Taylor Swift receives Billboard Woman of the Decade honor

She was only a teen when she released her first album. Today, Taylor Swift turns 30 and is an icon. She has been singing for over a decade, and has experienced a lot of great moments that many artists could only ever dream of. 

She has released chart-topping albums and blockbuster tours. According to Billboard.com, she has sold over 37-million albums, 95 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 (including five No. 1s), 23 Billboard Music Awards; 12 Country Music Association Awards, 10 Grammys, and has embarked on five world tours.

But, despite all her successes, Taylor has also experienced things that broke her heart as a female musician. She used the Billboard Woman of the Decade acceptance speech to address the issues that many female stars face. 

"When this decade began I was 20 years old,” Taylor said.

“I saw that as a female in this industry, some people will always have the slightest reservations about you,” she said.

The award-winning singer said people will question "whether a male producer or co-writer was the reason for your success, or whether it was a savvy record label [responsible for your success]. It wasn’t.” 

“People want to explain away a woman’s success in this industry,” she added.

“Have you ever heard someone say about a male artist, ‘I really like his songs, but there’s something about him I don’t like’? No, that criticism is reserved for us," said Taylor. 

“Lately there’s been a new shift that has affected me personally, and as your resident loud person, I feel like I need to bring it up. And that’s the unregulated world of private equity and people buying up your music… like it’s a shoe line," said the star.

Talking about former Big Machine label head Scott Borchetta selling her masters to Scooter Braun, Taylor said: "This happened to me without my consent,” and she added that Scooter never contacted her or her team to discuss it prior to the sale."

Lastly, Taylor asked everyone to keep advocating for female representation in recording studios and A&R departments.

Here are snippets of Taylor's speech:

In the below video, Swift gives praise to Lana Del Rey, whom she says is the most influential artist in pop music.