“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Hilary Duff said just hours before her second sold-out show in Los Angeles.
The 38-year-old singer and actress is in the midst of The Lucky Me Tour, her first headlining tour in more than a decade. She waded back into touring waters last year with the intimate Small Rooms, Big Nerves tour. Hordes of young millennials and older Gen Z fans flocked to the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Wednesday. The crowd, many of whom were dressed in bright pink, green and orange, looked like they had wandered off the set of Duff’s teenage star-making show. Lizzie McGuire.
Duff became emotional about playing in Los Angeles, noting that her family was in attendance. “I’m home,” she shouted to the gathered crowd Wednesday, telling them she had performed in numerous performances at the Forum throughout the year.
“genuinely, [the tour’s] It has been happy, fun and very rewarding. “That doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of work,” she said. Hollywood Reporter Before its second show in Los Angeles. “But what a summer.”
Duff promotes her latest album Luck…or somethingher first in a decade. The singer’s prolific career as a teenager and young star was a bit of a balancing act, with acting and a serious pop career, and balance seems to be the theme of the new tour as well. The singer was forced to thread the difficult but necessary needle of fitting her hits and new music into one setlist. She also has to make sure she attracts new and old fans alike.
She kicked off the show with her 2005 song “Wake Up” and her early-career hit single “So Yesterday.” Starting with songs that any fans in the audience would know, I felt like Duff was easing the audience back into seeing her live.
“The first new song I’m singing is ‘Roommate,’ and I feel like that song is really exploding,” Duff said. “It’s exciting to me when they scream singing the new stuff to me as much as they do the old stuff.”
Singer’s right. She had no reason to worry about the ratio of old to new music – audiences were as enthusiastic about her old shows as they were about her songs. Luck…or something. They were hanging on her every word.
“It’s just a dance, honestly. It’s all been very intentional on my part, and I don’t quite know how to explain the balance equation to myself,” she explained. “I think it’s more intuitive.”
Throughout the show, as Duff changes, she plays video packages that served as a buffer between acts of the show. Some of these videos were of Duff now but some were of the singer when she was younger Lizzie McGuire days.
Naturally, the nostalgic videos received huge applause. Duff took the time to thank her fans, many of whom have been with her since her younger days. “I’m so happy that girl was there for you,” she told the audience. The singer described the tour as not only a “healing experience” for the audience but for herself as well.
“I’m a Libra, so I feel like natural balance is something I’m drawn to,” she said. THR. “The show to me feels like a very big celebration that represents who I am today and celebrates an important part of my life, which is the past. When I first met everyone.”
“This is of course the nostalgic element that people feel passionate about,” she added.
Duff, now in her 30s and more involved in making music, certainly sings about different things than she did in her youth. When she and her collaborator (and husband) Matthew Koma work on music these days, she has a very specific process. “When Matt and I were interacting Luck or something“It was about telling stories first,” she said.
“It’s a sense of what I want to communicate first and what I want to talk about,” she continued. She doesn’t make music, but she does what she particularly likes.
Some of these new words gave her a new partnership. “Was it a sip of wine or Aperol?” “Luck or Something” sang Duff’s song “Adult Size Medium.” The callout made the singer a sponsor of the tour through a partnership with Aperol, which she also called out mid-concert when she explained the wine refrigerator she keeps on stage. “I feel like I summoned them,” she joked.
“It was really cool when I came up with this idea, and obviously I would love to partner with a brand that really resonates with me and that I use,” she said. Duff explained that their partnership’s message, “Share the Moment,” was especially relevant to her current situation.
Duff added, “In my life right now where I feel like I’m moving as fast as I can to keep up. It’s important to slow down and realize all the little victories or goals I have.”
At just two hours long, Duff’s 2003 hit “What Dreams Are Made Of” from the Lizzie McGuire movie was the perfect ending to her set. The singer leaned all the way into the upbeat, upbeat song, dropping pink, white and orange balloons from the ceiling while shooting confetti into the air.
“Dreams are always fun,” she said of the ending. “I get to relax and let all the tricks do the work and have fun with everyone.”
