Emma Wood knew her Spotify Wrapped, an annual tradition that synthesizes users’ listening habits, would be full of Taylor Swift.
What the 13-year-old didn’t expect, however, was being crowned the platform’s top listener of the artist — quite a feat, considering Swift has over 100 million listeners on Spotify and was the second most-streamed artist of 2025, behind only Bad Bunny.
She learned of her No. 1 status through Spotify Wrapped’s new Fan Leaderboard feature.
“Think you’re one of your top artist’s biggest fans? This year, you might see where you rank among their listeners worldwide, based on your total minutes listened,” an announcement on Spotify’s website reads.
According to screenshots and screen recordings of Wood’s Spotify Wrapped, she is Swift’s No. 1 listener. Spotify declined to comment for this story.
Wood personally amassed a total of 449,000 minutes listened to Swift, which Spotify equated to 312 days. Most of her minutes are from enjoying her favorite song, “The Albatross,” from Swift’s 2024 album “The Tortured Poets Department,” which she streamed 83,601 times in 2024. (Her TikTok username, @thealbatrosswife, points to the obsession).
Wood says she was shocked when she saw the numbers.
“I didn’t think that it was going to be that high,” Wood tells TODAY.com. “I thought it was going to be, like, maybe 12,000 or something.”
“At first, I was like, ‘Is my Spotify glitching?’” she adds.
On Dec. 4, Wood shared her Spotify listening feat on TikTok. The video, with over 10 million views, showed screenshotted proof of Wood’s top listener title as she reacted in shock, writing on the video: “Before you ask YES I have a therapist.”
Wood’s video amassed reactions — and skepticism. Wood followed up with another video of her scrolling through her Spotify Wrapped results on her mom’s phone, to prove her case.
Before you ask: Yes, Wood does listen to Swift while she sleeps, which helped rack up her dayslong minutes-listened number.
Wood says she listens to music when she falls asleep because she “can’t sleep otherwise.” It’s a habit that dates back to a sweet childhood memory.
“When I was little, and I couldn’t fall asleep, my dad would just play a song from his band, and I would be asleep,” she says.
Instead of hearing her dad play a song, now she falls asleep to Swift.
Wood says she never gets sick of “The Albatross” — even on the 83,601st listen. “The Albatross” plays on the legend of the albatross, a seabird said to bring bad luck to sailors and is now associated with burdens. Swift likens the albatross to a person, or more specifically “a woman, here to destroy you.”
For her, this 2024 song is a background song she can play while relaxing or scrolling online, and it’s also a song she can tune her full attention to when she wants to belt the lyrics.
“I don’t think there’s another song that I could actually like listen to that makes me feel that way,” she says. “It really is kind of just like a comfort song.”
Wood explains how music, particularly Swift’s, plays a large role in her mental health. Last year, Wood says she “was not doing the best mentally,” and while feeling down, she remembers turning on this song for the first time.
“So just having a song that I really just look back and I’m like, ‘This song has been with me through some of the hardest times and some of the easiest times of my life,’” she says.
Wood’s mother, Monica, attested to how much Swift has truly impacted her daughter.
“I saw a complete turnaround in Emma. She went from depressed to extremely happy,” Monica told TODAY.com. “I never realized how much Taylor Swift meant to Emma until this happened,” she adds.
“I never knew how much Taylor was helping her through music. Taylor’s music is Emma’s therapy,” she adds.
“It’s just so crazy to think like there was once an 11-year-old girl who was scared to even go to school, like literally just waiting for the ‘Tortured Poets Department’ to come out and now there’s a 13-year-old girl who can’t go a day without listening to it,” Wood says.
Through all the viral videos and the continuous streaming, Wood says she has so much to tell Swift if given the chance.
“I would just say thank you so much for being the person that you are and being my comfort artist in so many different ways,” she says. “You don’t even know I exist, but thank you for understanding me.”
“I would love to meet her one day, I really would,” Wood adds.
