Aqua asks: I want to meet Taylor Swift, but I live far from her. What should I do?
Hi Aqua –
Wow, I’d love to meet her too! She’s one of the few humans I’ve ever seen who’s even thinner than me! And I’ve always loved music, all sorts, so she’s my kind of human.
Now with lots of celebrities, like movie stars, it’s virtually impossible to have any access to them. But pop singers like Taylor Swift have a different situation. They tour, all the time. No matter how many recordings they sell, or how often they’re on TV, they still depend a lot on making personal appearances, and having contact with their public.
So the odds are very good that, no matter where you live, Taylor will be fairly near you at some time. The tough part is that you don’t just want to see her singing “Love Story” and “Speak Now,” you actually want to meet her.
But this isn’t impossible. What you need to do is to find out how she’s arranged to meet her fans. Are there contests where the winners get to meet her backstage? Does she have events set up where she signs autographs and shakes hands? Maybe there are places she does interviews where you could even meet her.
The best things to do would be to contact a few organizations. First, check out her website, www.taylorswift.com. And especially see when she’ll be touring near you. Then check out her fan club websites (there are a bunch), and see what they say about ways to meet her. Then, I’d suggest you check out whatever local radio stations you have who play her music, and see if any of them will have any access to her at any time, which you could somehow be included in.
I know a woman who’s always been just crazy about the singer Elton John. And she never got to meet him, but she did do something else that felt almost as good. She saw him in concert, on a night that she knew was his birthday. So she bought him a small pin that she thought he would like, and had it taken to him backstage. And even though this was in a huge arena, he thanked her for it between a couple of songs. Again, it’s not quite “meeting,” but having your idol thank you personally in front of tens of thousands of people felt pretty fantastic!
The one thing you don’t want to do, of course, is anything that “breaks the rules” to meet her. Celebrities, and especially ones known for their beauty as Swift is, live in constant fear of “Stalkers” – people who try to sneak into their homes or backstage or such, to meet them, or perhaps worse (I know it sounds crazy – it is! – but some stalkers even want to hurt the celebrities they love; the most famous such case was John Lennon, who was shot and killed by a fan who absolutely loved his music). If you try anything “outside the ordinary” to meet Miss Swift, you will almost certainly be arrested, and kept from ever seeing her again! Yikes!
So see what you can do to meet her. And of course, in the meantime, you can always write her letters and emails telling her what she and her music mean to you. No matter how popular a celebrity gets, they always love hearing things like that!
Just like I absolutely love hearing from you!
Stay Fearless!
Shirelle