Selena Gomez wrapped the North American leg of her Stars Dance tour at the Palace of Auburn Hills Tuesday night, the final concert of a six-week, 33-show outing that saw the singer playing the biggest venues of her career.
The 75-minute show found the former Disney star not far removed from her Disney roots. The audience was filled with pre-teens, and Gomez catered to those fans, presenting a wholly PG-rated affair that stressed individuality, reaching for one’s dreams and having a good time.
Elsewhere in her career, Gomez has made strides to break free of her kid star roots, most notably with a starring role in this year’s R-rated fever dream “Spring Breakers,” which it’s safe to say many in the audience had not seen. But on stage, Gomez still presents a product parents can feel safe taking their children to; the most suggestive moment came during a brief segue into Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake,” and Gomez was conscious to censor the bad words.
During the show, Gomez, her six-piece band (R.I.P The Scene, Gomez’ former backing band) and a handful of dancers performed on a simple stage with a large staircase in the center and video wall at the back of the stage. An S-shaped catwalk jutted out from the stage, and gave Gomez a chance to get close to and slap hands with her fans. Gomez sang, strutted and danced through her 15-song set which was focused on this year’s “Stars Dance,” her first No. 1 album. It was safe, competent pop with plenty of hair whips and big smiles – fine for a young fan’s first big concert experience, which it was for many fans.
Gomez isn’t the best singer or the best dancer; her chief asset is her approachability, which makes her relatable to her fans. As a pop star, she has always been mid-grade, and never a needle-mover like Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus. Four albums into her career, she scored her first Top 10 hit with this year’s “Come & Get It,” a song that was originally earmarked for Rihanna, and which is dripping with Rihanna-isms. Gomez lacks a signature sound, but has scored a handful of pleasant hits (such as the just-be-you anthem “Who Says”) and one hypnotic oddity (the dreamy, dazed “Love You Like a Love Song”). All were given crisp presentations Tuesday, with Gomez nailing her steps, hitting her notes and moving on. (In the evening’s most unexpected musical moment, she covered Priscilla Ahn’s “Dream” midway through the show, and broke into a harmonica solo midsong.)
“Slow Down” closed out the show, as confetti and streamers shot out over the audience. In perhaps the show’s most appreciated move, the show wrapped at 10 minutes before 10 p.m., allowing parents to get their kids to bed on time on a school night. Let’s see Miley do that.
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