Taylor Swift has been named Billboard's Woman of the Year 2014, making her the first artist to receive the award twice.

Taylor Swift – File photo

The award goes to the female artist who "has shaped and inspired the music industry with her success, leadership and innovation" over the last year.

Previous winners include Pink, Beyonce and Katy Perry.

Swift will receive the prize at the Billboard Women in Music award ceremony on 12 December in New York.

"As one of the most influential artists of her generation, Taylor Swift has seen incredible success on the Billboard charts," said Janice Min, co-president and chief creative officer of Guggenheim Media's Entertainment Group, which includes Billboard.

"Over the course of her career, she's charted 60 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 - the most of any female artist since her debut in 2006.

"We are tremendously excited to be honouring her as the 2014 Billboard Woman of the Year for the second time."

Taylor Swift is a seven-time Grammy winner and the best-selling digital music artist of all time.

Earlier this week it was announced she would be performing on The X Factor results show this weekend.

Swift has just featured on the cover of British Vogue and explained what it was like to do high profile interviews.

"I don't really have anything to hide at this point," she told Fearne Cotton.

"It's sort of understood that anything I do is going to be discussed and dissected and debated and I'm used to that dynamic now."

She added: "I'm very proud of the way my life is.

"I'm 24, I'm single, feeling very independent. A lot of fun things have happened in my life."

Source: BBC