Demi Lovato is taking her latest album on the road. The Neon Lights Tour will support her fourth studio album and will hit 28 venues in North America and will then travel to South America for an additional 11 dates.
I got to enjoy Neon Lights at the second California stop in Anaheim at the Honda Center. As only her third stop on the tour, she brought out the big guns as she took on arena shows for the first time as a headliner.
The show began with opening act, Fifth Harmony. The five-girl group was created on the second season of the short-lived US version of, The X Factor. The group didn’t win their season, but arguably they became the biggest act of the season. The girls put on quite a show, performing songs off their debut EP, Better Together. For being an opening act, they put on quite a show. They showed fierce attitude, individual personalities and of course powerhouse vocals.
In a group of five teenage girls, you’d think that their personalities would clash on stage, but though they all have a strong presence, they performed together with ease. The highlight of their set was when they sang a cover of Destiny’s Child’s, “Independent.” Though most of the arena was full of adolescents who were barely being born when that song came out, everyone was on their feet dancing along with the group.
UK girl group, Little Mix, also served as an opening act for the show. The four-girl army performed songs off their latest album, Salute. Little Mix was also a product of The X Factor. Creator, Simon Cowell brought the girls over to the states after they won their season of the show and took over the UK. Even bigger than them at the concert, was One Direction member, Zayn Malik, who took a seat in the crowd to watch the show. He is currently dating Perrie Edwards of the group. His attendance caused ear-shattering screams and over-the-top behavior from teenage girls, causing him to run backstage.
Demi Lovato took the stage around 9 p.m. to a standing ovation. She opened the show with “Heart Attack,” her first single off her fourth album, Demi. She went straight into “Remember December” right after, leaving little room for a breather. Most of the show went like this. With song after song, Lovato performed a wide variety of songs off of every one of her albums, something many artists do not do.
About almost halfway through the show, Demi brought out surprise guest, Nick Jonas, to help her out with a few songs. Jonas is currently serving as Demi’s a href=http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/nick-jonas-next-gig-demi-lovatos-musical-and-creative-director-20140204>musical and creative director for the tour. Jonas was met with high-pitched screams as he and Demi sang three of her songs together.
For her performance of “Don’t Forget,” she created a montage of highlights from early in career. Clips from Camp Rock, Sonny With A Chance and music videos from her first album lit up the screens around the arena as Demi playfully imitated her exaggerated hair flips she was known for.
Demi also added a soon-to-be Disney classic song to her set list from an Oscar-nominated movie. She performs her rendition of “Let it Go,” from Frozen on her tour which will pull at everyone’s heartstrings. The video I shot of the performance is down below.
Her final song of the set list was “Neon Lights.” As her latest single, fans get to see a different side of Lovato’s music that incorporates a catchy dance beat along with deep base lines throughout the song. Lovato also invited fans to download an app to coincide with the performance of the song that would synchronize as soon as the song began playing. Soon, the arena was full of neon lights radiating from their phone screens courtesy of the Neon Lights App.
Lovato soon returned for an encore performance where she sang her two biggest hits: “Give Your Heart a Break” and “Skyscraper.” Overall, she put on quite a show. The stage had a design, leaving most of the audience’s attention to be focused on Lovato. Make sure to catch Demi on her Neon Lights Tour when it visits a venue near you.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
