Taylor Swift Says “You Have to Give Yourself Permission to Fail” on Receiving Innovator Award at 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards
Taylor Swift is not only winning hearts, but she is also winning some accolades this year! She popped by Los Angeles’ Dolby Theater for the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards to collect her latest honour, the Innovator Award. Phoebe Bridgers presented the award to her after mentioning that it is because of Swift’s songs she heard on country radio while growing up that she got inspired to become an autobiographical songwriter. Bridgers and Swift have collaborated previously for ‘Nothing New’.
"What I did do is try to make the right decision for me at the time, whether or not it had ever been successfully done before" – @taylorswift13
— iHeartRadio (@iHeartRadio) March 28, 2023
Our #iHeartAwards2023 Innovator 🏆✨ pic.twitter.com/BE0zgqYPST
“I was listening to country radio one day with my mom and Taylor came on,” Bridgers said. “I heard a girl not much older than me singing a song she had written about her own life and the song was really good. As I grew up, so did Taylor, and so did her songs. Taylor has always told the truth. She has always written songs about exactly where she is. I’m grateful to have grown up in a world with Taylor Swift in it. Or ‘The World (Taylor’s Version).’”
The award was presented after a video montage of Swift’s friends singing her praises was played. Selena Gomez was caught on camera saying, “She can represent what she’s walking through so well”, while Dolly Parton said, “We wanna keep you around forever.”
“Anyone who is part of that video, that video really blew my mind,” Swift remarked before her acceptance speech. Then, she added, “I, never a single time, woke up in the morning and said, ‘You know what I’m gonna do today? I’m gonna innovate stuff.’ What I did do was make the right decisions for me. People want an example of something working before, but I think the coolest ideas, moves and choices are new ones, ones that set a new precedent. I’m so thankful because my fans have backed me up on things like switching genres or re-recording all my old music.”
“The thing about these exciting nights and moments and especially this award, they’re shining a light on the choices I made that worked out, that turned out to be good ideas,” she added. “I want everyone to know — especially young people — that the hundreds and thousands of dumb ideas that I had led me to my good ideas. You have to give yourself permission to fail. I try as hard as I can not to fail because it’s embarrassing, but I give myself permission to. Make the right choices that make sense for you and someone one day might think you’re innovative.”
After the event, she headed back to her ‘The Eras Tour’, which continues this weekend at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. MUNA and GAYLE are all set to open Friday night and Beabadoobee and Gracie Adams will open Saturday night for Swift. Phoebe Bridgers is also going to be a part of this tour, wherein she will join as a warm-up act starting in Nashville.
– Riya Sohini
