Review: Dua Lipa’s tour was delayed nearly two years by the pandemic. Thank goodness.
This feels a little weird to say, but I’m just going to go ahead and say it: Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia Tour” seems to have been well-served by the pandemic.
Or perhaps a better way to put it — so as not to suggest to anyone that I think the British pop star should be grateful for a deadly global health crisis — is this: Multiple postponements amounting to a roughly 22-month delay might have been a blessing in disguise for her long-gestating new arena show, which Charlotte’s Spectrum Center hosted on Wednesday night.
For one, the extended pause in the live-music biz gave songs like “Levitating” (released in October 2020, six months after this tour was originally scheduled to start) and “Cold Heart” (released last August, two months after the tour was originally scheduled to end) time to become a couple of her biggest hits.
Two, it gave Lipa time to develop the type of self-confidence that can come with, oh, for example, winning a Grammy Award for the album that shares the tour’s name — “Future Nostalgia,” crowned Best Pop Vocal Album at last March’s ceremony.
And thirdly, it gave Lipa nearly two full years to shed her reputation for dancing like a giraffe with two left hooves.
The product of all these delays, then, is an undeniable triumph, a bold and beautiful, bright and bubbly concert that (primarily) celebrates the 26-year-old singer’s terrific 2020 album while also serving as a showcase for some of the most screamingly sexy outfits a crowd at Spectrum Center has ever salivated over.
There was the fluorescent-yellow full-length bodysuit with the bralette-style top, the long matching gloves pulled up nearly to her armpits, and the matching heeled boots; followed by the sequin-studded white-and-silver bodysuit with the one-armed top and the briefs-style bottoms (and, for one song — the feminist anthem “Boys Will Be Boys” — the addition to that outfit of a flowing, open white skirt).
She then outdid herself in the show’s third act, during which she flaunted a long-sleeved, belly-button-baring black crop top with black boy-short bikini bottoms over fluorescent-pink tights; then proceeded to one-up herself again by throwing open the crop top to reveal a red bralette as she sang over the pulsating beat of “Hallucinate” and the chill remix of “Cold Heart.”
By the time she came up from underneath the mini-stage at the end of the catwalk in the center of the pit for the final song of the main set, wearing a sparkling black-and-silver bodysuit that showed off a cheeky thong in the back, I’d estimate 90% of her fans were struggling to catch their breaths.
As for her actual performance, both in terms of her command over her vocals and her command over her body, Lipa appeared to hit pretty much all of her marks.
Truth be told, most of the concerns about her dancing ability (which, by her own admission, was sub-standard as recently as just a few years ago) were allayed via her well-received performance at last year’s Grammys, where she nailed a tightly choreographed routine during a duet with Charlotte-grown rapper DaBaby.
But we wanted to see for ourselves — and it was clear from the first moments she was on stage in Charlotte that she’s no longer going to be an easy target for people who want to make fun of her moves.
Lipa looked effortlessly cool as she shimmied and shook her way through an energetic, ’80s-era aerobics-inspired routine with her cadre of backup dancers during the opening number, “Physical.” Next, she gyrated and slinked across the stage, in perfect time to the beat of infectious pop banger “New Rules,” appearing confident, comfortable and best of all natural in her movements. For Song No. 3, “Love Again,” she borrowed the square-dancing choreography and her lassoing technique from the music video to thrilling effect.
On and on she went from there, all night, acquitting herself in the dance department with authority over the course of 90 minutes and 19 songs — all of which she sang with rich, full tonality and impressive control considering the amount of dancing she was doing.
The only breaks she took to catch her own breath were for those costume changes; otherwise, she maintained a blistering pace, stopping briefly to deliver canned remarks (e.g. “We’ve been waiting two years to do this ... we feel so, so lucky to be here to share this place with you tonight”) just a couple of times Wednesday night.
The upshot to that, of course, is bang for your buck when it comes to the actual music. The downside, in my opinion, is that it can make the overall experience feel a little bit more mechanical, a bit more like an artist is going through motions, and a bit less personal.
Lipa did seem to go off-script midway through her set, to wish a fan in the pit a happy birthday during “Good in Bed,” and for a few fleeting seconds, the show had some nuance. She didn’t say anything particularly funny or profound, it just felt refreshing, because it was so clearly a spontaneous moment in a concert not designed to have any.
Meanwhile, less spontaneous but nonetheless awesome was the use — during “Future Nostalgia,” the first song of the encore — of laser lights that matched the Charlotte Hornets’ teal and dark purple team colors. It was a nice wink to the city paired with a sultry dance that saw Lipa take on the song’s climax while whipping her waist-length hair around like a rock star.
It made me wish she’d taken the idea a step further for that one song and thrown on the NBA-licensed Lipa jersey the team apparently made for her.
And I apologize for bringing up a sore subject, but ... speaking of ways in which the concert could have been infused with more Charlotte flavor ... when Lipa was performing “Levitating,” while perched in a metal basket suspended by cables over the crowd, I caught myself imagining DaBaby making a hometown appearance during the song they once were famous for singing together.
Alas, that remix became infamous last summer, and DaBaby is now canceled in some quarters, because ... well, as Lipa’s fans know, it’s a long, ugly story.
At any rate, I bring this all up because 1) that thought really did cross my mind (and if you’re from Charlotte, I’ll bet it crossed yours, too!), but also, 2) it’s yet another example of how this show could have been different if it had launched when it was originally supposed to launch, in the spring of 2020.
I suspect it would have been a good show back then. I’m certain — for all the reasons I’ve mentioned — that it’s much better now.
Dua Lipa’s setlist
1. “Physical”
2. “New Rules”
3. “Love Again”
4. “Cool”
5. “Pretty Please”
6. “Break My Heart”
7. “Be the One”
8. “We’re Good”
9. “Good in Bed”
10. “Fever”
11. “Boys Will Be Boys”
12. “Club Future Nostalgia”
13. “One Kiss”
14. “Electricity”
15. “Hallucinate”
16. “Cold Heart”
17. “Levitating”
Encore:
18. “Future Nostalgia”
19. “Don’t Start Now”
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 4:24 AM.
