Taylor Swift
2018–2021: Lover, Folklore, and Evermore

In November 2018, Swift signed a new deal with Universal Music Group, which promoted her subsequent albums under Republic Records ' imprint. The contract included a provision for Swift to maintain ownership of her masters. In addition, in the event that Universal sold any part of its stake in Spotify, it agreed to distribute a non-recoupable portion of the proceeds among its artists.

Swift's first album with Republic Records, Lover, was released in August 2019. She produced the album with Antonoff, Louis Bell, Frank Dukes, and Joel Little. Lover peaked atop the charts of such territories as Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US. The album spawned five singles: " Me! ", " You Need to Calm Down ", " Lover ", " The Man ", and " Cruel Summer "; the first two singles peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and the lattermost single became a resurgent success in 2023, reaching number one. Lover was 2019's bestselling album in the US and bestselling album by a solo artist worldwide. The album and its singles earned three nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020. At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, Swift won three awards including Video of the Year for "You Need to Calm Down", becoming the first female and second artist overall to win the category for a self-directed video.

While promoting Lover in 2019, Swift became embroiled in a public dispute with the talent manager Scooter Braun after he purchased Big Machine Records, including the masters of her albums that the label had released. Swift said she had been trying to buy the masters, but Big Machine would only allow her to do so if she exchanged one new album for each older one under a new contract, which she refused to sign. In November 2020, Swift began re-recording her back catalog, which enabled her to own the new masters and the licensing of her songs for commercial use, substituting for the Big Machine-owned masters.

In February 2020, Swift signed a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group after her 16-year contract with Sony/ATV expired. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Swift surprise-released two "sister albums" that she recorded and produced with Antonoff and Aaron Dessner: Folklore in July and Evermore in December. Joe Alwyn co-wrote and co-produced a few songs under the pseudonym William Bowery. Both albums incorporated a muted indie folk and alternative rock production; each was supported by three singles catering to US pop, country, and triple A radio formats. The singles were " Cardigan ", " Betty ", and " Exile " from Folklore, and " Willow ", " No Body, No Crime ", and " Coney Island " from Evermore. Folklore was the bestselling album of 2020 in the US and, together with "Cardigan", made Swift the first artist to debut a US number-one album and a number-one song in the same week; she achieved the feat again with Evermore and "Willow".

According to Billboard, Swift was the highest-paid musician in the US and highest-paid solo musician worldwide of 2020. Folklore made Swift the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year three times, winning the category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards (2021). At the American Music Awards, Swift won three awards including Artist of the Year for a third record time (2020) and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Album (2021). Swift played Bombalurina in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber 's musical Cats (2019), for which she co-wrote and recorded the Golden Globe-nominated original song " Beautiful Ghosts ". The documentary Miss Americana, which chronicled parts of Swift's life and career, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
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