Taylor Swift Surprises Fans, Reveals New Year’s Resolution on ‘Rachel Ray’

Most people know that Taylor Swift is very committed to her fans. After all, the 21-year-old singer spent 14-and-a-half hours talking with and performing for her fans at a free meet and greet in June, which Swift called "one of the best days of my life." So when the singer appeared on the 'Rachel Ray' talk show this morning, we weren't all that surprised that the kindhearted and always grateful Swift went out of her way to thank some very special fans.

The show kicked off with host Rachel Ray introducing two die-hard Swift fans. First, they gave tours of their rooms, which were covered with Swift memorabilia. The girls not only admired Swift as an artist, but also a fashion icon. Rachel Ray brought in stylists to help the girls transform their looks to replicate a specific, glamorous look that Swift had accomplished in the past. As the girls reveled in their beautiful new looks in front of the live studio audience, they didn't notice Swift herself sneaking up behind them. As she tapped them on the shoulders, both girls broke into tears of joy as Swift hugged them and told them both how beautiful they looked.

In between meeting her fans on the show, Ray asked Swift why she got so much pleasure out of meeting and talking to her fans. "It’s just fun. I just like them so much," Swift said. "There is such a love there and I feel like we’re connected by the fact that these are my stories, but they’ve welcomed them into their life and they’ve become these people’s stories now." She also spoke about touring as a process that allows her to thank her fans. "For me, this year has been me making this record ['Speak Now'], putting it out and then watching what the fans have done and what they’ve turned that record into," she said. "So for me, the next step is me going out there on tour and figuring out as many ways to say thank you to those fans as possible."

Later in the show, Swift surprised another fan named Emily, who had to have her leg amputated after being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 11. Emily has never let her disability or her battle against cancer stop her from doing what she loves, including teaching herself how to play guitar with a Taylor Swift song book. Although they had not met until this morning's show, this was not Swift's first encounter with the strong-willed girl. Swift had sent Emily a personal message from tour on a previous episode of 'Rachel Ray.' When the time came to surprise Emily, Swift and Ray quietly crept backstage to the green room where Emily and her mother were waiting. When Emily saw Swift enter the room, she was so surprised that she was practically speechless as Swift hugged her, thanked her and urged her to keep playing guitar.

Swift's always optimistic attitude was also shown as she spoke about her New Year's resolution. "I usually don’t make them, but I think that if I were to make one this year, [it would be to] be grateful more than any other thing in your life," she said. "If you have a choice on what to put a priority, put a priority on the things in your life that you’re thankful for -- the people in your life that you love, that you’re grateful for. You know, happiness can be affected by the things that happen to you, but I also think it can reached by choice and how you look at life."

Between meeting her fans, Swift took the time to answer some questions from Ray. She talked about everything from her love of cooking and visiting the grocery store to her superstition about the number 13. When Ray asked Swift, who just became a spokeswoman for Cover Girl, about when she first started to wear makeup, Swift proceeded to joke around a bit. "My mother was really wonderful in letting me try artistic freedom with makeup when I first started putting it on in middle school," said Swift. "I thought it would be cool to just have black eye shadow all the way up to my eyebrow, which lasted for a few days and then the teasing started at school and I was like, 'I think I need to rethink this.'"

Swift also took the time to answer questions from audience members. One fan stood up and asked about the difficulties of performing live, considering the vast amount of emotion present in Swift's songs. "Performing live, I usually go through all of the emotions that I went through when I was writing the song on stage, because that’s the state of mind you have to be in," Swift replied. "With this tour, you never know what to expect, because I feel like this album is the most personal it’s been for me, with having written it by myself. It’s really wonderful to feel those feelings in front of an entire crowd of people who have your back because you know the reason they’re there is because they felt that too."

A male member of the audience then went on to ask Swift what she would want to do if she wasn't a singer. "Well if I wasn’t doing this, I think I would probably want to write books or novels, tell stories in some other way," answered Swift. "I think I would love to do that because writing is everything for me, so that’s at the core of all of it. I’m lucky that I get to do my first choice. But my second choice would be writing novels." The male fan also managed to fit in a marriage proposal in his question, and Swift was honored by the request. She seemed to blush as she replied, "Thank you for asking, that is so sweet!"

In one segment of the interview, Ray decided to get a little playful and proposed to play a game she dubbed 'Swift Decisions.' The game required Swift to answer a series of rapid fire questions about celebrities by holding up cardboard cut-outs of musicians from different genres. First off, Ray asked Swift whose wardrobe she would like to borrow. Swift quickly held up a cut-out of Dolly Parton's head and said, "Because I would frame every one of her dresses and her shoes and put them on my wall."

The next question in 'Swift Decisions' was who would you take to prom, which Swift answered quite interestingly. She said she would take "a really fun group" and held up the heads of Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Diddy, Jennifer Lopez and Sheryl Crow. "Katy would just be so much fun because she’s just crazy fun and spontaneous," Swift explained. "Diddy has always been very nice to me. Justin is the same way and he’s really funny. Sheryl is really down to earth and cool. And J. Lo would be a good dancer."

When Ray asked her who she would take skydiving, Swift displayed her sense of humor once again by holding up Reba McEntire and saying, "Because I would chicken out and she’d be like [imitates Reba's voice] 'Come on now!'" Swift then said she would like to play Sheryl Crow in a movie, "because if it was a biopic and I would get to sing the soundtrack, that would just be so much fun. Her music really shaped me wanting to be a singer-songwriter." She would also let Keith Urban cut her hair because she knows that he "would have my back" and would want to do a duet with Bono of U2.

Swift will be on tour throughout most of 2011 to promote her newest album, 'Speak Now.' Country newcomers Gloriana will be opening for her on the tour.