Beyonce strikes a pose for V Magazine

She's known as the sexy, strong, fierce singer famous for her stylish outfits and curvy figure.

But Beyoncé sheds her tough outer skin to reveal a softer side in a new interview as she begins the exhaustive preparations for her 110-date tour starting next year.

'When I'm onstage I'm aggressive and strong and not afraid of my sexuality. The tone of my voice gets different, and I'm fearless. I'm just a different person'.
Beyoncé strikes a pose for V Magazine as she talks about her image: 'It's really hard to stay on earth sometimes when you're a celebrity'

And the name of that different person? Her alter ego, 'Sasha Fierce', whose name is the title of the second CD of her new 17-track double album.

'It's a way for me to differentiate what I do onstage from who I really am - It's a way for me to not lose myself, to keep my life in perspective, because it's really hard sometimes to stay on earth when you're a celebrity.

'There's so much going on, and so many people give you whatever you want and say everything you do is great.'
The singer starts a 'stripped down, but bigger than ever' 110-date tour in April and is planning a stylish entrance

'At this point, I kind of have it down. I know boundaries, and I can look at somebody and say I don't want them in my circle.

'I've been doing this for twelve years professionally, and I've learned. it's easier now.

'Fame is a lot of work, but it doesn't consume my life. I'm not obsessed.'
Dressed to impress: 'When I'm onstage I'm aggressive and strong and not afraid of my personality'

The singer tells V Magazine (www.vmagazine.com) that her new tour will be 'stripped down, but also bigger' than 2007's appropriately titled 'Beyoncé Experience'.

In that show she made her entrance in a cloud of theatrical smoke wearing a floor-length, cracked disco ball dress while pyrotechnics rained down behind her, and commandingly asked the audience, in three distinct parts: 'Ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready. To be entertaaaaaaaaaaaained?'

Transformation: Beyoncé storms the cover of V Magazine

'It's funny because right before the show I'm under the stage making sure my double-stick is in the right place, my pack is turned on, and my shoes have the stickies on the bottom so I don't slip - all of these things that are so not glamorous.

'Then I take my last slip of water, clear my throat, close my eyes, and tell myself: "You are fierce. You are fierce. You are fierce!"

'And the second I take that first step and hear the crowd, I kind of transform. By the time I get up to the stage, I'm in the zone.

'It's like I'm ready for war.'

Beyoncé in a range of poses as she prepares for her next world tour

V Magazine (www.vmagazine.com) asked top photographer Bruce Weber to shoot Beyoncé for the cover, and the songstress arrived at the shoot in an Obama state of mind, wearing an Obama T-shirt and with the president-elect’s surname manicured on her fingernails.

Striking a pose: Alternative covers for V Magazine's Beyoncé edition

Her mood was matched by the magazine, which prepared 50,000 'Obama's in the House' red, white and blue stickers to add to front cover.

Editor Stephen Gan said 'the issues were on their way to newsstands and this was our own small way of commemorating the moment.'

Also in the issue is Steven Meisel’s take on a recent U.K. trend of 'dogging', in which young couples engage in explicit activities in parked cars and public parks.

Meisel shot 28 pages and the model-filled images represent his first shoot for the magazine.