Taylor Swift's Brit Awards preview

By Greg Cochrane
Newsbeat music reporter

Taylor Swift has enjoyed huge success in the US

For some, the sight of a ninth-month pregnant M.I.A. grinding with Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne might have been the most bewildering one at last week's Grammys ceremony in America.

However, for many of the British audience watching on television it would have been 19-year-old Taylor Swift performing.

Who? Exactly.

Back in her native US Swift is a huge star. Four million records huge but in the UK she's yet - yet! - to be a household name. Last year, Swift was the biggest selling artist in America.

Huge star

"I stop at red lights in my car back in Tennessee I'll have the car on either side of me roll down the windows and be like handing things to me," she says curled up in a London hotel lounge chair.

It's safe to say back home Swift doesn't live a normal life - mass adulation shadowing her every move.

"When I go to the mall now it's definitely different to how it was a couple of years ago.

Radio 1 meets Taylor Swift at a hotel in London Watch Taylor Swift being mobbed by fans outside Radio 1

"But I love talking to people and I feel like I'm the same person I was before all this started - I just have a different schedule now."

That type of mob reaction looks set to be mirrored in the UK where she was immediately greeted by hundreds of fans on her arrival.

"I was fully expecting it to just be me starting over and having no-one know who I was and having no-one care about my music," she blurts humbly.

Indeed, a pack of salivating paparazzi were instantly trailing her movements. Not that she is bothered.

"I've wanted one thing for me whole life and I'm not going to be that girl who wants one thing her whole life then gets it and complains."

Brits predictions

After a brief visit last September Swift is in the UK to attend and "observe" the Brit Awards.

"I've heard that they're crazy," she giggles. "The Grammys are very classy. It's very prestigious and everyone's on their best behaviour and I think that at the Brits everyone will be on their wildest behaviour - which will be interesting.

"It'll probably be just a little more whimsical.

"I picked out what I'm going to wear last week - I know the dress," she smiles. "I think the afternoon of the Brits I'm going to try to figure out what to do with my hair."

While she'll probably keep her own autograph book under wraps she's looking forward to meeting up with a few new friends.

I've wanted one thing for me whole life and I'm not going to be that girl who wants one thing her whole life then gets it and complains Taylor Swift

"Chris Martin walked up to me and Miley [at the Grammys] and said 'Hey guys!' and I was like freakin' out because I'd never met him before," she babbles. "He was like 'Taylor congratulations on everything you've had an amazing year' - I couldn't even believe that he knew who I was.

"Duffy, I remember meeting her at the Clive Davis party. We were all standing together, it was me Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus and Duffy.

"A fan came up and wanted his picture with us and he goes, 'Can someone take a picture of us' and Duffy says, 'Here I'll take it' and she grabs the camera and took the picture for him. She just didn't assume that she was wanted in the picture."

Therefore the Welsh songstress is Swift's tip for best female come the ceremony at London's Earls Court on Wednesday [18 February].

"Duffy would probably be my frontrunner just because of meeting her and she was so sweet.

"But people might be surprised to figure out that I'm a big M.I.A. fan too."

Awards success

British artists did extremely well at the Grammys, and the Americans are expected to leave with a number of gongs at the Brits - something Swift finds curious.

"I think you could go back to the old thing about human nature and that you want what you can't have," she explains. "The grass is always greener on the other side so you always admire what isn't in your backyard."

After the chaotic dust of the Brits inevitably settles Swift will release new record Fearless on 2 March.

"A lot of the ideas from Fearless came from love and boys," she concludes. "I wrote Love Story on my bedroom floor."

From bedroom floor to Brit Awards - a real swift accent.

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