Taylor Swift pulled a Timberlake this weekend, becoming one of a handful of artists in Saturday Night Live history to serve as both musical guest and host, for the show’s November 7th episode. Swift did a masterful job in both roles, appearing in nearly all the sketches — which were for the most part funny — and performing “You Belong With Me” and “Untouchable” to an audience of roughly 5 million, SNL’s biggest ratings of the season.

Swift Onstage and Backstage: Photos of Taylor’s swift rise to stardom.

Taking advantage of their host’s dual talents, SNL put a guitar in Swift’s hands for the opening monologue, which featured jabs at both ex-boyfriend Joe Jonas and her VMAs nemesis Kanye West. “You might think that I’ll bring up Joe/The guy who broke up with me on the phone/But I’m not going to mention him in my monologue/Hey Joe, I’m doing real well/Tonight I’m hosting SNL,” Swift sang. “You might be expecting me to say/something bad about Kanye/And how he ran up on the stage and ruined my VMA monologue/But there’s nothing more to say/Because everything’s okay/I got security lining the stage.” (more…)

Photo: Diamond/Getty (Swift), Merritt/Getty (Mayer)
Another track off John Mayer’s Battle Studies has leaked before its November 17th release date: “Half of My Heart,” a duet with Taylor Swift. The pair team up for a nice piece of Fleetwood Mac-inspired pop in which Mayer sings, “Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring, but half of the heart is the part of a man who hasn’t truly loved anything.” Hit up Perez Hilton to listen to a stream.

Check out more coverage of John Mayer and other guitar gods.

If the track has a flaw, it’s that Swift’s appearance is, well, too swift. This weekend’s Saturday Night Live host and musical guest doesn’t pop up until the 2:45 mark, where she delivers the line, “I can’t stop loving you” twice before again receding to the background, only to appear again for some last-second harmonizing before the fadeout. Even with the lack of Swift, the track will no doubt be in constant rotation for fans of Mayer, Taylor and Rumours. Also, there’s no opening references to getting stoned, so radio should like it, too. (more…)

Photo: Winter/Getty

When SNL returns from a few weeks off this coming Saturday night, Taylor Swift will be pulling double duty as both host and musical guest. Only a handful of stars have managed that heavy load in the past — notably Britney Spears, who was the youngest host in the show’s history to do so in 2000 at age 18 (Swift is 19). The most recent triple-threat to pull it off was Justin Timberlake — who has won an Emmy for his work on the show — in May.

Swift didn’t want the show’s writers to take it easy on her because she’s also performing, the Fearless singer told MTV News. “I want to look nothing like myself,” Swift said. “I told all the writers, ‘Don’t count anything out.’ I want to go completely, 100 percent in.” Swift also revealed she counts SNL’s Kristen Wiig among her comedic inspirations.

Swift Onstage and Backstage: Photos of Taylor’s swift rise to stardom. (more…)

Photo: Kempin/Getty

With the first leg of her Fearless tour wrapping up October 11th in Minneapolis — and America’s highways and arenas now free of Kanye West after the cancellation of the “Fame Kills” Tour — Taylor Swift confirmed that the second leg of trek will kick off March 4th, 2010 in Tampa, Florida. Before journeying across North America on the 37-date trek, however, Swift will head Down Under for a five-concert tour of Australia in February 2010. Ticket information has not yet been announced.

Check out photos from Taylor Swift’s Fearless show.

“I always expected to have to do a lot of stressing out about selling tickets. And then I went on my first headlining tour, and everything just sold out,” Swift told the AP. “I’ve never expected that kind of success. I’ve never just felt entitled to my shows selling out or things like this happening to me, but the fact that they’ve happened to me has been wonderful.” (more…)