TAYLOR SWIFT
SINGER AND SONGWRITER
In 2014, Taylor Swift released her fifth studio album, 1989, which was then her most commercially successful album and attracted widespread critical acclaim. Bloomberg Businessweek ran a cover with a close up of the pop star’s face and the coverline shouted, “Taylor Swift is the music industry.”
Were there any doubts that statement was true, then Swift’s meteoric ascent in the years that followed have silenced even the loudest of naysayers.
If 2023 belonged to one person, that would undoubtedly be Swift. The 33-year-old singer and songwriter has redefined what it means to be the most successful artist in the world.
Swifties gathered in masses, not only inside but also outside the stadiums of each and every one of the singer’s shows across the United States, Mexico and South America, with some cities attracting more than 20,000 people to listen from the car parks outside the venues. The show itself is a remarkable feat, with Swift performing for three-and-a-half hours and changing into more than 10 costumes.
The Eras Tour is predicted to be the highest-grossing tour of all time, and has been credited with helping to balance the US economy in 2023.
Ticketing websites buckled with the demand as millions of fans attempted to score tickets to Swift’s tour, including in Australia, where 4 million clamoured for seats.
Swift also smashed the charts and last year became the first and only artist in history to occupy the entire top 10 spots in the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
As she’s set to re-release 1989 in October and continues her world tour, it’s clear that Taylor Swift still has plenty of records to break in 2023.
SARA MARDINI & YUSR A MARDINI
COMPETITIVE SWIMMERS AND REFUGEE ADVOCATES
In 2015, sisters Sara and Yusra Mardini fled their homeland of Syria and its escalating civil war. They crossed into Lebanon and then Türkiye, before hopping into a small rubber boat in the hopes of reaching Greece. The boat was built for seven people, but 18 other refugees piled aboard with the sisters.
Somewhere in the Aegean Sea, the motor gave out and the sisters jumped into the ocean, along with two other refugees. For more than three hours, they pushed and pulled the boat through the water, literally swimming for their lives – and the lives of the other 18 people. Once they safely reached the Greek island of Lesbos, the sisters travelled through Greece, Hungary and Austria to Germany, where they were granted asylum.
Their incredible swimming
