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Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is

Wednesday December 27th, 2023 and this is a special episode of the excerpt.

It would be hard to argue that 2023's biggest name in music wasn't Taylor Swift. She was recently named time magazine's person of the year and was Spotify's most

streamed artist this year, but there were other musical artists and stories that did

manage to elbow their way in. Here to talk Taylor, Beyonce, and Brittany with me and

break down some of the musical highlights of 2023 is USA Today music

reporter, Melissa Ruggieri. Thanks for joining us on the excerpt, Melissa.

Thank you, always happy to talk about this stuff.

So just when it seemed like there wasn't another trail to blaze, Taylor Swift and Beyonce both released

successful concert films, Taylor's era's tour concert

has grossed more than 250 million globally, Beyond Awards Album and Ticket Sales

has a new bar been set for reaching musical icon status.

I think it has and good luck to the next person who is going to try to clear it because even

if you go back to the heyday of Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 80s and the tremendous

success that they had at the time that doesn't even compare to what Taylor and Beyonce both

accomplished this year and the fact that they both did it in the same year is also a really

really cool thing and I think it's going to be a long time until we see another

artist who's able to sell a billion dollars in concert tickets in one year.

I mean, that's just an unfathomable amount for most people to even aspire to.

And also keep in mind the number of shows that Taylor did, she wasn't doing 80, 90, 100 shows. She was only really

...