After Taylor Swift’s Midnights, Check Out These Photos From Her First Album Era

In October 2006, a new country artist splashed onto the scene: a teenage Taylor Swift. Her self-titled album spent 24 weeks at number one on Top Country Albums and reached no. 5 on the Billboard 200.

She wrote virtually the entire country album herself, drawing on personal stories and feelings — something she has maintained in all of her music.

The first single from the album was a ballad about a summer romance called “Tim McGraw” followed by “Teardrops On My Guitar,” and “Our Song.”

Swife told SongWriterUniverse in 2007 that the label helped shape the album’s rollout. “When I originally wrote ‘Tim McGraw’ and first played it for the label, I didn’t think it would become a single,” she said. “But the label said it was a single, and they were right.”

The album was certified seven-times platinum and announced her arrival on the music scene in a big way.

A month after the album’s release, Taylor performed the National Anthem at the annual Thanksgiving game in Detroit.

In early 2007, she went back to her hometown Reading, Pennsylvania to perform at a baseball game before her career blew up.

Along with the chart-topping hits, accolades for Taylor began rolling in. She won the 2007 Horizon Award at the CMA (Country Music Association) Awards, which announced the Best New Artist in the country genre.

Taylor took her mom as her date when she was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards. She has remained close to her mom throughout her stardom.

She was nominated for Best New Artist at the GRAMMY Awards but lost the award to Amy Winehouse. Taylor’s second album Fearless was nominated for eight awards — she won four, including Album of the Year.

At the time, Taylor called her skyrocketing career “a whirlwind” and said she was wondering how her life “got this awesome so fast.”