WINNIPEG - Taylor Swift is such a sweetheart, you could just hug her.

And, as it turned out, a hundred or so local fans did get to wrap their arms around the reigning country-pop princess when she left the stage to mingle with the audience at the MTS Centre on Saturday night.

And it’s a good thing she did, because up until that endearing point in the show, we were ready to start calling Swift stiff.

Perhaps it just takes the Pennsylvania native a while to warm up; after all, she’s only 19. But she didn’t exactly make the boldest entrance for the sold-out crowd of 12,000.

“I’m Taylor,” the lanky blond sheepishly announced after opening with You Belong to Me. “Thank you for, in the first five minutes of the show, confirming to me that this is an amazing crowd.”

Great, thanks for establishing that, Taylor; now, can we get on with the party?

Thankfully, Swift did pick up her intensity as the night went on, unveiling one costume after the next (more on that later), breaking out her signature go-go dance moves and writhing around on her huge castle setting — complete with pillars, a giant platform for her to perform on and three giant staircases.

The 135-minute set gave Swift time to perform 17 tracks off her 2006 self-titled debut and last fall’s followup Fearless — which together sold over four million copies last year. She gets props for writing or co-writing all of her songs — which explains why many of them are relatable confessionals about boyfriends, ex-boyfriends and The Other Girl (though that is really all that matters when you’re a 19-year-old girl, as far as we remember).

Swift sang about her crush Drew — the reason for the teardrops on her guitar — and her ex flame Joe Jonas in Forever & Always, which got her so worked up, she chucked a chair down a flight of stairs and fell to her knees (fair enough, as the Jonas brother DID dump her in a 27-second phone call).

And then there was the moment she popped out from behind a curtain in the middle of the arena to sing Hey Stephen, offer the aforementioned hugs and make her way to a small stage in the center to play her breakthrough hit Tim McGraw — which skyrocketed her to Nashville stardom at age 16.

After that, the only things that slowed Swift down were the prerecorded videos that went on for minutes at a time on three screens. But you’ve got to expect some sort of inane distraction when the show’s star has so many wardrobe changes to make.

Speaking of which — never has Swift’s penchant for dresses been more evident. The girl rocked seven Taylor-made frocks, including three sparkling disco minidresses, a medieval ballgown for Romeo and Juliet-inspired hit Love Story, a gauzy white number, a turquoise country-style party dress and an LBD with white frilly trim.

It was a feast for her mostly late-teens/early 20s female fans’ eyes — and also for the adoring guys in the crowd who would have had plenty of dolled up, cowboy-booted girls to hit on in case their first pick (Swift, of course) didn’t pan out. And judging by the screamfest, everyone's voices will be hoarse on Sunday morning.

Swift’s chops will eventually get that way too, as she’s still got a long way to go on her first, 52-city North American tour for Fearless.

Perhaps that explains her lack of energy earlier in the night. We were just relieved to see the momentum pick up to the point where, during her final encore tune Should’ve Said No, she had to be hosed down by a mid-stage waterfall.

And to think, that rain flattened her curls and washed away her makeup in front of thousands of people! The girl really must be Fearless.

Though she could take comfort in knowing her BFF, Kellie Pickler, was just backstage.

Blessed with stronger chops than her more-famous fellow blond, North Carolina’s Pickler — who came in sixth on the fifth season of American Idol — crooned through her own 30-minute set of girly-pop love songs, like Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You and Best Days of Your Life (which she and Swift, like, totally wrote together).

Dressed in simple black jeans and a camisole, the self-described country bumpkin and ex-girlfriend of Manitoba-born hockey player Jordin Tootoo kicked off her sky-high silver stilettos for girl-power track Red High Heels and teared up — OK, more like broke down — for ballad I Wonder.

Ditzy demeanor aside, 23-year-old Pickler oozes Southern charm. Heck, we’d have her for a BFF too.

Sun rating: 3 out of 5

Setlist:

You Belong With Me

Our Song

Tell Me Why

Teardrops on My Guitar

Fearless

Forever & Always

Hey Stephen

15

Tim McGraw

White Horse

Love Story

The Way I Loved You

You’re Not Sorry w/ What Goes Around .../...Comes Around (Justin Timberlake cover)

Picture to Burn

Change

Encore:

I’m Only Me When I’m With You

Should’ve Said No