Country/crossover star Taylor Swift [ tickets ], last year's top-selling artist in all genres, is getting ready for her first headlining tour, which will span 52 cities over seven months.

The 19-year-old singer/songwriter will warm up with a few February/March gigs, including a sold-out performance at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo that will bring more than 70,000 fans through the turnstiles, according to a press release. Her "Fearless Tour" officially kicks off April 23 in Evansville, IN, and stops by venues across the US and into Canada through mid-October. Only a handful of venues have been announced thus far, and the rest are expected to be revealed in the coming weeks. The current itinerary is listed below.

Joining Swift on the trek are "American Idol" finalist Kellie Pickler [ tickets ] and newcomer Gloriana. The first tickets available to the public will be for the May 22 Los Angeles show at the Staples Center. Those go on sale Feb. 6 through Ticketmaster (LiveDaily's parent company).

"Headlining my own tour is a dream come true!" Swift said in a press statement. "This way, I can play more music every night than I ever have before. Having written my own songs, they are all stories in my head, and my goal for this tour is to bring those stories to life."

She'll have help telling her stories with a theatrical presentation of graphics, sets and visual elements designed by Swift herself, according to a press release. Highlights include a fairy-tale castle illuminated by more than a million lumens of light. Swift will play five different guitars and the piano, and go through multiple costume changes during the three-act show.

Prior to her tour launch, Swift will play a run of UK and Australian shows, and she'll also appear with Keith Urban [ tickets ] on 10 previously announced dates. International gigs are listed at her website.

The Grammy-nominated DIY darling is riding sky high on her sophomore album, "Fearless," which surfaced in November and is currently holding the top spot on the US album chart for its eighth week. That's the longest run at No. 1 for a female artist of any genre in 13 years, according to a press release. The release has sold more than 2.4 million copies to date and spawned a slew of radio singles, including "Love Story," "White Horse" and "Fearless," all of which are currently holding spots on Billboard's Pop 100 chart.

As she did with her 2006 triple-platinum-selling debut, Swift wrote or co-wrote every song on the new album, including seven tracks by herself. She is the first female artist in country music history to taking writing credit on every song of a platinum-selling debut.