2008 BEST NEW FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR TAYLOR SWIFT TO PERFORM DURING SEASON PREMIERE OF 'NASHVILLE STAR'

To Be Telecast Monday, June 9 on NBC (9-11 pm ET)

Nashville, TN (May 29, 2008) NBC's "Nashville Star" will kick start its first season on NBC with a performance by 2008 ACM Best New Female Vocalist Taylor Swift. Her performance on "Nashville Star" will be part of the show's two-hour premiere episode that will also feature highlights from the nationwide casting calls and will unveil the Top 12.

Widely hailed as the first bonafide country music star of the MySpace generation, 18-year-old Taylor Swift currently has singles climbing both the country and pop radio charts. At the age of 17, Taylor became the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number-one country single entirely on her own ("Our Song" spent 6 consecutive weeks at #1 atop Billboard's Country Singles Chart), and she is the first female solo artist in country music history to write or co-write every song on a platinum-selling debut CD. At 14, she signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music, and in 2006 released her self-titled debut CD on Big Machine Records. Taylor Swift has reached triple-platinum (3 million sales) status and has spent 18 weeks so far in the #1 position atop Billboard's Country CD Sales Chart. Taylor is consistently ranked Country's #1 artist on MySpace, and was named Country Music's Hottest Female Artist of 2007 by AOL Music and Best New Artist of 2007 by the editors of iTunes.

Taylor was named this year's Top New Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music, and won 2008 CMT Music Awards for Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year. She was recently named Superstar of Tomorrow at the 10th Annual Young Hollywood Awards, making her the first musician to ever receive this prestigious award. She is the reigning CMA Horizon Award winner, as well as the Nashville Songwriters Association International's Songwriter / Artist of the Year. Taylor is featured on the cover of the June, 2008 issue of Seventeen magazine, and has also recently appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone, Billboard, Blender, and USA Weekend. Taylor was named one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People of 2008, and is featured on Maxim's current Hot 100 list. She is on tour this year with Rascal Flatts, and has also toured with George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill and Brad Paisley.

This year, "Nashville Star" the longest running cable reality competition series moves into the spotlight on NBC. With a bigger stage to play, the expectations become higher and the competition tougher as each contestant will turn to the celebrity panel that will not only judge them during the live shows, but will also provide a unique mentoring aspect to the series.

"Nashville Star" is created by Reveille and produced by 495 Productions. Ben Silverman (NBC's "The Office"), Howard T. Owens ("American Gladiators"), Mark Koops ("The Biggest Loser") and Sallyann Salsano ("Design Star," "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila") serve as executive producers. Jon Small ("Garth Brooks Live in LA") is a producer.

Artwork and additional information on "Nashville Star" can be found at www.nbc.com or www.nashvillestar.com.