- Taylor Swift was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame by director Steven Spielberg.
- In her speech, Swift reflected on her career, the instinctual nature of her songwriting, and trusting her own voice.
- Swift advised young artists to be both sensitive and durable against criticism.
Need a little motivation heading into the weekend?
Taylor Swift and Steven Spielberg delivered an unexpected one-two punch at June 11’s Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Less than 24 hours after cheering on the New York Knicks at Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Swift took the stage to reflect on resilience, trusting your instincts and tuning out critics. Spielberg, who inducted the singer-songwriter into the Hall of Fame, praised the power of authentic storytelling in an age increasingly blurred by algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Together, the two offered a master class in creativity and believing in your own voice.
Below is the full transcript of their remarks from the ceremony.
Taylor Swift spoke to fans and artists in inspirational Songwriters Hall of Fame speech
Hi. The quality of my speaking voice is the product of two things that I’m not sorry for. One is that I went to, I was lucky enough to go to, a Knicks game last night, screamed for 100% of it, and then I got home and I was like, ‘You gotta stop screaming. You’re screaming too much. You’re screaming instead of talking. You’re too excited.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not gonna scream tonight.’ And then I got to witness the amazing performances that I saw tonight, and then I just kept screaming. I just never stopped screaming, and so this is what you get. And again, I make no apologies for that. I’ve had a blast.
I want to begin by thanking the person who introduced and inducted me tonight. He thinks that this is the first time he has inducted me into something. But what he may not be taking into consideration is that through his decades of spellbinding storytelling, Steven Spielberg has unknowingly inducted me and countless others into his sacred club of expansive world building.
From the time he was a kid, every time he dreamed something up, he wanted to do anything humanly possible to be able to show it to you. I watched his films pivot between different genres, action to sci-fi to historical epic to drama to comedy, romance, fantasy to musical, and I watched him ace every single genre.
And that kind of limitless creativity isn’t just inspiring to burgeoning filmmakers. Because of examples like Steven’s, I trusted my imagination regardless of if it was taking me somewhere new and uncharted. And every time I dreamed something up, I wanted to do everything humanly possible to be able to play it for you.
A few months ago, when the Songwriters Hall of Fame asked me about my heroes and the creatives who shaped my storytelling and who I might want to present this award to me, I said Steven’s name. And about an hour later to my absolute delight, I ended up on the phone with him and his legendarily effervescent wife, Kate Capshaw, who is here tonight.
Wouldn’t that be possibly hard to balance? Wouldn’t that be too difficult scheduling-wise? [I was] trying to give him out. At which point, Kate said something I’ll never forget. She said, ‘Good and true things are easy.’ And if I look back at my entire 23-year career in music, the ups and downs, the industry battles, the trials and tribulations, the tears and the cheers and the dogpiling of doubt, the criticisms, both fair and unfair, the complete loss of privacy, the world tours and the ego wars and the twists of fate, the absolute magical chaos of this path that I chose when I was too young to remember it ever being a choice at all.
