Taylor Swift stunned at the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday night — where she made history!
The artist was inducted into the 2026 class alongside Walter Afanasieff, Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS, Kenny Loggins, Alanis Morissette and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart. She makes history as the youngest woman to receive the honor. Wow!
Check out her gorg red carpet look!
LOVE!
Related: Taylor Partied With Hailey Bieber After The Knicks’ Big Win!
It was a super emotional night for the musician, who was joined by her mom Andrea Swift, her soon-to-be mother-in-law Donna Kelce, and yes, even her fiancé Travis Kelce made it just in time! The Kansas City Chiefs star, who’s been prepping for the NFL season, slipped into the venue just before the start of the ceremony, where he was seen having a sweet interaction with Andrea, who at one point held his hand in hers. Aw! See:
Travis Kelce joins fiancée Taylor Swift at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala ahead of her induction pic.twitter.com/dPvi0mWigN
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026
Adorbz! Love that Tay Tay had so much support!
She was clearly moved by the induction, thanking her parents, including dad Scott Swift, and her brother Austin, for allowing her to “hone her craft” at such a young age. Tearing up, she reflected:
“People’s feelings, passions, and motivations have always fascinated me. And it was easy to choose songwriting over everything else in my life, but it couldn’t have been easy for my parents and my brother to just pick up and move our entire family from Pennsylvania to relocate to Nashville, so that I could hone my craft in the songwriting capital of the world.”
She continued:
“They uprooted their entire lives to move me to Music City, and even though words are supposed to kind of be my thing, I will never be able to express my gratitude to you guys for doing that for me.”
She also praised Sombr, who gave a “perfect performance” of Cardigan and Dear John to honor her. She joked:
“His writing is so exceptional that it makes me actually envious. I love that feeling. He’s going to be the top of my Spotify wrap this year, guaranteed. It’s locked, it’s in the bag.”
Sombr performs a cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Cardigan’ at the 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala as Swift and Travis Kelce look on from the crowd pic.twitter.com/fXLJEyAgYq
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026
Sombr sings “Dear John” to honor #TaylorSwift at the 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame pic.twitter.com/ngW3Y4gId4
— Variety (@Variety) June 12, 2026
She added:
“A lot of late-night debates with my friends about the state of the music industry involve me stating very loudly, ‘Sombr is the future, and he does it all on his own, and he doesn’t need AI. The kids are fine.'”
The Love Story vocalist went on to call songwriting “the easiest thing I ever did,” expressing:
“Not because it didn’t take effort, it definitely did. Not that it wasn’t frustrating at times, because it could be. Not that my songwriting didn’t haunt me relentlessly until I cracked the perfect internal rhyme scheme for the third line of the second verse, the point where my teachers called me out in class without paying attention, because that definitely happened.”
The 36-year-old added:
“But when I say this songwriting was the easiest part for me, I think what I mean is that it was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it. I had to be taught how to entertain the crowd and learn choreography, and be less annoying, and navigate the industry, and fiercely protect my own sanity. I had to learn all of that over time through difficult lessons, and massive amounts of trial and error, and chaos, and calamity. … The songwriting, for me, is pretty much the only thing I ever just naturally did.”
She also gave a special shout out to Steven Spielberg, who she asked to present the award to her, saying he has “unknowingly inducted me and countless others into his sacred club of expansive world-building.” The hitmaker revealed she requested that the filmmaker present the award to her, and about an hour later, she was on the phone with him and his wife, Kate Capshaw:
“He was telling me that, yes, absolutely, he would be thrilled to be here. I was completely blown away, because I mean, the man has a massive film called Disclosure Day that’s coming out at midnight tonight, and he’s still gonna agree to show up and do this for me a few hours before it comes out. Wouldn’t that be impossibly hard to balance? Wouldn’t that be too difficult scheduling-wise? At which point Kate said something I’ll never forget. She said, ‘good and true things are easy.'”
Aw!
What an exciting night for the artist! See more highlights:
At the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala, Taylor Swift goes Spielberg mode as she and Travis Kelce dance along to John Fogerty (and his sons) performing ‘Fortunate Son’ pic.twitter.com/hFtXH6bnSV
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dance to “Single Ladies” at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala pic.twitter.com/VFGfDnqaOV
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026
Taylor Swift on choosing Steven Spielberg to induct her into the Songwriters Hall of Fame pic.twitter.com/GlYKYhTFJQ
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026
Steven Spielberg inducts Taylor Swift into the Songwriters Hall of Fame: “Taylor Swift continues to fulfill her destiny as the most successful female artist of not just our time, but of all time” pic.twitter.com/dn3Inc8jZi
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026
#TaylorSwift tears up while thanking her family for “uprooting their entire lives” to Nashville to support her music career.
Swift, 36, is now the youngest artist to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/OEGwzHi0yi
— Variety (@Variety) June 12, 2026
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[Image via MEGA/WENN]