Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj Headline Billboard's Women in Music Ceremony

As 2011 draws to a close, Taylor Swift took the podium at Billboard’s Women in Music Awards to accept the honor of Woman of the Year at the seventh annual New York event.

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Showing off her sleek new hairdo, Swift took the podium to recall her early years in Nashville and religiously reading Billboard, a sister publication of The Hollywood Reporter.

“I would go through every single page and every single chart and just daydream about what it would be like to see my name in there someday,” she said. “And today I walked in to flashing camera bulbs and all these important people in music, and I thought, ‘I guess that’s what it looks like.’”

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Swift was in the company of Nicki Minaj, who was awarded the honor of Rising Star, and a group of 41 industry executives (due to a tie) topped by Atlantic Records Group Chairman/CEO Julie Greenwald.

“Our dream is to build artists with careers,” said Greenwald. “To have so many diverse artists breaking in different genres is amazing.”

Among the artists to break out in 2011, Atlantic's Christina Perri, Wiz Khalifa and Bruno Mars helped the label achieve a banner year, with seven albums debuting in Billboard’s top 10.

“Yesterday’s way of rolling out a record is just that,” Greenwald said. “It’s all about trying new things. Every day we’re experimenting with new strategies and just trying to think differently.”

For more from the Friday, Dec. 2 ceremony, click here. To read the complete list of Billboard’s honorees, click here.