{"id":43633,"date":"2025-03-16T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=43633"},"modified":"2025-03-16T10:00:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T10:00:23","slug":"taylor-swift-a-producer-made-the-worst-decision-of-his-career-when-he-told-12-year-old-swift-she-couldnt-perform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=43633","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift: A Producer Made the \u2018Worst Decision\u2019 of His Career When He Told 12-Year-Old Swift She Couldn\u2019t Perform"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cheatsheet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Taylor-Swift-who-once-said-some-of-best-friendships-came-after-they-publicly-criticized-her-at-the-2025-Grammy-Awards.webp\" alt=\"Taylor Swift: A Producer Made the 'Worst Decision' of His Career When He Told 12-Year-Old Swift She Couldn't Perform\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<p id=\"par-1_74\">Long before fame, Taylor Swift sought the opportunity to perform for an audience whenever it presented itself. She entered karaoke competitions, became involved with musical theater, and sang the national anthem at sporting events. By the age of 12, she had the opportunity to sing the anthem at the US Open. A producer didn\u2019t think she\u2019d be a good fit, though. Years later, he still views this as the biggest mistake of his career.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-taylor-swift-lost-her-chance-to-perform-the-national-anthem-at-the-us-open\">Taylor Swift lost her chance to perform the national anthem at the US Open<\/h2>\n<p id=\"par-2_26\">Swift has known she wanted to be a singer since an early age and did all she could to get in front of a live audience.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-3_50\">\u201cWhen 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\u2019t have a record deal,\u201d Swift said, per WHYY. \u201cSo I started singing the national anthem anywhere I possibly could.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"emb-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cheatsheet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Taylor-Swift.webp?strip=all&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"Taylor Swift: A Producer Made the 'Worst Decision' of His Career When He Told 12-Year-Old Swift She Couldn't Perform\" \/><figcaption>Taylor Swift | Jason Squires\/WireImage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"par-4_59\">When she was 12, she had the opportunity to sing the national anthem at the US Open. Ultimately, she didn\u2019t perform that year because a producer thought she wouldn\u2019t be the right fit. She was a young country artist, and she would have been performing in New York. Upon reflection, however, this was one of the producer\u2019s biggest regrets.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-5_55\">\u201cHer father asked us if we\u2019d put her on Arthur Ashe Kids\u2019 Day, and we said: \u2018She\u2019s just taking off, she\u2019s really country, we don\u2019t think that would play in New York,\u2019\u201d producer Michael Fiur said on the <em>Served <\/em>podcast (via Express). \u201cI do not share this publicly very often. Worst decision I ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-taylor-swift-said-she-tried-to-perform-at-every-opportunity\">Taylor Swift said she tried to perform at every opportunity<\/h2>\n<p id=\"par-6_20\">While Swift had some massive opportunities as a young singer, she said she was happy singing karaoke at that age.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-7_20\">\u201cSinging country music on that karaoke machine was my favorite thing in the world,\u201d she told Rolling Stone in 2009.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-8_10\">She entered competitions and continued joining them until she won.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-9_16\">\u201cI sang every single week for a year and a half until I won,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-she-revealed-another-early-career-disappointment\">She revealed another early career disappointment<\/h2>\n<p id=\"par-10_20\">Not long after her thwarted attempt at the national anthem, Swift booked a job opening for Kenny Chesney on tour.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-11_16\">\u201cThis was going to change my career,\u201d she told Time in 2023. \u201cI was so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-12_28\">It was a major opportunity, but it soon fell apart because of her age. A beer company sponsored the tour, and they could have an underage Swift performing.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"emb-2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cheatsheet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Kenny-Chesney-Taylor-Swift-1-1.webp?strip=all&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"Taylor Swift: A Producer Made the 'Worst Decision' of His Career When He Told 12-Year-Old Swift She Couldn't Perform\" \/><figcaption>Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift | Rick Diamond\/WireImage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"par-13_20\">\u201c[My mom] was weeping,\u201d Swift said. \u201cHer head was in her hands as if there had been a family emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-14_14\">It was one of her biggest career disappointments at that point in her life.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-15_5\">\u201cI was devastated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"par-16_16\">Chesney felt so bad that he paid her for the tour even though she couldn\u2019t perform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taylor Swift almost performed at the US Open as a child. Here&#8217;s why a producer regrets his decision to tell her no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-taylor-swifts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Taylor Swift: A Producer Made the \u2018Worst Decision\u2019 of His Career When He Told 12-Year-Old Swift She Couldn\u2019t Perform - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=43633\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taylor Swift: A Producer Made the \u2018Worst Decision\u2019 of His Career When He Told 12-Year-Old Swift She Couldn\u2019t Perform - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Taylor Swift almost performed at the US Open as a child. 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