Hilary Duff may have sang about moving on in her 2003 break-up anthem So Yesterday, but she wasn’t opposed to revisiting the past last night during the Sydney leg of her Lucky Me world tour.
The powerhouse pop singer took 22,000 willing fans on an unapologetic stroll down memory lane at Afterpay Arena – and the result was a millennial’s dream come true.
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This is Duff’s first tour Down Under in 18 years – she played in Brisbane on Thursday night, and will now head to Melbourne for two shows before wrapping up in Perth – so her arrival was embraced by the roaring, at-capacity crowd, who turned up decorated in sparkles and butterfly clips and were ready for a night of glittering escapism.
“You guys are wild,” she told the crowd from the stage on Saturday night. “I have been here four times and I’m really feeling like I belong here. You guys are so loving and so kind and welcoming everywhere you go, and I just really appreciate it.”
“I’m with my family for the first time,” she continued before responding to some fans’ Aussie, Aussie, Aussie chant.
“Oi, oi, oi. I know how this goes,” she responded before continuing the chant.
The 39-year-old then thanked her fans for the love over the years, particularly this year when she released her first album in more than a decade, titled Luck … or Something, which scored the singer her first-ever number one album in Australia.
“In all seriousness, you guys made my album go number one here. That was pretty sick. I’ll never forget that,” she continued. “And you were still here for me when I decided to go on tour again and build a show. I was prepping for [a crowd] a lot smaller than this, and I just want to say thank you for sticking it out with me for so many freaking decades.”
“It feels cooler than ever to be up here with you at this stage in my life and your life because were grown-ups now. Eh,” she grimaced. “But it’s just so much different and I’m so much more comfortable, and getting to go back and relive the old years and the old songs feels like such a celebration.”
“I can actually hold on to it and remember it and just revisit it for a few minutes with you guys. It’s been so magical …. I don’t want to be anywhere else but here.”
In between belting out hits such as Wake Up, Play With Fire, Beat of My Heart and Mature – before ending with her infectious smash What Dreams Are Made Of from The Lizzie McGuire Movie – Duff found time to sample a local beverage.
Throughout her Lucky Me Tour stops, the singer’s crew sets up an onstage mini-bar for a “Wine O’Clock” segment where they surprise her with local drinks at different stops.
When she was in North Carolina she tried the local Cheerwine, in the UK she sampled the Brit fave Pimms, and recently in Auckland she downed an L&P (Lemon & Paeroa) soft drink.
“This is my favourite part of the show. I love to not have heels on. Remember when this was the only thing we had to take care of?” she told the crowd referring to the vintage Furby T-shirt she changed into which she rocked with ripped jeans, no shoes and blue socks.
“Let’s see what we got tonight, Sydney?” she said as she unveiled the drink her crew chose for the segment.
On the drinks menu was a Vodka Cruiser – the 2000s fruity alcopop cocktail was very on-brand for the predominantly millennial crowd.
A crew member then presented her with a selection to choose from when she said she wasn’t “a huge faux watermelon girl”, and the singer then opted for the pineapple flavour.
“You guys are telling me to do a shoey, but I don’t have any shoes on, so I’m saved,” she laughed before delivering her Vodka Cruiser verdict: “Very fizzy, lots of sparkle.”
“Oh, so this is a very early 2000s drink?” she wondered to the crowd. “So this is like nostalgia. The first time you’re drinking, you’re having one of these? Yeah, Vodka Cruiser!”
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Duff’s show is that there really is something truly magical about embracing every part or yourself – both past and present.
From the wide-eyed Disney starlet we were first introduced to who sang about young love and teen angst, to the mature artist with more life experiences behind her, Duff has championed every version of herself though her music – and that is her greatest strength.
Some pop stars spend each album trying to escape their past and reinvent themselves, but not Hilary Duff. She leans in – and her fans love her more for it.
“She’s me, I’m her in a different font,” she sings on her track Mature from her latest album.
And what a sparkly font it is.
Hilary Duff’s Lucky Me Tour Australian Set List:
Wake Up
So Yesterday
Roommates
Weather for Tennis
Play With Fire
Breathe In. Breathe Out.
Sparks
Future Tripping
With Love
Beat of My Heart
You, from the Honeymoon
Anywhere but Here
Growing Up
Fly
Holiday Party
We Don’t Talk
Why Not
Adult Size Medium
Surprise Song (Fans vote between The Getaway and The Math)
Come Clean
Mature
What Dreams Are Made Of
Originally published as Hilary Duff delights Aussie crowd with trip down memory lane at sold-out Sydney show