Taylor Swift has taken the title of 2014's IFPI Global Recording artist.
Taylor Swift
The singer was taken by surprise yesterday as rehearsals for her BRIT Awards performance saw her presented with the award, ahead of the show tomorrow night at London's O2 Arena.
Taking into consideration both physical sales and downloads as well as streams, the 24-year-old took the top spot from One Direction who were this year pushed down to second place.
Marking her as last year's most popular recording artist worldwide, the gong comes from IFPI's CEO Frances Moore as well as Universal Music Group's President, Global Marketing, Andrew Kronfeld.
The award follows the release of fifth studio album '1989', which topped iTunes charts in over 95 countries on release and has sold 8.6 million copies to date.
It became the highest selling release since 2002 and the top selling album of the year in America, where it's now spending its 11th week at number one on the Billboard 100 chart.
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