Since Taylor Swift closed the first leg of her Fearless Tour in October at Target Center, she has won five Country Music Association Awards (including entertainer of the year), turned 20, grabbed four Grammys (including album of the year), made her dramatic film debut, toured Europe, Australia and Japan, wrote enough songs for her forthcoming third album, signed on as a Covergirl cosmetics model and found her name this week on Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

No wonder she didn't have time to rework her Fearless Tour show.

On Friday at the sold-out Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Swift gave pretty much the same hair-tossing, outfit-changing, smile-inducing spectacular as last fall -- with a few exceptions. There were no end-of-the-tour pranks with her opening acts (Gloriana and Kellie Pickler), but there was one new song ("Today Was a Fairytale") and more scrutiny of her singing.

When she performed on the Grammys in January (and won best female country vocal performance), there were many unflattering comments about her singing: "strikingly bad" (Los Angeles Times), "incredibly wretched" (Washington Post) and "off key ... vocally challenged" (me).

On Friday, the country pop superstar erased the questions raised by the Grammys and other dubious awards-show performances. While she may not be the most soulful, subtle or nuanced singer in Nashville, she was more controlled and less shrill than in the past -- and more in the mellifluous range of her recordings. Most important, she connected with her crowd of tween girls and teen and 20-something women (and their boyfriends).

In fact, Swift connects with her fans more effectively than any country star since Garth Brooks. She did it Friday with her everygirl songs about teenage dreams and frustrations; her electric smile that matched the gleefulness of her eyes; her reaching out and touching her fans with hugs, kisses and handshakes (she twice walked through the crowd and even slipped her bracelets onto the arms of girls).

In a word, it's her relate-ability. Even though she's uttering the same patter as she did in October, Swift seems so sincere. (Part Pink and part Brad Paisley, she is a good actress, whether playing the flirty vamp, the geeky-and-glam Nash-Vegas rock star or the aw-shucks Grand Ole Opry girl next door.) And she works hard.

In two hours, Swift played 16 songs with the help of six dancers, seven musicians, eight outfit changes and endless big-screen closeups of her big red lips and big, blue, glitter-covered eyes. She is very self-aware (sometimes too much so, such as when she basked extra, extra long in the adulation of 16,000 fans -- at least three times) but undeniably empowering. No wonder she has received so much recognition from the Country Music Association, the Grammys and Time magazine -- as well as her fans.

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719