Time Person of the Year 2014: Taylor Swift and Vladimir Putin among the more questionable shortlisted for the title

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

You won’t see them jostling for position in the single’s charts, or preparing for battle on the Russian border.

But for one day only, Taylor Swift and Vladimir Putin are set to go head-to-head when they compete against six other stand-out individuals for Time’s coveted title of Person of the Year 2014.

Quite why the pop singer and the President from Russia with a less than favourable track record of promoting LGBT issues made the Top 8 this year is unclear.

But it was they who were announced in the shortlist on the Today Show this morning.

Competing against them will be the recently out CEO of Apple Tim Cook, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the Ebola caregivers (clearly more than one person), the Ferguson protestors (again, clearly more than one person), President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani and founder of the Alibaba Group Jack Ma.

Last year saw Pope Francis crowned the winner, for introducing a more accepting stance towards homosexuality within the Catholic church.

The year before that, Barack Obama – America’s first black President – won the accolade.

Time magazine’s Person of the Year will be announced on Wednesday.

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