4 minute readrundown
Taylor Swift won the Artist of the Year award at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards and used her speech time to give advice to other artists. Taylor Swift had nine nominations heading into the awards ceremony. In her speech, she noted that “we live in a world where there’s a lot of immediate feedback all the time,” and encouraged artists to give “time to hone their craft.”
Taylor Swift, who won the Artist of the Year award at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards tonight, didn’t spotlight her hit album The Life of a Showgirl any further, instead offering some revealing advice to up-and-coming artists. Perhaps her most poetic words of the night soon followed. “I am a firm believer that anything you feed your mind will be internalized,” she told the crowd. “If you feed the internet, the internet will try to kill everything. And I don’t want that for your dreams.”
Swift entered the ceremony tonight with nine nominations, and by the time she took the stage for the Artist of the Year honor, she had won a total of six awards, including Pop Album of the Year, Pop Song of the Year, Lyrics of the Year, Music Video of the Year, and Favorite Tour Style. Earlier in the evening, the singer celebrated her Pop Album of the Year honor with a short speech thanking her fans and her fiancé, Travis Kelce, who attended the award ceremony by her side.
Swift spent more time giving her Artist of the Year speech. She began by thanking presenter Alicia Liu, who said Swift was “so inspired” to see her perform at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
She then changed her approach and shared a nostalgic anecdote from her youth. During that time, she spent “thousands of hours working on her craft, practicing, trying and failing.” She gestured to the audience and added: “And I look out to this crowd, and I see a lot of ambitious, cool, smart, amazing people with dreams.” The “Destined Ophelia” singer specifically criticized the toxic “instant feedback” endemic to the modern Internet, where social media has exploded since Swift’s career began in the early 2000s. “If I had one hope for you, it would be that you would develop a hobby or a passion just with the craft,” she said.
Read Swift’s full acceptance speech below.
First of all, I would like to accept this award from Alicia (Liu), she has brought me so much happiness and everyone else so much happiness with your performance. And I’m so inspired by how much diligence and work and effort and love you have for your work.
Winning Artist of the Year means I love being an artist. I love writing songs more than anything in this world. And when I first started doing it, I didn’t think of myself as an artist. It was a hobby. It was a hobby, but it became my favorite hobby. And that’s what I would rush home from school to do. I was like, “I can’t wait to get back in the room and get back on the guitar and write songs.” And what I mean is, when I was 12 years old, I had the luxury of spending thousands of hours on my craft, practicing, trying and failing. And it was all completely unobserved, right? So it was just me and my technique.
And I’m looking at this crowd, and I’m seeing a lot of ambitious, cool, smart, amazing people who have dreams. We live in a world where there is always a lot of instant feedback. Now you can receive feedback on everything you share with the world. Everything you post, whether good or bad, will receive feedback. The only thing I would like to say is that if I had one wish for you, I would want you to develop a hobby or passion that is just between you and your craft. And you give yourself time. Give yourself time to make mistakes. Take the time to hone your skills.
I am a strong believer that whatever you feed your mind will be internalized. If you feed the internet, the internet will try to kill everything. And I don’t want that for your dreams.
So, thank you for allowing me to turn my hobby into a love, passion, dream, and career. Thank you for letting me last this long. And I wish you the best in everything you do. Thank you so much for this wonderful and wonderful evening.
Related articles
