Long before she was winning Grammys, recording artist Taylor Swift was a young singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania looking for any chance to perform.
“When I was 11 years old, it occurred to me that the national anthem was the best way to get in front of a large group of people if you don’t have a record deal,” Swift told Rolling Stone magazine. “So I started singing the national anthem anywhere I possibly could.”
In her early days, Swift performed at sporting events near her hometown. She sang the national anthem in 2007 for the Reading Fightin Phils, a minor-league baseball team.
Before long, she went to the majors. She sang at a 2008 World Series game in front of almost 46,000 fans. Her hometown’s team, the Phillies, won their last World Series title that year.
“To borrow an old scout’s phrase, she had some mound presence,” said Rob Hackash, who handled communications for Reading, according to the Associated Press.
When she was just 12 years old in 2002, Swift landed an anthem performance for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
“Her voice is so strong and powerful at 12 years old,” Kathy Drysdale, the Sixers’ former manager of game operations, told media at the time. “You look at her and think, ‘Did that come out of her mouth?‘”
Of course, Swift soon achieved pop stardom far beyond Pennsylvania. Now, her loyalty is clearly with the Kansas City Chiefs as she prepares to watch her boyfriend play this year.
However, she still looks back fondly on her early affiliations with Pennsylvania sports. These days, when she sells out the Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field, she gives a shout-out to her Philly roots. At a recent show, she clarified an old lyric about an “Eagles T-shirt.”
“There was sort of a, I don’t know how large the debate was, but I did see the debate about how a lyric that says ‘with my Eagles T-shirt hanging from the door’ … I saw some people wondering if it was the band Eagles or the team the Eagles,” she told a crowd in Philadelphia last year.
“And I love the band the Eagles … but guys, like come on. I’m from Philly. Of course it’s the team.”
Take a look at these old photos of Swift —
apropos of nothing, here's taylor swift singing the national anthem at a reading phillies game as six (6) mascots pay their respects to the flag https://t.co/tMjliUFUZh pic.twitter.com/59GmZDPRHd
— Jeff McDevitt (@JeffMcDev) October 16, 2023
16 years ago today, taylor swift performing the national anthem before the national league baseball game between the colorado rockies and the los angeles dodgers in los angeles, california.
april 9, 2007 pic.twitter.com/6mN6T155ba
— Taylor Throwbacks (@ThrowbackTaylor) April 10, 2023
The Associated Press contributed to this article.