EW GRADES BEYONCÉ!

The just-minted winner of the Song of the Year trophy made her first stage appearance of the night (she passed up accepting the award in person in order to prepare) in full woman-warrior gear — studs, corset, black leather — to sing I am … Sasha Fierce’s gender-twisting ballad ”If I Were a Boy.” And the message carried over: The back-up dancers — dressed in their best ”if I were a stormtrooper” get-ups — were all male, but her band was, as always, ladies only. Queen B delivered a passionate, melisma-filled performance, breaking midway through into the original woman-scorned anthem, Alanis Morrissette’s ”You Oughtta Know” before returning to a hair-whipping, stage-pounding coda of ”Boy.” Sasha? Fierce. Grade: A-