Taylor Swift Goes Mobile With Verizon Wireless To Kick Off Her First U.S. Headline Tour

Taylor Swift Goes Mobile With Verizon Wireless To Kick Off Her First U.S. Headline Tour

Bishop Ireton High School Students' Text Messaging Prowess Earns Private Concert

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless today announced the Taylor Swift Fearless 2009 Tour will provide a number of exclusive interactive activities solely for Verizon Wireless customers. The multi-platinum, award-winning singer/songwriter's first U.S. headline tour will hit 44 cities between April 23 and Oct. 10, 2009.

One of Swift's tour stops will be Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Va. for a private concert. Students won the campus concert by participating in the Verizon Wireless Taylor Swift High School contest and having the highest number of qualified entries of the thousands of participating high schools.

"I'm so excited about my Fearless tour hitting the road, and today's show at Bishop Ireton is going to be so much fun. I can't wait to see all of you this year, at the shows and on your phones," said Taylor Swift.

"Taylor Swift is unequivocally one of the hottest artists in the nation right now," said Ed Ruth, director of digital content and programming for Verizon. "We are honored to work with Taylor to make her highly-anticipated first U.S. headline tour and the exclusive music developed from our mobile recording studio bus available to customers."

The exclusive interactive elements of Taylor Swift's Fearless 2009 Tour include:

   --  Txt2Win Contest:  Verizon Wireless customers who text "TS" to "8607"       will be automatically entered for a chance to win two tickets to see       Taylor Swift in concert. Winners will receive their tickets in the       form of a bar coded mobile ticket sent to their Verizon Wireless       handset and good for the entry of two fans.  Mobile ticket winners       will have priority access to the show through a VIP Mobile ticketing       entrance. To enter for free, visit www.vzwrules.com/ts.     --  Exclusive Taylor Swift music:  Swift will create exclusive music       straight from the private on-site Verizon Mobile Recording Studio Bus.       Fans will be able to download these exclusive tunes over the air to       their mobile phones using Verizon Wireless V CAST Music with Rhapsody.     --  Green screen fun: Fans can become virtual video stars at every show.       With the assistance of green screen technology, fans will appear as if       they are performing on stage with Swift as she performs her hit songs       "Love Story" and "Picture to Burn." Video clips of the green screen       performances will be sent to participants' mobile phones to share with       friends.     About Taylor Swift  

19-year-old Taylor Swift has had singles top both the Country and Pop radio charts, and sold more albums in 2008 than any other recording artist, in any genre of music. Taylor's Fearless album has spent more weeks in the #1 position atop Billboard's all-genre Top 200 sales chart than any other release this year and is now certified triple platinum. Taylor's career record sales now top 7 million and she currently holds the Billboard all-genre record for most Top 20 debuts in a calendar year. She is the first artist to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year-end album chart and the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs. Her hit single "Love Story" recently became the most downloaded song in country music history and she has three Gold Mobile Ringtones and 14 million downloads thus far. At the age of 14 Taylor became the youngest person ever to be signed as a professional staff songwriter at Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and she released her debut CD when she was 16. Since then, she has received numerous awards, the most recent being 2009's "Album of the Year" for Fearless by the Academy of Country Music (Taylor was honored as both the artist and producer). This month she was also awarded the Academy of Country Music's "Crystal Milestone Award" for Outstanding Achievement in Country Music. In 2008, she became the first musician in history to earn the Young Hollywood Award for "Superstar of Tomorrow," and won an American Music Award, a Teen Choice Award, two CMT Music Awards (including the top honor of Video of the Year), and an Academy of Country Music Award. Taylor has been featured on the covers of many leading publications, including Rolling Stone (twice), Billboard (twice), Allure, Blender, USA Weekend, Seventeen (twice), Redbook, Self, Us Weekly, and Teen Vogue.

For more information on mobile music from Verizon Wireless, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or visit www.verizonwireless.com/music.

For more information on Taylor Swift, please visit www.taylorswiftconcerts.com.

   Taylor Swift's Fearless 2009 Tour Schedule    Date       City                   Venue    Apr. 23    Evansville, IN         Roberts Stadium   Apr. 24    Jonesboro, AR          Arkansas State University Convocation                                      Center   Apr. 25    St. Louis, MO          Scottrade Center   Apr. 30    Charleston, SC         North Charleston Coliseum   May 1      Jacksonville, FL       Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena   May 2      Biloxi, MS             Mississippi Coast Coliseum   May 14     Spokane, WA            Spokane Arena   May 15     Seattle, WA            Key Arena   May 16     Portland, OR           Rose Garden   May 17     Nampa, ID              Idaho Center   May 21     Glendale, AZ           Jobing.com Arena   May 22     Los Angeles, CA        Staples Center   May 23     Las Vegas, NV          Mandalay Bay Events Center   May 24     San Diego, CA          San Diego Sports Arena   May 26     Salt Lake City, UT     Energy Solutions Arena   June 5     Cincinnati, OH         U.S. Bank Arena   June 6     Detroit, MI            The Palace of Auburn Hills   June 7     Ft. Wayne, IN          Allen County War Memorial Coliseum   June 11    Columbia, MD           Merriweather Post Pavilion   June 12    Greensboro, NC         Greensboro Coliseum   June 13    Atlanta, GA            Philips Arena   June 27    Des Moines, IA         Wells Fargo Arena   June 28    Moline, IL             i wireless Center   July 31    Boston, MA             TD BankNorth Garden   Aug. 1     Philadelphia, PA       Wachovia Center   Aug. 8     Kansas City, MO        Sprint Center   Aug. 27    New York, NY           Madison Square Garden   Aug. 28    Uncasville, CT         Mohegan Sun Arena   Aug. 29    University Park, PA    Coming Soon   Sept. 4    Greenville, SC         Coming Soon   Sept. 5    Charlotte, NC          Time Warner Cable Arena   Sept. 9    Lafayette, LA          Cajun Dome   Sept. 10   Bossier City, LA       CenturyTel Center   Sept. 11   Birmingham, AL         Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center   Sept. 12   Nashville, TN          Sommet Center   Sept. 25   Dallas, TX             Coming Soon   Sept. 26   Little Rock, AR        Coming Soon   Sept. 27   Tulsa, OK              BOK Center   Oct. 1     Pittsburgh, PA         Mellon Arena   Oct. 2     Grand Rapids, MI       Van Andel Arena   Oct. 3     Cleveland, OH          Quicken Loans Arena   Oct. 8     Indianapolis, IN       Conseco Field House   Oct. 9     Chicago, IL            Coming Soon   Oct. 10    St. Paul, MN           Coming Soon     About Verizon Wireless  

Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable and largest wireless voice and data network, serving more than 86.6 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with more than 86,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Verizon Wireless

CONTACT: Brenda Boyd Raney, Verizon Wireless, +1-908-559-7518,
Brenda.Raney@verizonwireless.com; or Paula Erickson for Taylor Swift,
+1-615-665-5950, paula@ericksonpr.com

Web Site: http://www.verizonwireless.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/094251.html

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Profile: International Entertainment