WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHEN?: Via livestream 27/11/20
SETLIST: Future Nostalgia; Levitating; Pretty Please; Break My Heart; Untitled (with FKA Twigs); Physical; Boys Will Be Boys; Cool; New Rules; Prisoner (with Miley Cyrus); Un Dia (with J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Tainy); Fever (with Angèle); One Kiss; Real Groove (with Kylie Minogue); Electricity; Rocket Man (Elton John); Hallucinate; Don’t Start Now
Lipa, who was shortlisted for 6 Grammys this week, was originally slated to tour 2nd LP Future Nostalgia this spring/summer with 2 dates at London’s 02 Arena.
- Read on for reasons including how to get tickets for that rescheduled tour
Her 21-date European tour has now been rescheduled until autumn 2021 and instead we have this star-studded 70-minute performance which has the feel of an episode of TV’s Glee.
It begins like an episode of BBC1’s Top Of The Pops with the feel of a TV studio performance before taking in multiple sets in the same location and expanding out into something far more ambitious with a futuristic classy disco feel.
We’ve shortlisted both the new collections by Dua Lipa and Kylie Minogue as albums of the year in this strangest of 12 months and both appeared in their element on this livestream.
Minogue, in particular, got to duet 1 of the better tracks from her unexpectedly brilliant Disco album and stole the show by leaping on to a podium and vocally going for it in a way we wouldn’t have expected had she been the headliner.
The over abundance of special guests may have overwhelmed a show not helmed with the talent, confidence and charisma of Lipa and, while we think she was singing live, she was definitely dancing enthusiastically and leading a troupe which never outdid her.
We make the Glee comparison because although this had the feel of a one-take performance it was so successfully choreographed that we refuse to believe that it was.
In lieu of the magic of a live performance which this could never seek to replicate this was a genuinely thrilling attempt to do something as entertaining.
We’ve only seen Lipa live once – in Brighton in 2017 – praising her ‘husky rasp’ and predicting more collaborations. Future Nostalgia was strong enough to be completely solo but the co-workers have come thick and fast since and it’s Elton John, who appears on a screen singing Rocket Man here, who seems spectacularly superfluous and fabulously overblown.
Studio 2054 is a welcome diversion then at a time when live gigs are all but impossible but we can’t wait to see her again live making the transition to arenas in The 02 next year.
monstagigz 
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