Guy joins Swift on Aussie tour leg

Guy Sebastian pictured at his recording studios. Picture: Sam Ruttyn Source: News Limited

Taylor Swift has wowed fans in the US with her Red tour, playing to sold-out stadiums across the country. The mega-selling artist is heading to Australia in December. Source: Getty Images

GUY Sebastian will open for Taylor Swift on her stadium tour of Australia.

"I'm stoked to play with someone who is so popular and is going to fill massive stadiums because she has such a loyal fanbase," Sebastian said.

"It's going to be a whole new demographic for me. Taylor's fans really love her and it'll be nice to perform for them. She's a huge force to be reckoned with, people have to remember she's an amazing songwriter as well as a performer."

Sebastian will join Swift at Sydney's Allianz Stadium on December 4, Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium December 7, Perth's NIB Stadium December 11 and Melbourne's Etihad Stadium on December 14. An opening act to play before Sebastian is also set to be announced.

Swift's pre-sales have been incredibly strong this week, with the general tickets going on sale next Tuesday.

Sebastian is about to head to the US to continue to promote his Australian No.1 Battle Scars, a duet with US rapper Lupe Fiasco.

The song has been getting major radio play in LA and is hovering around the bottom of the Billboard Top 100, peaking at No.71 so far.

"Last month it had its biggest week of sales yet and it's still getting smashed on radio over there," Sebastian said.

"Songs last forever in America. Here you promote a song and move onto the next one. We've been working Battle Scars for months and months in the US. The record label said June will be its marketing and radio peak and that seems to be the case. Hopefully the song will open some doors for me over there and I can release my album in America."

Taylor Swift's biggest hits below.

 

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Swift to play Oz stadiums on Red tour

Taylor Swift has wowed fans in the US with her Red tour, playing to sold-out stadiums across the country. The mega-selling artist is heading to Australia in December. Source: Getty Images

TAYLOR Swift is set to become the first female act since Madonna to play stadium shows in Australia.

The country/pop superstar will tour stadiums in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth this December, playing to around 180,000 Australian fans in just ten days.

It is the biggest Australian tour by a solo female performer since Madonna's 1993 visit.

Swift's meteoric rise in popularity in Australia has seen her accelerate from club shows in 2009 playing to around 1000 people to stadium venues of up to 50,000 fans just four years later.

Swift's four albums have sold over one million units in Australia since 2008.

Australia is the first country outside of the US where Taylor Swift will play stadiums as part of the Red tour.

"It's a sign of the achievements of Taylor Swift and the loyal fanbase she's built up that she will be the first woman to play stadiums nationally here since Madonna," promoter Michael Gudinski said yesterday.

Swift was thrilled with the news.

"That's mindblowing and a real honour," the singer, 23, said.

"One of my favorite things about the connection between myself and the fans on this tour is that it's a very emotional one," Swift said.

"They're there because they've felt the same things I'm singing about at one point in their lives. They're singing all the words. When you look out at a sea of people in a stadium and 60,000 people are singing back to you it's an incredible connection."

Australia is the first territory outside of the US where Swift will play stadiums as part of her Red tour.

"In order to get Taylor to Australia with her commitments around the world she's playing stadiums, but this show has been built for stadiums," Gudinski said.

"It's an enormous production. But Taylor and her people have insisted on the ticket price being very reasonable.

"Apart from some VIP packages the ticket prices are around the same as her last arena tour here. A lot of artists have a say in their ticket prices and Taylor is one of them.

"The amount of love she gives to her fans, and what she gets back from them, is quite unique. The respect and communication between her and her audience comes from the fact she's so brave and open in her lyrics."

Tickets will range from around $85 to around $150, with the pricing of VIP moshpit packages yet to be confirmed.

Due to Swift's young fanbase, Frontier will put seating on the ground at each concert.

Swift's US tour, with collaborator Ed Sheeran as opening act, will wind up in late September.

The country star will take a break while the production is shipped from the US in time for a show in Auckland on November 29.

Swift then plays Sydney's Allianz Stadium on December 4, Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on December 7, Perth's NIB Stadium December 11 and Etihad Stadium in Melbourne on December 14.

Tickets go on sale 9am on May 21, with a presale beginning on May 14.

Swift's latest album Red has sold over six million copies worldwide since its release last year, spawning the crossover hits We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble and 22. Her next single, Everything Has Changed, is a duet with Ed Sheeran.

Swift will celebrate her 24th birthday - on December 13 - during her Australian visit.

Full details frontiertouring.com.au

 

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Taylor Swift to guest star on New Girl

Taylor Swift will make a guest appearance on the season two finale of Zooey Deschanel's hit comedy New Girl. Picture: AP Source: AP

A NEW GIRL is coming to New Girl and her name is Taylor Swift.

