Entertainment

Belle of the ball

Looks like daddy’s little girl ain’t a girl no more. Last night, Taylor Swift strode out for her set at Z100’s annual Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden looking like she was dressed to kill and ready to rock.

Wearing a sparkling top and red hot pants, the doe-eyed girl of old was a distant memory.

She’s a head-turner and she knows it, but that new sense of confidence suits her and Swift channeled it into a surprisingly sturdy performance.

She only had 25 minutes but when you have songs as catchy as “You Belong With Me” in your arsenal, its way more than you need.

To her credit, the about-to-turn-23-year-old wasn’t phoning anything in.

Watching her commit to the powerchord chorus of “I Knew You Were Trouble” was a minor revelation and a poke in the eye for those who still think of her as syrupy teen-fluff.

As if to emphasize that point, the finale of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” saw her issuing a defiant “screw you” to an ex-boyfriend with all the fire of a woman who truly has been wronged, rather than a naive adolescent trying to imagine real heartbreak.

Living well is clearly the best revenge and, right now, Swift is certainly doing that. Somewhere, Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer must be cursing themselves.

Over the course of the evening, the MSG stage saw some of the biggest names in pop come and go in conveyor-belt fashion, as 12,000 tweens and teens (the vast majority of them female) screamed their almost-unanimous approval.

But for the more discerning viewer, it was best to exercise a little more discretion.

All-conquering British boy band One Direction, for example, kicked off the show and, as usual, they were so irritatingly wholesome that it made you want to throw up.

Each of the band members seemed airbrushed physically and brain dead mentally — a condition that must make them more compliant in their drone-like transmission of inane mush like “What Makes You Beautiful.”

Atlanta hip-hop star B.o.B at least showed more energy but, backed with just a solitary DJ, his segment soon began to drag before Swift continued her dominance by coolly duetting with him on “Both Of Us.”

It’s the sort of bailout that B.o.B must wish he always had to call on. Ne-Yo, meanwhile, added his polished R&B to proceedings but even he seemed rushed by the quick turnover of the Jingle Ball format and was forced to dish out his hits such as “Forever” like a human jukebox before disappearing.

Ed Sheeran, fun., The Wanted and Jason Mraz also performed but, inevitably, most of the crowd’s screeching was reserved for Justin Bieber, who did a condensed version of his show at the Garden less than two weeks ago, but with an overlong acoustic set featuring two lame Christmas numbers.

As a headliner, Bieber may have been the main attraction going in, but there was no doubt that it was Swift who walked out as the belle of the Ball.