Bilal Ilyas Jhandir, 20, cemented his Guinness World title for successfully naming 34 randomly listed hits from Taylor Swift’s top 50 best-selling songs, surpassing the previous record of UK radio host Dan Simpson with only 27 in 2019.
The popstar’s die-hard fan went on a challenging task to recognize the initial lyrics of Taylor Swift’s hits, which were read aloud monotonously by a proctor without any accompanying background music.
“I have listened to each and every song of hers. I can identify almost any song of hers from the lyrics,” Bilal said, who has been listening to Taylor Swift since he was 13.
The title holder revealed that it took him 13 weeks of “extensive listening sessions” to prepare and to ingrain every single word that he often impressively recites the lyrics while asleep.
Despite the challenge, Bilal even finds the task so “easy” and the only thing that adds an extra layer of difficulty is the way how it was spoken by a man instead of the popstar.
The avid fan believes that breaking the global record is the “best way on Earth” to express his dedication and “extraordinary love” for Taylor Swift.
“The thing I like the most about her is her way of writing out-of-this-world songs that always hit the bottom of my heart,” he said.
Aside from the recent title, Bilal’s impeccable memorization holds multiple Guinness world records as he previously achieved the most animals identified from animal sounds in one minute with 23, and most Justin Bieber songs identified from their lyrics in one minute, with 29, in 2021 and 2023 consecutively.
“This record is my favorite of all of them,” the Computer Science major student said.
“Being called a ‘Certified Swiftie’ or ‘Officially Amazing Swiftie’ is such an incredible feeling,” he added.