A representative for the Grammy-winning singer said Swift will appear on the May 14 season finale of the hit show. No other details were provided.

New Girl stars actor and singer Zooey Deschanel as the awkward, but bubbly Jessica Day, who lives with three male roommates.

Swift appeared in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine's Day and guest starred on CSI in 2009. The 23-year-old launched her "Red" world tour this month.

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Ed Sheeran too sick for Swift tour?

Too sick to join Tay Tay on her tour? Ed Sheeran performs on channel 7 Sunrise in Martin Place, Sydney. Picture: Splash News Source: news.com.au

ED Sheeran has sparked fears he won't be in perfect health for the start of his tour with Taylor Swift after tweeting he's "flucinating".

The British singer-songwriter took to the social networking site to share his excitement at beginning the string of shows with the country songstress.

"Tomorrow I start the Red tour with @taylorswift13, goes on for 6 months. Can't wait to play these cities and venues," he wrote, before sparking concerns for his health ahead of the tour kick off.

"Flucinating," he posted today, adding: "this flu is making me dream the weirdest sh*t, dunno whats going on (sic)."

Many fans took to Twitter to send their well wishes ahead of Ed's first concert at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

One user replied: "That doesnt sound good mate hope you feel better," while another Tweet read: "Let's hope he's OK for tonight's (and future) shows! (sic)."

Sheeran has come a long way in a short space of time. The A Team hitmaker has become one of the most acclaimed musicians in the industry, but the star recently revealed life wasn't always plain sailing.

"I think everyone goes through a bit of bullying at school. Of course you get picked on for certain things, but I think it ends up being a positive. I was quite a weird kid when I was little, I wore big glasses, had hearing problems, had a stutter and I had ginger hair," he told radio show Take 40.

"I am now a successful musician and I have nothing to complain about. So I have come out the other end and blossomed... When I went home and went to the pub and saw the people who used to be d**ks at school, it's kind of depressing. They not only haven't done anything but they don't know that there is anything out there. They are so stuck in their little world. So I feel sad for them - they are kind of being bullied by life."

Meanwhile, the 22-year-old has revealed he felt like a "stud" after being romantically linked to his touring partner.

Sheeran and Swift famously get along great - with rumours circulating in the past that they are in fact dating. Despite dismissing such speculation, Ed says it feels great to be linked to such an attractive lady.

"I did go to her hotel, I did stay there 'til four and I did leave in the same clothes. But I was playing her my new record. It was strictly that kind of thing. Literally, I went in there and we passed the guitar back and forth and played songs to each other," he told New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ.

"The thing that impressed me with the media is that because they wrote about it, my mates believed it. And my mates are texting me being like, 'Is it true?' so I said it wasn't but the fact that people can believe it makes me feel like a bit of a stud, you know? I've got to be honest because one of my best friends [Harry Styles] did date her. I'm not that kind of guy. But the fact that people believed it impressed me a little bit.

"Six months on the road with someone, that could get a bit awkward."

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Taylor Swift hits back at haters

Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has hit back at her image as desperate and boy crazy, calling it "sexist" and untrue. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

TAYLOR Swift has hit back at her image as boy crazy serial dater because she turns her failed romances into songs.

In a Vanity Fair cover story, Swift says her public image as a lovesick serial dater is far from the truth, and insists she has only dated two boys since 2010 – Conor Kennedy and One Direction’s Harry Styles.

“For a female to write about her feelings and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her, I think that’s taking something that potentially should be celebrated – a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way – taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist,” Swift said.

The singer said avoids the tabloid and celebrity culture, which have turned her into a “cartoon character”.

“They think they have you pegged, like, ‘Taylor’s boy crazy.’”

“I’m sick of the tabloids saying I obsess over guys. Why would you obsess over guys? They don’t like it.”

The country star has famously has dated John Mayer, Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Lautner, most recently hooking up with Conor Kennedy and One Direction’s Harry Styles, and turned her heartbreak into a string of hit songs.

Swift told Vanity Fair she has only dated two people since 2010 - Conor Kennedy and 1D heartthrob Harry Styles. Picture: AP

However, a friend told Vanity Fair that Styles pursued Swift relentlessly until “he wore her down.” But the relationship fell apart after he was photographed making out with another girl.

“She dated Jake and John when she was really young and they were in their 30s, and she got really hurt. So it was like ‘That hurt – this won’t. But then it did," the source said.

However, Vanity Fair reports Swift did in fact buy a home next door to her then-boyfriend Kennedy in Hyannis Port, but a source says the home was an investment that was quickly re-sold at a profit.
 

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