Don't you wanna dance with Dua Lipa's neo-disco?

Her Target Center concert was mindless escapism that was perfect for the pandemic.

March 9, 2022 at 5:24AM

Like the Lord, the pandemic taketh away and giveth — at least to Dua Lipa.

After releasing her second album, "Future Nostalgia," on March 27, 2020, the British pop star had to delay her world concert tour three separate times — about 22 months — because of the pandemic. However, that enabled her to stage a splashy livestreamed concert in late 2020 — watched by a staggering 5 million paying viewers — and then watch her "Levitating" rise to the biggest song of 2021.

In short, in the pandemic, Lockdown Lipa has blossomed into a major pop star.

When Lipa's Future Nostalgia Tour finally made its way to Minneapolis on Tuesday, the 26-year-old turned Target Center into a brightly colored nightclub, filled with neo-disco sounds, athletic dancing and let's-exhale-from-the-pandemic joy for 14,000 thrilled-to-party, mask-free fans.

Lipa commenced the liberating jubilation with a retro blast of her club banger "Physical," with echoes of Patti LaBelle's 1984's "New Attitude" as well as not only samples of Olivia Newton-John's 1981 hit of the same name but ONJ-evoking aerobics, with a ballet barre but minus the headbands.

Entreating people to dance is the thing with Lipa, a former magazine cover girl who won Grammys for best new artist and best pop vocal album. Surrounded by as many as 10 dancers and two roller skaters, Lipa carried on, romping with umbrellas, stomping down a runway and whipping her hair.

With her prancing and strutting, Lipa showed all the moves of a supermodel. To her credit, she executed simple choreography but without the pronounced movements and limberness of Juicy Jayne, Miss Roo and the rest of the troupe. The most exciting dance sequence came when Lipa was offstage changing outfits, before she joined them for the aptly named "Electricity."

Like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga, Lipa isn't known for her dancing. But those pop princesses are regarded as top-notch vocalists whereas Lipa is more a pop star with an appealing, slightly smokey voice. However, in concert she relied heavily on four backup singers and pre-recorded vocals.

Moreover, it was hard to get a feel for Lipa's personality. Other than dedicating "Good in Bed" to a concertgoer wearing an MTV T-shirt, she seemed rather rote and mechanical.

While mindless escapism, the show lacked Katy Perry's cartoony sense of fun, Madonna's button-pushing edginess and Billie Eilish's infectious abandon.

Delivering a 90-minute performance in four acts, Lipa relied on less-than-wow-inducing special effects, including a video of a disco ball, an inflatable lobster and, of course, floating on a platform for the inevitable "Levitating."

Elton John appeared via video, collaborating on their duet "Cold Heart," another Lockdown Lipa hit that samples EJ's 1972 classic "Rocket Man."

As with any pop diva worth her glam squad, Lipa did the requisite costume changes, ranging from an electric-yellow catsuit with matching over-the-elbow gloves to a skintight black Mugler-designed number, with cutouts and 120,000 sparkling crystals, suggesting Cher in her 1989 "If I Could Turn Back Time" video (YouTube it, kids). That outfit truly dazzled on the Madonna-ilicious finale, "Don't Start Now."

There was nothing to suggest that there's anything original about Lipa. Call it nightclub pop or whatever, it's still disco by another name for another generation. Lipa's slavish devotion to nostalgia may explain why two different teams of songwriters have sued her for copyright infringement for appropriating their music in the hit "Levitating." However, when there's success with dollar signs attached, there is always someone looking to taketh away.

Opening were two acts that belong in more intimate venues than Target Center — San Francisco's Lolo Zouai, who offered dense electro-pop, and New York alt-pop veteran Caroline Polachek, whose artiness enhanced the flamenco-flavored "Sunset" and the minimalist "Bunny Is a Rider."

about the writer

Jon Bream

Critic / Reporter

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.

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