TAYLOR SWIFT BILLBOARD'S 2014 WOMAN OF THE YEAR

Taylor Swift strikes a stunning, alluring pose on the cover of music magazine Billboard, which had named her Woman of the Year for 2014. The 24-year-old Grammy-winning singer was given the title in October, marking her second such honor, more than two weeks before the release of her new album 1989, which broke sales records. It also debuted in the No.

1 spot on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and recently returned there. The cover of Billboard's "Women in Music" issue, which was released on Friday, shows a close-up of Swift's face. She is sporting a dark knitted top and trades her signature red lipstick for pale pink, pairing it with matching eye shadow and dark eyeliner, giving her a smoky look and highlighting her piercing blue eyes. Another photo shows her leaning forward in the same outfit. A third pic shows her leaning on a vintage chair while sitting on the floor in a strapless, striped ball gown, near a couple of picture frames, similar to those seen in her performance of her most recent single, "Blank Space," at the 2014 American Music Awards last month. Billboard named Swift Woman of the Year in 2011, a year after she released her country album Speak Now and a year before she dropped her country and pop album Red—an ode to the emotions she was feeling when she made it. She is still usually seen in public with red lipstick. Over the past year, she's toned it down, such as at the 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where she performed in sexy outfits while sporting both red and pink shades. The singer, who began her music career in country music capital Nashville, has transformed her look several times over the years and her major 2014 physical change, a sassy, shorter hairstyle, was accompanied by a move to New York City and a full transition from country to pop music, with the release of 1989. The album contains the 2015 Grammy-nominated hit "Shake It Off," which was certified platinum four times (more than 4 million copies sold), and "Blank Space," which was certified platinum. Swift told Billboard that a record executive asked her if she could incorporate country music into her album, recalling questions such as "Can you give me three country songs?" and "Can we put a fiddle on 'Shake it Off'?" "All my answers were a very firm 'no,' because it felt disingenuous to try to exploit two genres when your album falls in only one," she said. "I never want to pull the wool over people's eyes, because people are so much smarter than a lot of marketing professionals give them credit for." The singer, who has a massive following (a whopping 47.9 million on Twitter), had partied tribute to her fans many times. She even threw "Secret Sessions" parties for several of them (complete with homemade cookies) to celebrate the release of her new pop record. Swift paid tribute to her fans again in her interview with Billboard, saying the website she frequents most is the Tumblr fan blog network, "because it allows me to experience my fans' sense of humor. "They're sharing not only stories but also GIFs and memes that they've created," she said.