Swift, Pickler deliver just what fans want

Four-and-one-half stars

Hey, did you hear the one about the two blonds who walked into the MTS Centre? 
Yeah, they were awesome. No joke. Just a snapshot of real life... or rather, of life imitating art, because the crowds that streamed down Portage last night looked eerily like the stars they paid to see: fresh-faced, disproportionately towheaded, and giddy for a girls’ night out.
But hey, there are worse fashion icons than hip-but-wholesome megastar Taylor Swift, or her main opener, American Idol alum Kellie Pickler. And worse role models too: Swift’s self-penned country-pop became the top sound of 2008, proving that sincerity yet trumps cynicism in woebegotten times.
And so, last night’s show — part of Swift’s 52-city Fearless tour, her first as a headliner – was a heady mix of youthful energy and heart-clad sleeves.
Exhibit A: North Carolina-born Pickler, who famously cried at the 2007 Country Music Awards, did so again during her sleek 30-minute set. As Pickler buried her face in her hands, the crowd offered empathetic cheers in lieu of a 15,000-strong group hug. Bad moms, bad boys, whatever: they’d all been there. The artist understands her audience.
So does Swift. Critics have praised her "wisdom," but last night’s show was more honest than wise, and more beautiful for it. The 19-year-old gave a stellar performance, effervescent, free of pretence and perfectly tuned to its young audience. 
Only three years ago, she was a high school student struggling to earn songwriting cred in Nashville. Those memories have clearly left a mark. Shortly after 9 p.m., the curtain rose on her bright white set and dancers in yellow cheerleading duds.
Swift played drum major in a jaunty silver hat while she belted out unrequited love anthem You Belong With Me. "She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts," she crooned, over cheers that might have made the Jonas Brothers jealous. "She’s cheer captain and I’m in the bleachers." Then she suddenly doffed her marching-band coat, revealing a glamorous silver-fringed frock and fierce knee-high boots.
The audience went wild for that. Actually, they went wild for everything, singing an entire verse of Our Song by themselves and howling at a tongue-in-cheek video that delivered Swift’s famously scathing response to the criticism that followed her public airing of a broken heart.
"If guys don’t want me to write bad songs about them, they shouldn’t do bad things," on-screen Swift said, as real-life Taylor strode out in a ruby-red dress to sing Forever & After, a.k.a. The Joe Jonas Break-Up Song.
Another video followed, this one a mockumentary of Swift’s meteoric success. We first thought it was a long momentum-killer; we were wrong. It actually covered up a spunky surprise. When the video ended, the spotlight turned to the northwest corner of the arena, where Swift stood in the middle of the crowd, strumming the opening chords of Hey Stephen.
As she made her way down to a satellite stage in the back of the arena, she hugged and posed for pictures with many tearful fans. "Looked like you guys were having so much fun back here, thought I’d come back and join you," she beamed, before delivering acoustic ballads Fifteen and her first hit, Tim McGraw.
Almost 20 minutes later, when she returned to the main stage, the audience showed their approval with a wall of enraptured cheers. But, over an hour after it began, the concert wasn’t even close to done.
Swift still had eight energetic more songs on tap, including a delicate and intimate rendition of White Horse and an epic, choreographed version of Love Song that featured dancers waltzing in Elizabethan costumes.
Finally, Swift neared the home stretch close to 11 p.m., crooning on a rocked-up cover of Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River, stomping down the catwalk and flinging her strawberry curls on Picture to Burn and Change before kicking into a two-song encore.