go back to the song 15 that she wrote. what a knock down lyric that is. first time i heard her sing it it was a little writers night in new york city several years ago. she sang it and i went -- gosh. she hits 15 and vince is going wow and trisha is like holy cow listen to this lyric coming out of this girl. ♪ ♪ >> john rich co-wrote this song with taylor swift after she called him out of the blue. >> said yeah, come on over and she pulls that guitar out and has some words already down. she starts tearing this song the way i loved you. i said damn, that's great.

she said yeah, you like it. i said yeah let's work on the versus so it was 90 minutes, two hours max and the song was done. >> the way i loved you is about dating mr. right while loving mr. wrong. >> so taylor said i brought that idea that title to john. he was able to relate to that. he's that complicated frustrated messy kind of guy in a relationship. there you go. is it true? >> of course it's true. yeah. >> that's the way i loved you. that song along with 15 are on fearless, taylor's second album. >> fearless had her first cross over hit which was you belong with me. >> she became the first country star to ever win a vma. >> best female video goes to taylor swift. [ applause ] >> as she was accepting the award, kanye west bum rushed the

stage, grabbed the mic from her. >> i'm really happy for you. i will let you finish but beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. >> this became a media frenzy. >> what a dope. >> what an idiot. >> it's the night that she went supernova. even the people who knew her in passing before really wanted to know who this artist was. >> tonight i saw kanye pull the mic out of her hand. i felt like somebody had just disrespected my little sister like i went if i had been in that room i would have wooped his -- i would have tried. >> ahead, bad break ups have taylor seeing red. >> your advice to her then in the love life -- >> um, a shotgun.

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♪ ♪ some day i'll be big enough so you can't hit me and all you're ever going to be is mean ♪ ♪ it was early 2012, taylor swift's world wide tour was anything but mean. she just won her sixth grammy and had become one of the hottest country artists of the decade. >> there's something on that girl that is bigger than she is. when she comes in the room, you go, who is that? ♪ ♪ >> then, six years after launching her career in country, swift releases red. an album with a whole lot of pop. >> why test the waters there? she's doing so great in country.

>> just had to be because she was being true to herself. >> he really diversified her sound which was not only a way for her to expand her song writing overall but also a way to gain a new audience. >> in truth, taylor swift's style, the songs were personal and focused on a recent string of rocky romances. >> red is a break up album so songs like i knew you were trouble. ♪ ♪ >> we are never ever getting back together so quintessential taylor swift songs of taking the heart breaks from her relationships and putting a great hook behind them and turning them into huge pop hits. >> the album's lead single was an instant success. ♪ we are never ever ever getting back to together ♪ ♪ becoming swift's first song to

ever hit number one on the billboard hot 100. >> the word play in those songs, they are sassy. they are meant to sort of sting a little bit. it was a little bit of an f you to anyone who had basically gotten in her way or in her heart's way. >> brilliant, sassy, and instantly relatable. >> you can only hope that what you are saying resonates with people and that you're saying something that may be helps them get through what they are going through. >> i knew you were trouble where you're singing about i've fallen for the wrong person before. i've gotten my heartbroken. if your heart is broken right now, you're not alone. >> that message clearly resonated with fans, red sold $1.2 million copies in its first week becoming the fastest selling album in a decade. >> red was massive. she was no longer just said

regularated to country radio. that was a really big sort of catalyst in launching her to the stratosphere. >> but personal songs about the boys she dated -- >> john mayer, taylor lotner, conner kennedy -- >> had its down side. >> she does have a tendency to have these relationships. she falls too hard, too fast sometimes for the wrong guy for short periods of time. >> yet the bumps with the boys didn't diminish the brand. >> you know how hard it would be to maintain such an image or such a representation if you weren't that person? it would be damn near impossible. >> taylor swift hand picked country sensation frank ee ballard to tour with her in 2011. >> when things go good you get the credit. when things go bad, it's your fault. so i still think about her in the back of my head and think,

what would taylor do, you know? what would taylor do? >> wwtd. >> i got it tattooed on my chest. >> by 2014, swift was ready for reinvention. she moved from nashville to new york and swore off the boys, something john rich and big kenny fully support. >> honestly, she's too young for a man in her life anyway. >> she's too young. >> so your advice to her then in the love life. >> advice to her is a shotgun. ♪ ♪ ♪ players going to play, play, play ♪ ♪ swift released a new album 1989 trading country for straight pop. >> i think it's really important to evolve musically. i think it's easier to stay the same but i really like to challenge myself musically and kind of push the envelope. >> if there was any risk in

leaving nashville behind, it paid off the first week of the album's release. >> not only is it the biggest week for an album in over a decade, it's also taylor's third consecutive record to sell more than a million copies. if that doesn't cement her as one of the biggest stars on the planet, i don't know what does. >> all of the fans she's had with her since the beginning, and then she makes a record like 1989. of course, all of these people are growing up with her. >> but after her evolution to pop, country music was missing her. and she heard about it at the cmas. >> you can't turn on the tv or open up a newspaper or click on a website without being reminded of the epidemic we're all facing and of course we're talking about postpartum taylor swift disorder. >> what do you say to the

critics who say how can you leave country behind? >> can we just get off of her back. she's an artist. she's a song writer. let her make whatever music she wants to. >> and he says she's still country at heart. >> taylor swift can make a pop record all day long but if you look at the lyrics that's how country song writers make songs. that is what country is all about. she knows what it means to not sand off the rough edges but put a magnifying glass to it. >> with her new single, swift told good morning america that has an entirely new message, people will find anything about you and twist it to where it's wrong or annoying or strange or bad. you have to not only live your life in spite of people who don't understand you, you have to have more fun than they do. >> at the moment, taylor swifrt

swift is having a whole lot of fun and shaking it off just fine. ♪ ♪ ♪ from the american museum of natural history in new york city, this is cnn heroes. an all star tribute. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host for the evening, anderson cooper. [ applause ] thanks very much. welcome to cnn heroes. an all star tribute. we're coming to you live from the whale room hence the