I'm not the most die-hard Dua Lipa fan you'll ever meet, but there's always been two things I really love about her.
One - she was mercilessly bullied for being a bad dancer in her early career, and took revenge by training until she became one of the best in biz.
And two, she's kept it pretty real despite her incredible success. She's mostly refused to play up to the usual demands on pop stars to provide drama, spill juicy details of their personal life and give big diva energy at all times. She's let pure talent do the talking.
Last year, she headlined Glastonbury on the iconic Pyramid Stage and then spent the rest of the festival mingling with the crowd and getting amongst like a 'normal' punter. She's a London party girl first and a Grammy-Award winning artist second.
All of that was well and truly on display last night at Auckland's Spark Arena, where a sold-out crowd spent two hours with their jaws on the floor.
There's a lot to be stunned by at Dua's 'Radical Optimism' tour - cannons exploding with rose petals, glitter, confetti and fireworks from the very first song ('Training Season', one of her best IMO), tight choreography that's somehow sexy, camp, silly and world-class all at once, a set that transformed Spark Arena into a full Vegas-residency level venue, with multiple levels, catwalks and graphics that transport you to a series of different worlds.
And, of course, there's Dua Lipa herself. Aesthetically speaking, the woman is a GODDESS. She's no taller than 5'8'', but she looks Amazonian up there, effortlessly seducing her audience with those long limbs people used to call stiff and awkward, whipping her mane of dark hair, strutting the stage like a God damn supermodel. Her costumes should be on the front page of the 'How to be a Pop Star' handbook.
And still, she can really, really sing.
It's hard to understand where she ever takes a breath, but you'd imagine she'd have to in order to deliver slick vocals that seamlessly switch between powerful, silky smooth, moving and party-starting.
The crowd that came out on a drizzly Wednesday night were all ages and stages. There were throngs of little girls at their first ever gig, sporting glitter eye-shadow and sequinned dresses, fabulous squads of men in neon and fishnets, lads with their girlfriends, gaggles of millennials in knee-high boots (me) and much older fans, too.
Dua is for the hes, shes, gays and theys - and the different chapters of her show really proved there was something for everyone.
For the Kiwis, specifically, Dua gave us a special cover of our biggest pop export Lorde's biggest tune - 'Royals'. New Zealanders love nothing more than an international superstar showing us they know who we are, and this was a perfect example of that.
Some of her songs were performed with a cinematic level of production value - we had somehow ended up inside a blockbuster movie, and she was the main character. 'Maria' took us to a dramatic desert, 'Levitating' sent us to outer space, 'Physical' transformed the whole place into a surreal 80s aerobics night club.
She sang 'Love Again' in the middle of an actual ring of fire, and then ascended above the stage on a floating platform, wearing a giant red fur coat.
But at other points of the show, Dua made sure to confirm to us she is in fact a real person, a mere mortal who is right there in the room with you.
She wandered the front row checking in with the crowd, borrowing a fur boa from a member of the crowd (which went with her outfit way too perfectly to not be a set up), and even signing a fan's arm for a soon-to-be tattoo.
She also moved the key members of her band - drum kits and all - to the walkway that extended into the crowd. If you were in GA, you felt like you were packed into a tiny bar watching an exclusive show, and if you were in the stands, you got a whole new angle.
The thing with massive pop songs is that you've heard them a million times, so it's always exciting when an artist finds a way to rework them and bring something new to the bangers you know inside out. Dua did this by unleashing her dirty raver side, adding in techno breakdowns, lasers and thumping drops that wouldn't have been out of place at London's Fabric nightclub.
Somehow, she pulls this off and still manages to slide into 'Dance the Night', her contribution to the 'Barbie' movie soundtrack.
Halfway through the show, a girl who couldn't have been more than six years old went up on her uncle's shoulders, while her dad apologised if she was blocking our view. We couldn't have been less bothered, or more excited for her.
Some people suggest Dua's moves and lyrics are too sexy for little ones, but watching this girl get her tiny mind blown by the magic of the whole experience reminded me of how I felt about the Spice Girls when I was her age. I didn't get any of the innuendos at the time, I just loved the sass, the dance moves, the music and the joy - all of which Dua bought in droves to some 12,000 Kiwis last night.
The Spice Girls walked so Dua Lipa could run, and dare I say, she might have as much Girl Power as all five of them.
Dua Lipa brings her 'Radical Optimism' tour to Spark Arena one more time on Friday, April 4.
Full set list from Dua Lipa's April 2nd show at Auckland's Spark Arena:
Training Season
End of an Era
Break My Heart
One Kiss
Whatcha Doing
Levitating
These Walls
Royals - Lorde cover
Maria
Physical
Electricity
Hallucinate
Illusion
Falling Forever
Happy for You
Love Again
Anything for Love
Be the One
Encore:
New Rules
Dance the Night
Don't Start Now
Houdini
All images by Tom Grut.
