It’s weird to reconcile Taylor Swift the Savvy Billionaire with Taylor Swift the Woman With So Much Personal Drama. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this year – Taylor is so accessible to her fans and accessible as a celebrity, going about her life, hanging out with her football player boyfriend. going to dinner with friends and writing blind-item lyrics. And she’s also one of the canniest marketers of the modern era, a self-made billionaire with a Midas Touch. Taylor covers People Magazine’s 2023 Most Intriguing People issue this week. This is sort of People’s annual wrap-up, a who’s who of “fascinating” or “intriguing” celebrities in 2023. It had to be Tay-Tay.

Taylor Swift is on top of the world and more in control than ever as she closes out her biggest year yet — which is why she’s on the cover of PEOPLE’s 2023 Most Intriguing People of the Year issue.

Her record-shattering Eras Tour (a 3.5-hour spectacle that draws from her 10 albums and spawned a history-making concert film) helped boost Swift to billionaire status, Forbes reported in October. Rerecordings of her early albums (which she began to release after her original label head sold them to music manager Scooter Braun) have even made vinyl records popular with Gen Z: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) broke the record for the largest vinyl sales week ever in October with at least 580,000 copies sold.

And the 12-time Grammy winner remains a force in pop culture, defining friendship goals with her tightknit group of girlfriends and causing Taylor-mania in the NFL amid her new romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

“She never really stops writing songs,” says the National frontman Aaron Dessner, 47, who first began working with the star on her 2020 pandemic projects Folklore and Evermore. “I’ve spent a lot of time with her, and I’ve never seen anyone wait on her. When I have stayed at her house, Taylor herself was cooking everyone breakfast and dinner. She’s legitimately just a very down to earth and hard-working person.”

While she’s accomplished more in a year than anyone in the game, Swift may be even busier in 2024. Touring through next December, she has two more albums to re-release and has frequently been spotted at an N.Y.C. recording studio with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff; she’s up for six more Grammys in February; and her feature film directorial debut based on an original script she’s written is still in the works.

“Taylor has so many stories to tell,” says Dessner. “I think she’ll keep inventing new ways and methods of writing and keep expanding this enchanted universe of her own making that we all get to enjoy.”

Swift’s longtime friend, Paramore rocker Hayley Williams, 34, agrees.

“I’m almost afraid to say it,” Williams ponders, “but I kind of think she’s just getting started.”

[From People]

“When I have stayed at her house, Taylor herself was cooking everyone breakfast and dinner. She’s legitimately just a very down to earth and hard-working person.” True or false? I sort of believe that Taylor likes to play hostess and all of that, but surely she has domestic staff?? Doesn’t she have a maid or a cook or both? How can you be a whole-ass billionaire and not have household staff??? A question for the ages: does Taylor clean the kitty litter all by herself?

As I was writing this up, guess who was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year? Jesus, it really was The Year of Taylor Swift. You can see Taylor’s POTY package here. I actually love that Time chose an entertainer for POTY – all too often, Time chooses a politician. Taylor has the power to bring governments to their knees.

Covers & Instagrams courtesy of People Magazine and Time Magazine.