Taylor Swift was honored at The Gracie Awards this week for her Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions concert film.
The Gracie Awards celebrates “women who are making positive change and who further the discussion of what a fulfilling career in media looks like.”
Swift took home the Grand Award for Special or Variety for the Folklore film, which featured the star performing all 17 tracks from the acclaimed 2020 album. It also saw her and her collaborators – Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner – discuss the creative process and inspirations behind the record.
Simone Biles presented the singer-songwriter with the award, saying the trophy for that category “is given to a woman that has made contributions to media that go above and beyond, that shine a spotlight on issues, and display creativity and storytelling.”
“Making this film really was a new experience for me in a lot of ways,” Swift said in her acceptance speech. “It was in the middle of the pandemic when this was the first time most of the people who worked on it had left our houses, so I want to, first of all, say thank you so much to our medical team, our COVID team who tested everyone and made sure we were in a safe space to create music again, it was a really heartening experience.”
She also thanked Dessner, Antonoff, and engineers John Low and Laura Sisk, saying she would “never forget our experience together.” “Filming the Folklore Long Pond Sessions was a way to commemorate that and I’ll always be so thankful for it,” she added.
Finally, Swift thanked her fans for their support, saying: “Thank you for caring about all of this. Thank you for being the reason why we could come together in this way, you made the album into what it is and you continue to blow me away all the time.”