RETURN TO FOLK

According to Billboard, Swift was the highest-paid musician in the US and highest-paid solo musician worldwide of 2020. Folklore made Swift the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year three times, winning the category at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards (2021). At the American Music Awards, Swift won three awards including Artist of the Year for a third record time (2020) and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Album (2021). Swift played Bombalurina in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats (2019), for which she co-wrote and recorded the Golden Globe-nominated original song "Beautiful Ghosts". The documentary Miss Americana, which chronicled parts of Swift's life and career, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

In February 2020, Swift signed a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group after her 16-year contract with Sony/ATV expired. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Swift surprise-released two "sister albums" that she recorded and produced with Antonoff and Aaron Dessner: Folklore in July and Evermore in December. Joe Alwyn co-wrote and co-produced a few songs under the pseudonym William Bowery.[184] Both albums incorporated a muted indie folk and alternative rock production; each was supported by three singles catering to US pop, country, and triple A radio formats. The singles were "Cardigan", "Betty", and "Exile" from Folklore, and "Willow", "No Body, No Crime", and "Coney Island" from Evermore.[186] Folklore was the bestselling album of 2020 in the US and, together with "Cardigan", made Swift the first artist to debut a US number-one album and a number-one song in the same week; she achieved the feat again with Evermore and "Willow".