Fan Fare

Taylor Swift – “Fearless” or tone-less?

She made history at the Country Music Awards last week, is the biggest selling female artist in the United States this year, and she comes magically to life in December’s edition of InStyle in the first ever 3D magazine cover.

But how good is teen sensation Taylor Swift at actual singing?

Not so great, if the growing amount of chat on the Web is to be believed. The higher her public profile rises, the louder are the whispers that Swift often sings flat in live performances.

Some country music fans were particularly miffed at Swift’s trophy for female vocalist of the year at the CMA awards in Nashville last week, where the 19-year-old also became the youngest artist ever to win the coveted Entertainer of the Year award.

“Flat, off key, and just really bad! Taylor Swift is no Reba, Martina, or Carrie, these are the real vocalists. TS must have some real geniuses in the studio to fix that crap,” wrote one admitted Rebafan on the Great American Country web site.

And country fans are not alone. Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker wrote in a blog that Swift was a “terrific songwriter” but described her voice as “thin, and sometimes as wobbly as a newborn colt.”

With the American Music Awards coming up this weekend, and Swift’s leading six nominations, all eyes will again be on the young star whose rise to fame has been meteoric over the past two years.