Country superstar Taylor Swift. (Dave Abel, Sun Media)

At the tender age of 19, country crossover sensation Taylor Swift is music's current queen.

The Nashville-based singer's second album, Fearless, has remained at the top of the U.S. charts for the past eight weeks -- something that hasn't happened since Usher's 2004 effort Confessions.

And Swift hasn't even begun her first headlining tour, which was just announced yesterday and includes Canadian stops in Calgary on July 8, Craven, Sask. on July 10 and Winnipeg on July 11.

"That (Fearless) would stay atop the Billboard 200 for eight weeks, I never could have imagined that," said Swift, a tall, blond, coltish girl who hugs this interviewer before and after a chat in Toronto in an exclusive Canadian print interview with Sun Media.

"I mean, I put myself out there and I'm vulnerable with my music and I'm really honest about all of it. And to put yourself out there like that, all that you can ever wish for is that someone might like it.

"And when that many people like it, it's pretty mindblowing. I feel so lucky, honestly, it's so unbelievable to me, that people have been so good to me and just got out there consistently every week and bought the album."

Swift said she wasn't sure why her music is connecting in such a big way, she was just really thankful for it.

"When I sit down to write a song it's not about, 'Okay, what demographic is this song going to hit? And what genre are we going to aim for with this song and with the production?" said the singer, stylishly garbed in a Banana Republic blazer with pricey Christian Louboutin black boots.

"It's all just about writing about what I'm going through and writing down what I'm feeling.

"And my favourite thing to write about is love. I'm completely fascinated by love. It's a complete mystery."

As has been endlessly discussed in the media (including a November interview with Sun Media), Swift added a last-minute recording session for the Fearless song Forever and Always after a tough break up with Joe Jonas of The Jonas Brothers. (She told Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show that he broke up with her with a 25-second phone call. He later told his side of the story in an online message to his fans.)

Swift currently classifies herself as "perpetually single ... I'm not the girl who's always got a boyfriend. I'm usually the girl who doesn't always have a boyfriend. I think that I've always put a bigger priority and a greater priority in having success in what I love to do and having success in my career rather than having success in relationships."

That's probably not going to change anytime soon with rehearsals about to start next week in Nashville for her headlining tour after a brief stint opening for one of her heroes, Keith Urban, this spring.

"I'm really just so thrilled because I'm getting to do all these things that I've dreamed about doing for years," said Swift of the headlining trek.

"When I was opening up for people, I would get ideas and write them all down. And I finally got to take all those ideas out and plan a tour and play all the new songs and have all these gags and effects and cool things like that. I want to make this tour really theatrical. I live for an onstage costume change and something that surprises the audience."

In the meantime, there's an appearance next Wednesday (Feb. 4) on Katie Couric's All Access Grammy Special, and even though she wasn't nominated for this year's Feb. 8 awards, she hints she'll be at the L.A. event in some capacity.

So how does she keep her feet on the ground in the midst of all this staggering success? Swift says it's simple.

"I think it's all about staying the same person," said Swift, whose mother Andrea accompanied her to Toronto.

"And realizing that the perception of you might be changing but you've always been the same person and you're going to continue to stay the same person."

CSI ROLE A DREAM COME TRUE FOR SWIFT

All of Taylor Swift's dreams seem to be coming true given her upcoming guest-starring role in the March 5 episode of CSI, her "favourite show ever."

The ultra-hot blond country music singer spent two weeks on the set playing a character named Haley.

"I'm a 16-year-old girl who goes through all these changes, decides to change her hair from brown to black, and changes her attitude and her actions and her friends -- and it has tragic consequences," Swift, 19, told Sun Media.

"There were paparazzi around so they got pictures of me with black hair. I got some definite worried e-mails. But I have not done anything different to my hair!"

Swift describes the experience as everything she hoped it would be.

"Getting to do scenes with my favourite characters was amazing," Swift said. "I had basically said in almost all my interviews that my dream was to guest star on CSI and so I got a meeting with the writer Carol (Mendelsohn), and I thought it was going to be a sort of, 'Hi, I'm Taylor, please consider me for future endeavours.' And really, I walked in and she had a script on the desk and she said, 'I think I have a part for you.' It was so crazy."