{"id":7988139,"date":"2026-03-26T21:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7988139"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:06:28","slug":"taylor-swift-iheartradio-music-awards-acceptance-speeches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/awards\/taylor-swift-iheartradio-music-awards-acceptance-speeches\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift Urges Artists to Protect Their Craft, Warns the Internet ‘Will Attempt to Kill It’ | Video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Taylor Swift offered some sage advice to fellow creators while accepting the Artist of the Year award at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif. Thursday evening, Swift recalled how her hobby of songwriting as a child evolved into a full blown artistic craft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I didn’t think I was an artist when I first started doing it,” she shared. “It was a hobby … and then it was my favorite hobby. And then it was what I would like, rush home from school to do. It was like, I can’t wait to get back to my guitar in my room and write a song.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift continued: “When I was 12 years old, I had the luxury of spending thousands of hours working at my craft, practicing, making mistakes through trial and error \u2014 and that was all completely unobserved, right? So that was just me and my craft.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\tEvery Song on Taylor Swift's 'The Life of a Showgirl' Ranked<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

At this moment, Swift felt compelled to speak to the fellow artists and creators in the room, advising them all against online chatter as they pursue their art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m looking out into this crowd and I’m seeing so many ambitious, cool, smart, awesome people who have dreams,” Swift said. “And like, we live in this world where there’s so much immediate feedback constantly. Like, you get feedback for everything you share with the world now … If I had one hope for you, I would say that I hope that you get to nurture your hobby and your passion \u2014 just between you and that craft.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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