Taylor Swift chokes up over family's sacrifice: 'Couldn't have been easy'

Taylor Swift's latest history-making career milestone came with an emotional tribute to the people who helped make it possible.

The pop superstar became one of the newest members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday, June 11, and fought back tears while thanking her family for supporting her songwriting dreams from the very beginning.

Taking the stage at New York City's Marriott Marquis Hotel, Swift, 36, reflected on the journey that led her to becoming the youngest female artist ever inducted into the prestigious institution.

“If I look back at my entire 23 year career in music, the ups and downs, the industry battles, the trials and tribulations, the tears and the cheers, and the dog piling of doubt, the criticisms of fair and unfair, the complete loss of privacy, the world tours and the ego wars and the twists of fate, the absolute magical chaos of this path that I chose when I was too young to remember it ever being a choice at all: songwriting was the easiest thing I ever did.”

The most emotional moment came when the multi-Grammy-winner turned her attention to her parents and brother, who were seated in the audience along with Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce.

“It couldn’t have been easy for my parents and my brother to just pick up and move our entire family from Pennsylvania to Nashville,” said Swift as she choked up, “so that I can hone my craft in the songwriting capital of the world.”

“They uprooted their entire lives to move me to music city. And even though words are supposed to kind of be my thing," she continued as she fully broke down into tears, “I will never be able to express my gratitude to you guys for doing that for me. You’re the reason I’m here tonight.”