Taylor Swift’s 1989 has won the 2016 Grammy award for best pop vocal album.
1989 was Swift’s fifth studio album, and one that saw her complete the transition from country star to fully-fledged mainstream pop act. It reached the top of the charts in numerous countries, including the US and UK.
Writing in the Guardian, Alexis Petridis said: “As a songwriter, Swift has a keen grasp both of her audience and of pop history. She avoids the usual hollow platitudes about self-empowerment and meaningless aspirational guff about the VIP area in the club in favour of Springsteenesque narratives of escape and the kind of doomed romantic fatalism in which 60s girl groups dealt.”
Swift’s album triumphed in a group that also featured Piece By Piece by Kelly Clarkson, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful by Florence + the Machine, Uptown Special by Mark Ronson, and Before This World by James Taylor.
Best pop vocal album was one of seven nominations for Swift at this year’s awards, including a song of the year nod for Blank Space, which she co-wrote with Max Martin and Shellback.
