Taylor Swift wins Grammy for album of the year, becomes first woman to receive top honour thrice

Singer Taylor Swift's album of the year win for Folklore at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards has made her the first female artiste to win the top honour three times in her career.

She also won it in 2010 for her album Fearless and again in 2015 for 1989.

Prior to the pop singer, celebrated musicians Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon have won the top prize thrice.

Swift's Folklore defeated nominated albums by Jhene Aiko, Black Pumas, Coldplay, Jacob Collier, HAIM, Dua Lipa and Post Malone to win the highest prize of the ceremony.

In her acceptance speech, the 31-year-old singer thanked her collaborators, Laura Sisk, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, and her boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, for helping her write the songs during the coronavirus pandemic.

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"I had the best time writing songs with you during quarantine," Swift said.

Alwyn is credited on Folkore under the pseudonym William Bowery.

The album, Swift's eighth, released in July last year.

In addition to album of the year, Swift was nominated at the ceremony for pop solo performance Cardigan, pop duo/group performance Exile, song written for visual media Beautiful Ghosts, pop vocal album Folklore and song of the year Cardigan.

The singer also performed at the Grammys for the first time in five years, singing a medley of songs from her albums Evermore and Folklore.

The audience-free performance scene was set up on a stage inside the Los Angeles Convention Center, where most of the performances were pre-recorded because of pandemic precautions.