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Taylor Swift was so busy working that she hadn't heard the day's news about her.
With her new single "Speak Now" debuting at No. 8 on Billboard's Hot 100, she had just broken Mariah Carey's record by having six consecutive hits debut in the Top 10.
"Whoa! Thank you for telling me -- that's amazing," Swift said on a recent evening during her 19th interview of the day -- and counting.
There's much work to do for "Speak Now," her third album, due this week. Her first two, "Taylor Swift" and "Fearless," sold more than 13 million combined, a staggering figure in an era when blockbusters are few and far between. There is talk that her new disc might sell a million units in its first week.
As she'll do this week on "The Today Show," David Letterman and other TV outlets, she talked with excitement about "Speak Now." She wrote all 14 songs by herself, a first for her. Only four were available for preview before our phone interview.
Known for writing songs about people who cross her, Swift, 20, has reportedly penned tunes about ex-beau Taylor Lautner, of "Twilight" fame, and Kanye West, who famously interrupted her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Let her explain.
Q Tell me about the album.
A This album is about the last two years of my life. It seems like everything that happened to me and affected me emotionally was intense. Like intense joy, intense pain, intense celebration, intense loss, intense curveballs. It was a lot to process. So sometimes in the...