Like almost every 18-year-old girl out there, Taylor Swift has had her heart broken.

The difference is that Swift is country music's fastest rising young star, and the boy doing the heartbreaking was none other than Joe Jonas of The Jonas Brothers.

"When I find that person that is right for me, I'm not even going to be able to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18," Swift said defiantly on the Ellen DeGeneres show yesterday while promoting the release of her second album, Fearless.

Swift scheduled a last-minute recording session to record the sarcastically titled song Forever And Always, about the Jonas breakup, so it could be included on Fearless, whose 13 songs cover her favourite themes of love and boys.

"There was truth to (the Jonas relationship) and I addressed it this week in the media and just basically said to my fans, 'Look, you weren't crazy, this did happen,'" Swift told Sun Media down the line from Nashville over the weekend, where she was preparing for her performance tonight during the Country Music Association awards broadcast.

"But right now I've talked about it so much that I feel like I've already given him too much of my time and energy, and I need to stop talking about it."

Ah yes, with fame comes high-profile romances and breakups and tabloid rumours -- such as the one that claimed she was pregnant with Jonas' baby, which she already has called "impossible."

Fanning the flames of gossip, no doubt, is her huge fanbase of young girls at her shows, which is not to say she doesn't appeal to adults too.

"It's really cool to be in meet-and-greet lines and have girls come through that could be my best friend, because they're really cool and we get along great and they're all my age. But then again, it's also great to see the groups of 40-year-old women wearing tiaras and holding sceptres, dancing to (her new single) Love Story."

As for male attention, you might imagine that the attractive, leggy blond from Wyomissing, Pa., garners a lot of that too.

"I do get really sweet fan mail from boys, and it's really cool to see the groups of guys that come -- you know, the frat guys that come and scream out, 'Marry me!' in the middle of my acoustic set," she said with a laugh. Not that she has taken any of them up on their offer.

"I'm completely single," she said. "It's just so much fun to write songs about my life, and the way that it goes, and the relationships that I'm in and out of. That's how I've always done things and that's how I'm going to continue to do things. I don't know who would be approaching me if I didn't do this ... I'm very single right now and I think that that's a good thing for me."

Swift's 2006 self-titled debut album was the highest-selling country album of 2007 (three million units). It spawned five hits, including Teardrops On My Guitar and Our Song. Two years later, Taylor Swift remains on the record charts.

And yet, Swift insists she feels as though she hasn't hit it big yet.

"I think that it's always a goal of mine to never feel like I've come to that moment, always feel like I'm working toward that, because once I accomplish one of my goals I replace it with another one, that way you're constantly trying to beat yourself. My current goal is to have a really great first week (with Fearless).

"I've just continued to write songs about my life, and as my life changes, my music changes. You can't help but grow up from the age of 16 to the age of 18, and I'm really excited that the stories that I told and the life lessons that I learned are all documented in music now. It's kind of cool to look back on that."

Swift will tour the U.K., Australia and Japan early next year before launching a headlining tour in the U.S. in May.

Taylor set to showcase talent at CMA awards

Taylor Swift will be among the stars tonight at the Country Music Association awards (City/ABC), where she's up for best female vocalist and where she'll sing her new Romeo and Juliet-inspired single, Love Story.

"I do have a nomination and I have a performance that I'm even more excited about it," Swift says.

"It's so flattering and wonderful to be nominated, especially in the female vocalist category, but my focus is the performance. I'm singing Love Story and we've got some tricks up our sleeve for the performance, too."

Last year at the CMA awards, Swift performed memorably (in a rain storm) and won the so-called Horizon Award, quipping: "This is definitely the highlight of my senior year."

As well, Swift will perform at the first-ever Grammy Nominations Concert Live Special on Dec. 3 (CBS), the night before the majority of the 2009 nominations are announced.

"Yeah, I'm really excited about that," she says. "The Grammy nominations concert is going to be really fun and I was lucky enough to be nominated for best new artist last year, so it'll be a blast to go back. I'm doing a different song (than Love Story) for that, but they haven't allowed me to tell anyone about it."

Swift, who lost to Amy Winehouse for the best-new-artist Grammy Award earlier this year, wasn't sure about her chances for additional Grammy nods this year.

"You never know, because when you're nominated for a new-artist category and then there's the next year, the next time around you always wonder how you're going to fare, if you're going to make it into the big people categories. So I don't know what to think."