Every Word of Taylor Swift’s History-Making Album of the Year Grammys Speech

Taylor Swift is adding a history-making Grammy to her collection, winning the award for Album of the Year tonight. She is now the first artist to win Album of the Year four times.

Swift expressed her gratitude and shock in the speech, stressing how, to her, making music is the real award. “For me, the award is the work,” she said. “All I want to do is keep being able to do this. I love it so much. It makes me so happy. It makes me unbelievably blown away that it makes some people happy who voted for this award too. All I want to do is keep doing this.”

Read her full remarks below:

Guys, you’ve got to come closer. I feel really alone. I feel so alone. Oh my God. I wanna say I get to work with one of my best friends, who is not only one of my best friends but also a once-in-a-generation producer. That’s Jack Antonoff. I’m so lucky. And our engineer, Laura Sisk. I wanna say thank you to Serban Ghenea, Sam Dew, Sounwave.

Lana Del Rey, who is hiding, but I think so many female artists would not be where they are and would not have the inspiration they have if it weren’t for the work that she’s done. I think she’s a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now. I’m so lucky to know you and to be your friend. I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life, but I feel this happy when I finish a song or when I crack the code to a bridge that I love or when I’m shotlisting a music video or when I’m rehearsing with my dancers or my band or getting ready to go to Tokyo to play a show.

For me, the award is the work. All I want to do is keep being able to do this. I love it so much. It makes me so happy. It makes me unbelievably blown away that it makes some people happy who voted for this award too. All I want to do is keep doing this. So thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do what I love so much. Mind blown. Thank you so much.

Listen to her speech below:

Swift was nominated for six awards tonight: Record of the Year (“Anti-Hero”), Album of the Year (Midnights), Song of the Year (“Anti-Hero”), Best Pop Vocal Album (Midnights), Best Pop Solo Performance (“Anti-Hero”), and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (“Karma” with Ice Spice).

She recently looked back at her career in a big interview for Time’s Person of the Year issue, released in December. “I’ve been raised up and down the flagpole of public opinion so many times in the last 20 years,” she began. “I’ve been given a tiara, then had it taken away. It feels like the breakthrough moment of my career, happening at 33. And for the first time in my life, I was mentally tough enough to take what comes with that.”

“This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been,” she continued. “Ultimately, we can convolute it all we want, or try to overcomplicate it, but there’s only one question: Are you not entertained?”

She revealed her approach has been to keep working through the ups and downs that come with being in the spotlight. “Nothing is permanent. So I’m very careful to be grateful every second that I get to be doing this at this level, because I’ve had it taken away from me before,” she said. “There is one thing I’ve learned: My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art. But I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out every single time.”