NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift has multiple Grammys and now she has a new title — “doctor.”
The superstar received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from New York University on Wednesday, blowing kisses as the crowd roared as she made her way to the stage at a packed Yankee Stadium.
Sporting her signature red lipstick and newly awarded honorary gown, Swift joked to the thousands of graduates gathered, “I’m 90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called 22 .
“I never had a normal college experience per se. I went to public high school until 10th grade, then I finished my education doing homework on the floors of airport terminals,” Swift said in her commencement speech.
The singer-songwriter, producer and director said she started her musical career at 15, touring various radio stations across the country. She went on to sell over 100 million albums and won album of the year at the 2021 Grammys for her “folkore” album, making her the first woman to win the category three times. His previous wins came in 2010 for “Fearless” and 2016 for “1989.”
She winked at the crowd when Jason King of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music mentioned her newly re-recorded albums, including “Fearless.”
Swift shared advice with the Class of 2022 but warned that “I don’t feel qualified in any way to tell you what to do. You have worked, struggled, sacrificed, studied and dreamed your way here today. I won’t tell you what to do because nobody likes it, but I will, however, give you tips for when I started my career dreams.
“Never be ashamed to try. Ease is a myth,” she said.
Swift concluded her speech by telling graduates that making mistakes is inevitable but “when tough things happen to us, we will recover, we will learn from it, we will become more resilient because of it. As long as we have the chance to breathe, we will inhale, inhale, inhale deeply and exhale. I’m a doctor now so I know how breathing works.
“I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you,” she said. “We’re doing this together, so let’s keep dancing like we’re the class of 22.”
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