Grammy Queens

Whats good for Beyoncé is good for the Grammys. Glamorous and pitch-perfect as ever,Beyoncé was the top winner last Sunday,her six prizes the most in one night for any woman in the awards 52-year history.

In many ways the show belonged to powerful young women,from Lady Gagas high-concept opening duet with Elton John through Pinks midair suspension on a strip of white silk to the tight race at the end for album of the year,which pitted Beyoncé against Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

Swift,20 and gushingly enthusiastic,took that prize. But for Beyoncé,who at 28 has more than a decade of pop stardom under her belt,the wins embellished a role she has already long occupied as pops all-purpose,offend-no-one idol.

She has proved equally capable as red-carpet fashion plate,unabashed sex symbol,dependable hit generator,power wife and even balladeer at President Obamas inaugural festivities. She does almost everything,it seems,except revel in the outspokenness and controversy that have aided the ascendancy of competitors like Lady Gaga,who won twice on Sunday. She was rewarded for her talent but also for being a no-drama kind of person, said Farai Chideya,a radio host and the author of books on race,media and politics.

In place of risk-taking,Beyoncé has cultivated a career built on expert strategy,hard work and diversified self-promotion. She has been a spokeswomana dancing and singing onein commercials for DirecTV,American Express,Wal-Mart and LOréal,etc. Beyoncés grace at the MTV awards,where later in the night she ceded her own speech time to Swift,and at the Grammys also highlighted her role as a far more experienced older sister to the generation of Swift and Lady Gaga who is 23. While the two younger womens careers are just getting started,Beyoncé remains the cool and collected pro.

Farai Chideya,founder and president of one of the earliest pop culture blogs in the US,likened Beyoncé to Michelle Obama. She is that poised,beautiful black woman who is completely appropriate to what is not truly a post-racial era,but a multiracial era, she said. Controversy for the First Lady is wearing shorts. And Beyoncé can be that ambassador precisely because she wont do certain things that Lady Gaga or Pink will do.

NYT

Swifts big moment

For Taylor Swift,the jig is up.

Over the last three-and-a-half years,Swift has established herself as pops leading naïf. Not in her songwriting,which has been precocious,but in her persona. Shes even patented a look she whips out at award shows,concerts and more,when her innocence is threatened by acclaim: eyes wide,mouth agape,hand held over it as if to keep in the breath shed just gasped as if it were her last.

Most stars have their images undone by failure. In Swifts case,success has necessitated a re-evaluation. Her Sunday night at the Grammys will be remembered as the turning point. She won four awards,including album of the year for Fearless,her outstanding second record the youngest artist ever to do so,and the first solo female country singer to earn that as well. It was the ultimate stamp of insider approval for someone who insists that shes thrilled just to be invited to the party.

But with every step Swift takes toward ubiquity,her facade must come undone a bit. The recent avalanche of disturbances dates back to the disruption of her acceptance speech by Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards last September. Swift held her composure,but the world assumed that she felt anger.

Suddenly Swift had texture. She was complex. In short,she became an adult. Ideally,what will now emerge will be a new Swift with some sass,and some wisdom. The songs shell produce should be just as honest as the ones before them. And,she should be unafraid to share all the things she knows but has been holding back. Her multitudes await.

NYT