Remember When Taylor Swift Made Her Grand Ole Opry Debut?
Taylor Swift was just a 16-year-old girl with big dreams when she made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry on Sept. 1, 2006.
Swift was a newly signed artist with a new label, Big Machine, at the time, and the notion of a teenage girl succeeding in country music seemed pretty far-fetched. Her self-titled debut album was still more than a month away when Swift took the hallowed stage for her Opry debut to perform her debut single, "Tim McGraw," wearing a simple white sundress and sporting natural curls.
There was no way of knowing Swift would shoot to stardom, but it happened fast. "Tim McGraw" reached No. 6 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. "Teardrops on My Guitar" charted at No. 2 and the album's third single, "Our Song," gave Swift her first No. 1 hit. Taylor Swift went on to sell more than 5 million copies in the United States alone, launching Swift on a trajectory as one of the best-selling females in country music history.
She continued to perform at the Opry over the course of her next few albums as her star rose, but drifted away as she leaned more and more toward pop. Swift left country music entirely with the release of her first pop album, 1989, in 2014, and today the Grand Ole Opry's website bears no trace of Swift ever having performed at the country music institution.
See Inside Taylor Swift's Beverly Hills Estate: