Owenn celebrates Taylor Swift for EW's 2023 Entertainers of the Year: 'Her success belongs to her' (2024)

Taylor. Swift.

What more does one really need to say? By name alone, her accomplishments are evident. But we'll list them anyway: The 34-year-old singer-songwriter's Eras Tour just broke the record for the highest-grossing music tour ever — a tour that is also the first to earn more than $1 billion globally (with more to come in 2024). And then, there's her Eras Tour concert film, where she bucked tradition, bypassing the studio system by going directly to movie theaters for distribution, selling out cinemas across the country and earning nearly $250 million worldwide. On top of all of that, Swifties couldn't get enough of her merchandise, an estimated $200 million worth of it.

As if her pop culture influence wasn't already permeating every aspect of our lives, her relationship with Kansas City Chief Travis Kelce solidified that — boosting viewership of NFL games in the process.

Her influence is undeniable. Her ability to entertain is boundless — in fact, it's her second time on our year-end list in three years.

Someone who's had a firsthand seat of sorts to her rise and meteoric year is Christian Owens, a.k.a. Owenn. The first time he met Taylor Swift was the audition to be a dancer for her 1989 Tour. Having just wrapped up a run on the road with Miley Cyrus, he wasn't even going to go to the audition and didn't think he was "good enough to dance" for Swift, he says now. But he went anyway and was one of "thousands of people," he recalls, before being narrowed down to 22 — at which point Swift watched him and the other hopefuls dance before handpicking her on-stage team for the 2015 global event. He made the cut.

The Reputation Tour followed, and then Swift chose him to costar alongside her in the music video for "Lover." This year, she gave Owenn center stage as an opener at several U.S. dates on the Eras Tour.

Here, Owenn (who released the single "Dark Side of the Moon" this summer) honors Swift for her unmatched achievements —and her impact on his own life and career this year.

On the "Lover" shoot, I got to play her my music, and she helped me with a lot of stuff. And I remember thinking, I want to go on tour with her. I want to open for her. At the time, Lover Fest was about to happen — but then the pandemic happened. But I never let that go.

I had done some tours and stuff before on my own and was singing. I was really ready, and I was like, I feel like I could definitely have a chance if T listened to it and took it into consideration. I knew that much just because of what type of person she is and how giving she is and how close we were. I sent in all my stuff to her team — I had done a couple of TikToks, I played guitar on a couple of 'em. Then, cut to: I get a phone call from her management team and they're like, "Christiannnnn..." I'm like, "What?... You got to stop playing with me." They said, "Taylor is asking you to be one of the openers of the Eras Tour," and I literally screamed. Then they go on to tell me the cities that I was doing... Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh. I got to do MetLife Stadium, which is a big deal because I'm from New York. Seeing her there and seeing her work, it was a surreal moment.

She absolutely deserves everything that she has. There are a lot of people that are successful... But Taylor is somebody who deserves everything. Her success belongs to her. She's putting in the hours, she's putting in the work, she's putting in the time. And she's just an amazing person. She's changed my life more than three times at this point. And every time she does it, it's literally out of the kindness of her own heart. She doesn't have to do any of that stuff. I said that on stage, too, while I was on the Eras Tour: "You could have chosen anyone to be up here, anybody in the world, and you chose me for this position and you chose me to do 'Lover,' and you chose me for your tour to dance. You chose me for so many things." It's always been out of the kindness of her own heart. And for someone like that, of that stature, to look at you in that way —it's a blessing. And it's something that I now strive to be for someone else, to be that selfless and be that person.

—As told to Gerrad Hall

More EW Entertainers of the Year 2023:

• EW celebrates "Barbenheimer"
• Chase Stokes celebrates Kelsea Ballerini
• Gabrielle Union celebrates Beyoncé
  
• RuPaul celebrates Sasha Colby
• Rachel Sennott celebrates Ayo Edebiri
• James Marsden celebrates Jury Duty
• Brian Jordan Alvarez celebrates M3GAN
• Troy Baker celebrates Pedro Pascal
• Matt Rogers celebrates Vanderpump Rules