Shadowing Practice: Taylor Swift Accepts Woman of the Decade Award | Women In Music - Learn English Speaking with Video

absolutely love this one right This is sort of a,

it's not a short speech, Um, So just, I don't want this to slip.

and break, because it's very important to me.

Thank you so much.

She's so supportive.

We all need someone like that.

I'm Taylor, good evening.

I want to first thank Billboard from the bottom of my heart for this honor for, whoa, this is going great so far.

Excellent.

Okay.

I want to say thank you so much to Billboard for giving me this honor.

for naming me as their woman.

of the decade.

So what does it mean to be the woman of this decade.

Well, Thank you.

It means I've seen a lot.

When this decade began, I was 20 years old.

And I had put out my self -titled debut album when i was 16.

and than the album that would become my breakthrough album, which was called Fearless.

and I saw that there was a world of music and experience beyond country music that I was really curious about.

I saw "Pop stations send my songs love story,

"and you belong with me to number one for the first time." And I saw that as a female in this industry,

some people will always have slight reservations about you.

whether you deserve to be there.

whether your male producer or co -writer is the reason for your success.

or whether it was a savvy record label.

It wasn't.

I saw that people love to explain away a woman's success in the music industry.

and I saw something in me change due to this realization.

This was the decade when I became a mirror from my detractors.

whatever they decided I couldn't do, is exactly what I did.

Oh, I'll take it.

Thanks.

Whatever they criticized about me became material for musical satires or inspirational anthems.

And the best lyrical examples I can think of are songs like Mean shake it off and blank space.

Basically if people had something to say about me, I usually said something back in my own way.

And this reflex dictated more than just my lyrics.

when fearless did win Album of the Year at the Grammys.

and I did become the youngest solo artist to ever win the award.

with that win came

criticism in backlash in 2010

that i'd never experienced before as a young new artist all of a sudden people had doubts about my singing voice, Was it strong enough?

was I-- a little bit pitchy, all of a sudden they weren't sure if I was the one writing the songs because

Sometimes in the past I had had co -writers in the room Um...

At that time, I couldn't understand why this wave of harsh criticism had hit me so hard.

Um, I believe a popular headline.

back then was a swift backlash.

which is clever, you gotta give it to them.

And now I realize that

This is just what happens to a woman in music if she achieves success or power beyond people's comfort level.

I now have come to expect that with good news, comes some sort of pushback.

But, I didn't know that then.

So then I decided that I would be the only songwriter on my third album, Speak Now.

I was a little bit older than I was work on my vocals every day, and perfect my stamina in a live show.

"I decided I would be what they said I couldn't be.

I didn't know then that soon enough people would decide on something else I wasn't quite doing right, and then the circle would keep going on and on and rolling along,

and I would keep accommodating.

overcorrecting in an effort to appease my critics.

They're saying I'm dating too much in my 20s.

Okay, I'll stop.

I'll just be single. for years.

Now they're saying my album Red is filled with too many breakup songs?

Okay, um, okay, I'll make one about moving to New York

and deciding that really my life is more fun with just my friends.

Oh, they're saying my music is changing too much for me to stay in country music.

All right.

Okay, here's an entire genre shift and a pop album called 1989.

You heard it?

Sick.

Now it's that I'm showing you too many pictures of me with my friends.

Okay.

I can stop doing that too.

Now I'm actually a calculated manipulator rather than a smart businesswoman?

"Okay, I'll disappear from public view." for years.

Now I'm being cast as a villain to you.

Okay, here's an album called reputation and there are lots of snakes everywhere.

I Thank you.

In the last 10 years, I have watched as women in this industry are criticized, and measured up to each other and picked at for their bodies, their romantic lives, their fashion.

Or have you ever heard someone say about a male artist, I really like his songs, but I don't know what it is.

There's just something about him I don't like.

No. That criticism is reserved for us.

But you know, I've learned that the difference between those who can continue to create in that climate, usually comes down to this.

Who lets that scrutiny break them?

and who just keeps making art.

I've watched as one of my favorite artists of this decade, Lana Del Rey.

was Ruthly criticized.

Yes.

Yeah.

Thank you.

We have similar tastes.

I like it.

Thank you.

She was ruthlessly criticized in her early career, and then slowly but surely she turned into in my opinion, the most influential artist in pop.

Her vocal stylings, her lyrics, her aesthetics, they've been echoed and repurposed in every corner of music.

And this year, her incredible album, is nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys because she just kept making art.

And that example should inspire all of us.

that the only way forward is forward motion.

that we shouldn't let obstacles like criticism slow down the creative forces that drive us.

"and I see that fire in the newer faces "in our music industry.

100

"whose work I absolutely love." I see it in Lizzo.

101

Rosalia, Tayla Parks, Hailey Kiyoko, King Princess.

102

"Camila Cabello, Halsey, Megan Thee Stallion,

103

Princess Nokia, Nina Nesbitt, Sigrid, Normani, her, Maggie Rogers.

104

Becky G.

105

Dua Lipa, Ella Mai.

106

Billie Eilish, and so many other amazing women who are making music right now.

107

Female artists and music have dominated this decade in growth, streaming, record and ticket sales, and critical acclaim.

108

So why are we doing so well?

109

because we have to grow fast.

110

We have to work this hard.

111

We have to prove that we deserve this.

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and we have to top our last achievements.

113

Women in Music, on stage, or behind the scenes are not allowed to coast.

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We are held at a higher, sometimes impossible feeling standard.

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And it seems that my fellow female artists have taken this challenge and they have accepted it.

116

It seems like the pressure that could have crushed us.

117

made us into diamonds instead.

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And what didn't kill us actually did make us stronger.

119

But we need to keep advocating for women in the recording studios,

120

behind the mixing board, in A &R meetings because rather than fighting to be taken seriously in their fields, these women are still struggling to even have a chance to be in the room.

121

We now find ourselves fully immersed in a vast frontier that wasn't around last decade.

122

And that is the streaming world.

123

In music, we're always walking hand in hand with technology.

124

And sometimes that is so awesome, like how now we're able to just drop a song that we made yesterday.

125

I've spoken out in the past about the future of revenue flow for creators

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and the songwriters and producers who are being left behind due to these rapid shifts and changes.

127

I still don't think that record contracts or producers agreements have fully caught up.

128

And I hope that in the next decade, we can keep searching for the right solution for producers, songwriters, and creators.

129

Don't you?

130

Lately, there's been a new shift that has affected me personally.

131

and that I feel is a potentially harmful force in our industry.

132

And as your resident loud person, I feel the need to bring it up.

133

And that is the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate.

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as if it's an app.

135

or a shoe line.

136

"This just happened to me without my approval,

137

"consultation, or consent." "after I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog.

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was sold to Scooter Bronze Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I'm told was funded by the Soros family, 23 Capital, and the Carlisle group. yet.

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To this day, None of these investors have ever bothered to contact me or my team directly.

140

to perform their due diligence on their investment.

141

on their investment in me.

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to ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art.

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the music I wrote.

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the videos I created.

145

photos of me.

146

my handwriting.

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my album designs.

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And of course, Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it, prior to the sale or even when it was announced.

149

I'm fairly certain he knew exactly how I would feel about it though.

150

"and let me just say that the definition of the toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying, but he's always been nice to me.

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I'm not going to be a part of my life.

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I'm not going to be a part of my life And of course he's nice to you.

153

If you're in this room, you have something he needs.

154

The fact is that private equity is what enabled this man to think, according to his own social media post,

155

that he could by me. But I'm...

156

Obviously not going willingly.

157

Thank you.

158

Yet the most amazing thing was to discover that it would be the women in our industry who would have my back.

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and show me the most vocal support at one of the most difficult times.

160

And I will never, ever forget it.

161

Like, ever.

162

But to conclude, I will say that in 10 years, I've seen forward steps in our industry.

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in our awareness.

164

our inclusion, our ability to start calling out on fairness.

165

misconduct.

166

I've seen the advent of social media, the way it can boost the breakthrough of emerging artists.

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And I've seen fans become more engaged and supportive than ever before.

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I've leaned on that support.

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And it has kept me in a place where, no matter what, I always wanted to keep making music for them.

170

"I was up on a stage in New York City in 2014, "accepting Billboard Woman of the Year, And I was talking about the future of streaming.

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how we needed to make sure that the female artists, writers and producers of the next generation were protected and compensated fairly.

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This was before my record deal with Universal last year

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that would contractually guarantee that the artists on their roster be paid upon any sale of their Spotify shares.

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unrecoupable.

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So thank you for that.

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The speech I'm referring to was on my 25th birthday.

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I'm about to turn 30 tonight.

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Woo!

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But my exact quote during this speech was:

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I really just feel like we need to continue to try to offer something to a younger generation of musicians.

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because somewhere right now, your future woman of the years, probably sitting in a piano lesson or in a girls choir.

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And today, right now, We need to take care of her.

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I've since learned that at that exact moment,

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an 11 -year -old girl in California really was taking piano lessons and really was in a girls' choir.

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And this year she has been named Woman of the Year at the age of 17 Her name is Billie.

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Thank you.

187

Those are the stories we need to think about every day

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as we do our jobs within this industry the ones where people's dreams come true

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and they get to create music and play it for people

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and the ones where fans feel a connection to music that makes their day easier "makes their night more fun, "makes their love feel more sacred,

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or their heartache, feel less isolating.

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the ones where all of you in this room

193

stand as an example for someone else in the next generation who loves the same thing that we love.

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Music.

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And no matter what else enters the conversation, we will always bring it back. to music.

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And as for me, lately I've been focusing less on doing what they say I can't do.

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and more on doing whatever the hell I want.

198

Thank you for a magnificent, happy, free, confused, sometimes lonely, but mostly golden decade I'm honored to be here tonight.

199

I feel very lucky to be with you.

200

Thank you so much.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing Practice: Taylor Swift Accepts Woman of the Decade Award | Women In Music - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?