I heard Taylor Swift’s “Fifteen” on my car radio the other day and did my customary in-vehicle chair dance. Her cutesy songwriting always takes me back and reminds me of more innocent times, ten years ago when I was fifteen. I thought, “Awww, little Taylor Swift….what a cutie. She’s so sweet and adorable and talented and….”

And…and then I remembered the Grammys.

For those of you who did not see the Grammys, Taylor Swift put forth an, um, interesting performance in a duet with Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks (the Grammy Gods keep pulling the video, but here’s the audio). Afterwards, I felt obligated to dig for more live performances from Swift. I scoured YouTube for a contradiction to say it ain’t so!

Rolling Stone was kind enough to call her performance “out of sync.” TIME Magazine thought the duet “seemed more like a P.R. stunt than a performance.” I’m going to come right out and say it. The problem was that the poor creature cannot sing. And I used to think Avril Lavigne was awful. I’d seen some live footage of Little Swifty before (please refer to her 2008 performance at the CMA’s) so I had an inkling that her voice was doctored in the studio. But for goodness’ sake…to be that bad at the Grammys?

Some critics say that it’s inexcusable, especially since she won Album Of The Year. Others retorted saying that it’s not her singing that’s important, it’s the performance, to which I say, “What’s the difference?” The singing is the performance, isn’t it? Apparently not. The head of Swift’s record company, Scott Borchetta, made a public statement after the uproar and defended his 20-year-old bread-winner: ”This is not American Idol. This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note…It’s not about that technically perfect performance.” Then he quickly blamed a technical problem, stating that Swift could not “hear” herself while singing and subsequently worried she did not do her best. I was overjoyed when Kelly Clarkson of American Idol fame shot back, “Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor because you know what, we not only hit the ‘high’ notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well.”

I find the whole scenario disappointing, but then again, almost everything I hear on the radio these days is doctored within an inch of its life. Does that mean it’s okay? What happens when you go to a concert to hear the artist you love so much on their album, and the two don’t sound remotely alike? A live concert is a wonderful, visceral experience…a place to go and see talent. I don’t want to pay hard-earned cash to fight through a sweaty crowd and listen to someone who doesn’t sound good. I found it interesting that when Britney Spears toured internationally last year, Australia demanded that she advertise her concert as “not being live” (because she lip-synched) so that fans could know exactly what they were paying for. Perhaps Swift should advertise in a similar manner: “I don’t sound anything like my album. But I’m pretty!”

Swift is America’s sweetheart, just like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus before her (by the way, look what’s happened to them). We all love an underdog and let’s face it, when Kanye West took that microphone from her at the VMAs we all cried out in protest, “Leave that pretty, innocent girl alone! She deserves that award!” Everyone rushed to her defense and supported her graceful aura in the aftermath. Nobody stopped to consider if Kanye was, to a small degree, correct. He may have expressed it in the crudest way…but these days I’m beginning to think Swift should be handing all those awards to her producers.

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