AP PhotoTaylor Swift just secured her high school diploma. Come this fall, expect her to be matriculating to the top of the charts.
The 18-year-old country wunderkind, whose eponymous debut is the Energizer Bunny of the Billboard 200, announced today that her follow-up album, Fearless, will drop Nov. 11.
Swift wrote or cowrote all of Fearless' 13 tracks, including the Colbie Caillat collaboration "Breathe," the coming-of-age scorcher "Fifteen" (first heard at the Country Music Hall of Fame last fall) and "Change," which will be in heavy rotation the next couple weeks—Team USA and NBC selected it for use in the daily Summer Olympics highlight reels.
"Change" made its iTunes debut today, with all proceeds benefiting Team USA. Swift's first radio single, which has yet to be unveiled, will hit the airwaves early next month.
Swift is also set to launch a Stephen Colbert-esque new site, called TheTaylorNation.com. Beginning Aug. 22, fans will be able to preorder Fearless and become eligible to get their mugs on the album cover.
The first 10,000 fans to order a limited box-set edition can upload their photos for a mosaic image to be featured on the artwork and CD. The deluxe set includes the Fearless CD, a leather bracelet, T-shirt, picture book and a Taylor Nation decal, all shipped in special packaging.
After releasing her debut album at age 17, Swift became the first female solo artist to score five top-10 country hits from a rookie release. With the irresistibly poppy "Our Song," she also became the youngest person to write and sing a No. 1 country hit on her own, and she's country music's first solo female artist to write or cowrite every song on a platinum-certified debut.
The self-titled release currently ranks at No. 13 in its 93rd week on the Billboard 200 and has sold nearly 3.3 million copies. (Her recent Wal-Mart exclusive EP, Beautiful Eyes, currently sits at No. 16, giving her two current top 20 albums.)
Swift's debut album wasn't just the No. 9 bestselling album of last year, it's currently No. 6 for 2008, ahead of Leona Lewis and Usher.
On top of all this, Swift won the CMA Horizon Award, the ACM Top New Female Vocalist award, a trio of CMT Music Awards trophies, including Video of the Year, and just scored the Teen Choice Award for Breakout Artist. Last February, she was nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy.
And if she does decide to go to college, that'll make for one heck of an application.