Taylor Swift had the makings of a star even when she was a 12-year-old. Old video footage of the young "Shake It Off" singer performing the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers game in Pennsylvania recently went viral.
Swift, a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, is shown in the brief clip below belting the last few lines of "The Star-Spangled Banner," including the challenging "o'er the land of the free" part, The Huffington Post reports. The singer does a spectacular job, considering her age at the time. I am sure no one knew Swift would one day rule the charts after listening to her performance, but she had plenty of years to improve. The next T.Swift is out there, though, so do not disregard any youngster you see belting out the beloved song.
In case you missed it, New Zealand singer Lorde was also an excellent singer at age 12.
Although the "22" singer is now headlining stadiums and arenas, things are probably a bit more complicated than they were for Swift in 2002. The performer is currently taking a stand against music subscription service Spotify. She pulled her back catalog of tunes from the service last week, sending waves of frustration through her loyal fan base.
In her initial statement, Swift referred to Spotify as a "grand experiment."
"And I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music," she told Yahoo! Music. "And I just don't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free."
Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek claimed that the service was on pace to pay Swift and Big Machine Music $6 million a year. Representatives for the singer's record label deny those figures, saying she pulled in close to $500,000, BBC News reports.
