Taylor Swift to receive inaugural Excellence award at AMAs

Taylor Swift will receive the inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence at the American Music Awards on Sunday (23Nov14).

The Love Story hitmaker will be feted with the accolade for the record breaking sales of her fifth album, 1989.

The award is in honour of legendary television and radio host, Dick Clark, and his widow, Kari Clark, says in a statement that "the first time Dick saw Taylor perform, he knew she was something special."

American Music Awards producer Larry Klein tells Billboard.com, "It's the perfect time to do it and Taylor deserves it... Taylor was so excited about getting an award named after Dick."

Swift is set to open the ceremony, which airs live on the ABC network, with a performance of her new single Blank Space.

She is also set to perform as part of the annual Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve show which is broadcast on 31 December (14). Clark, who died in 2012, hosted the beloved show for more than 30 years.