Taylor Swift Red Tour Concert | 3.5/5

SINGAPORE - Don’t call Taylor Swift a crowd-pleaser. The seven-time Grammy winner is a bona-fide Stadium-Pleaser, thank you very much.

Don’t believe us? Just ask any of the 8,000 screaming fans who were out in full force Monday night for the first of her two Red Tour shows at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Right from the first strains of “State of Grace”, the 24 year old was determined to become Singapore’s best friend. And between proclaiming her love for our country, sharing stories about how her mother grew up here and proudly brandishing a T-shirt with “I love Singapore” in sequins emblazoned across her chest, Tay-Tay clearly succeeded in doing so, not only delivering the concert her Swifties wanted, but also winning over the adults who chaperoned them there.

Because when the most popular pop star on the planet comes out to play, she’ll do so in the exact same style that got her to the top of music heap- 100 per cent slick, well-honed spectacular effort. Swift’s Red tour is her biggest yet, complete with all the bells and whistles to show you she’s made full graduation from country ingenue to pop superstar. There were rainbows of LED lights, a massive video screen, two stages, a band, four backup singers, fifteen dancers and nearly as many costume changes.

Throughout the 90 minute set, it was obvious the indefatigable performer knows exactly which side her bread is buttered and works incredibly hard to wow her fans. It’s her second outing in Singapore, so naturally she pulled out all the stops and rolled out the hits like Red, Lucky One and the always infectious 22. These big numbers had her frenzied fans eating out of her palm. But there’s also a niggling feeling that underneath all the polished choreography and well-rehearsed moves, some good ol’ fashion spontaneity was noticeably missing.

As it turns out, the heart of a Taylor Swift show lies exactly at the heart of a Taylor Swift hit song: Her accessibility is most apparent when the razzle-dazzle recedes, the band and dancers step into the shadows, and it’s just intimate time with Tay-Tay and her guitar, up-close and personal with her fans, singing fan favourites such as You Belong With Me, Teardrops On My Guitar and Sparks Fly. And while her enthralled fans cry, scream and mouth every lyric to every song, you realise this is Swift at her signature best. When she’s bathed in a single spot-light, strumming the introduction to Mean (that Grammy award winning song about bullying) on a banjo, playing on a piano or sharing with an entire stadium about her life and her writing process, it’s when Taylor Swift’s in her element. It’s like she’s on the phone with her best friend. And her best friend is you.

By the time you’re on your feet dancing to I Knew You Were Trouble or enjoying the celebratory carnivalesque encore of We Are Never Getting Back Together, you realise it’s hard to be cynical about Taylor and her quest for pop-world domination. You forgive her for that “Aww shucks, little ol’ me?” face she pulls every time she wins one of her umpteenth awards. You start marvelling at her bare-all song-writing skills. And then you realise, as you start singing along with a stadium full of awestruck Swifties, you’re not the first cynic converted to her cause.

And you certainty won’t be the last.