Taylor Swift has been named the IFPI Global Recording Artist of 2014.

The 'Blank Space' hitmaker was taken by surprise yesterday (23.02.15) as she was presented with the award during her rehearsals for her BRIT Awards performance tomorrow (25.02.15) at London's O2 Arena.

The title - which takes into consideration physical sales, downloads and streams - saw the 24-year-old singer steal the top spot from boyband One Direction, who were pushed down to second place this year.

The blonde beauty received the award - marking her as the most popular recording artist worldwide in 2014 - from IFPI's CEO Frances Moore along with Universal Music Group's President, Global Marketing, Andrew Kronfeld.

The award follows the release of her fifth studio album 1989 which topped the iTunes sales charts in over 95 countries on its release and has sold over 8.6 million copies worldwide to date.

It also became the highest selling release since 2002 and the top selling album of 2014 in the US, where it has now spent 11 weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard 100 chart.

She is also the youngest artist in history to receive the music industry's most prestigious award, the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which she won for her 2010 album 'Fearless'.

The Recording Artist of the year list also included Sam Smith, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé, Coldplay and Pink Floyd.