Two years ago, the go-to "female empowerment" song for movies (The Devil Wears Prada's opening fashion-show montage) and TV shows (Ugly Betty, The Hills) was KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See." In 2008, that honor has to go to Duffy's infectious tune about sexual freedom, "Mercy." Now the Welsh singer-songwriter is doing her best to avoid the trap of being known as just the "Mercy" girl — a tall order due to the fact that, well, "Mercy" is one hell of a catchy pop song. But judging from her performance last night at New York's Webster Hall, it looks like she's up to the challenge.

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About three-quarters of the way into the Police concert at Madison Square Garden last night, I was thrilled to see that Sting’s management had finally received the countless text messages, voice mails and e-mails I had been sending since last Friday. You see, it was a week ago that VH1 Classic had broadcast the Hard Rock Calling festival – featuring a heavily bearded Police frontman.

I begged and pleaded with the management office to alert Sting to my dilemma. I had tickets to see the Police’s final show (ever) in a week, but I couldn’t bear to see the erstwhile Gordon Sumner perform his greatest hits while looking like Grizzly Adams. Could they please entice him to lose the hirsute look for the upcoming August 7th concert? To my grave disappointment, despite opening the show with a thunderous version of “Sunshine of Your Love” and following it up with an NYPD band-backed version of “Message in a Bottle,” Sting was still sporting the beard.

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