Taylor Swift’s Love Life, Downtime Take Backseat to Career

Taylor Swift is circling the globe, well on her way to earning the title of hardest working woman in show business, and that's just the way she likes it. While a lot of us would argue that the 23-year-old superstar could probably use a vacation in some remote location (if only to escape the constant scrutiny from the press), don't count on that happening any time soon.

"Vacations are a little weird for me because I don't feel like I deserve them right now because I'm promoting a record," says the singer, who is currently in Europe to promote her latest album, Red. "The only time that I would ever really want to spend extended time not doing this would be if I was a lot older and I decided to have a family. I think that's the only time.

"I can't spend two weeks anywhere," she adds. "How can you stay put for that long? I feel like I need to do something. I feel like I need to be productive. I need to send an email. I need to write a song. I need to work on a mix."

Should Taylor decide to take that long vacation, it's anyone's guess whether or not she'll have a travel companion, since, for the time being, she seems to be channeling the Russian ballerina played by Greta Garbo in the classic 1932 film, "Grand Hotel," who famously said, "I vant to be alone."

"Independence is something I've always needed, from when I was young," Taylor tells Vibe. "But I love the idea of romance and falling in love. I've never really had a long relationship. So that's something I think about for the future. It's an interesting part of my personality: Part of me just wants to be alone."

One thing is for sure, Taylor isn't alone in celebrating the mega-success of Red, which has, to date, sold more than 5.4 million copies across the globe (and topped four million in sales in the U.S. alone). She's also notched another No. 1 as "I Knew You Were Trouble" hits the top spot on Billboard's Mainstream Top 40 chart. The single has sold more than three million copies in the U.S. and also topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand, while also scoring a Top 10 berth in the U.K., Canada, and territories in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Taylor is also the first artist since the Beatles (whose chart debut happened 50 years ago!) and the only female artist in history, to log six or more weeks at No. 1 with three consecutive studio albums. Red has topped the Billboard 200 for seven weeks, and follows the stunning No. 1 runs of Taylor's Fearless (11 weeks) and Speak Now (six weeks). In addition to currently being tied with Adele for the most weeks (24) at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart by a female artist since the Nielsen SoundScan era began in 1991, Taylor has just marked another Billboard milestone as another track from Red, "The Moment I Knew," becomes her 57th career Hot 100-charting single, placing her ahead of Madonna and Dionne Warwick as the woman with the second-most number of charted singles in the chart's 54-year history. Aretha Franklin holds the record at 88.

Lest we forget Taylor's love life (although we're certain she'd rather we did), in the video below, sources (and we all know how reliable they are) say the singer reportedly checked in to a London hotel near the home of her supposed ex-boyfriend Harry Styles of boy band One Direction. While we can neither confirm nor deny (nor claim much to care about the idle gossip!), we can tell you for certain that Taylor is in Europe this week for performances on the 40 PP Awards in Spain and the NRJ Music Awards in France. And now we need a vacation just thinking about all of this!