Justin Bieber, the hot new pop sensation making tween girls swoon, opened for country/pop darling Taylor Swift, who dazzled the crowd for two hours.
This was the final show of Swift’s 15-month, 110-date tour. A sold-out audience of 56,858 roared like a jetliner on takeoff when Swift, dressed in white as a drum majorette, hit the stage at 8:45 and launched into her big hit “You Belong With Me.”
Before the song was over, she was in a short silver dress and running around with a matching acoustic guitar, one of at least eight costume changes.
“I have fallen completely in love with you after only two songs,” she said, after “Our Song.” “I love you like I love sparkly dresses.” “I love you like I love burning my ex-boyfriend’s pictures.”
Later, there was a “Crimes of Passion” video segment, depicting “victims” of Swift’s songs. Teen heartbreak and subsequent revenge are favorite themes. She closed the regular set with “Picture to Burn,” with flames on the giant video screens.
Swift, 20, is, nominally, a country artist. There were a fiddle and banjo here and there and she did a four-song midset acoustic segment (she started from a ministage in the mezzanine and hugged numerous fans upon exiting) - but, really, this is all about arena pop. A Madonna-like spectacle, just not quite as racy. Swift is a superstar, but projected a between-song awe, expressing amazement at the overwhelming applause.
She acted out skits, danced with a partner during “Teardrops on My Guitar,” tossed a chair during the kiss-off rocker “Forever and Always,” and used six formally dressed dancers for the wistful, but soaring, “Love Story.”
Over the top? At times. But Swift has sizzle and substance. Her songs sport a boatload of hooks, and she’s got panache. During the encore, “Jump Then Fall,” heart-shaped confetti was shot from the stage. A lovefest. Then she closed with “Should Have Said No,” about a guy who cheated on her.
Bieber, like the young Justin Timberlake, offered himself as an approachable tween dream, mixing pop, hip-hop and r & b. He spent most of his half-hour on the catwalk in front of the stage, and brought one joy-stunned girl up for “One Less Lonely Girl.”
The apple-cheeked Bieber, 16, co-writes most of his music, and it’s both formulaic and catchy. The closer was the soaring “Baby.”
Bieber did a medley of Michael Jackson’s “Gotta Be Starting Something” and Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” He took a break from the mic to close it with a big walloping turn at the drums. A very lucky fan took one of those sticks home.
Gloriana and Kellie Pickler opened with sunshine-y people-pleasing sets of hard rock-country pop.
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