Review: Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium, London, June 22

With fellow glitter-clad revellers singing along to every single word, it struck me that despite all the sequinned twerking, Swift is still the girl-next-door, a child prodigy now one of the most impressive performers of her generation.

Creating that sense of intimacy is quite an achievement when you’ve got $280million in the bank and are playing your first gig at Wembley to a sell-out 80,000.

Dressed in a black sparkly leotard and thigh high boots, Swift is a world away from her country roots as she parades around the stage in front of a huge serpent, belting out her somewhat risqué latest hit, Look What You Made Me Do, with a team of dancers.

There’s a Madonna-ish feel to proceedings with the tight choreography and giant video screens projecting Swift’s purple-lipped image across the stadium.

Yet unlike the Queen of Pop, Swift performs with the audience rather than at it – conversationally taking to the guitar to perform Dancing With Our Hands Tied and a new number, So It Goes.

The crowd goes wild for golden oldie Long Live/New Year’s Day where a clearly emotional Swift reminds us she was the youngest person to have written and performed a Number One song.

Travelling half way across the stadium in a gilt birdcage meant those at the back got a closer glimpse as she sang Blank Space.

Then One Direction’s Niall Horan appeared for a Slow Hands duet. It’s not difficult to work out why Swift remains so popular, for here we have a celebrity who can truly say: What you see is what you get.

● Martin Townsend’s CD reviews return next week