Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ show at the Wells Fargo Center is a proficient pop extravaganza | Review

On the face of it, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia couldn’t have come out at a more inopportune time.

The album full of expertly constructed bangers by the British dance-pop singer is designed to bring club-goers into close contact. But it was released in March 2020, just as the world shut down and intimate interpersonal interaction became a life-threatening activity.

A funny thing happened during quarantine, however. Songs that celebrate community and express an innate need to get “Physical,” as Future Nostalgia’s Olivia Newton-John-inspired first single put it, took on added meaning.

Longing for a time when pleasure didn’t go hand in hand with fear became universal. And as the pandemic dragged on, Future Nostalgia spawned one hit after another as a soundtrack to stay-at-home dancing. The album deservedly landed on scores of best-of lists, and Dua Lipa became an arena-sized superstar.

And on Saturday in South Philadelphia, she finally had an arena to play in. The Future Nostalgia tour arrived at the Wells Fargo Center after two years of delays, for an impressively proficient date-night pop extravaganza.

The sold-out show included opening sets by French-born pop-R&B vocalist Lolo Zouaï and ex-Chairlift singer Caroline Polachek, who delivered a half-hour’s worth of artful, vocally dexterous indie-pop, drawn from her 2019 album Pang.

The 26-year-old Lipa started out as a model and is the daughter of Kosovo Albanian parents, including a former rock singer father. She took the stage in a fluorescent yellow catsuit promptly at 9:15 p.m. after her crew of 10 dressed-in-blue dancers — who included two agile and entertaining roller skaters — were all introduced by name on a giant video screen.

What followed for the next 90 minutes was a tightly choreographed, effective fashion-forward evening that was briskly paced and dazzling to look at. It was greeted with enthusiasm by a crowd that stood up and danced throughout the entire show.

Lipa was a more-than-capable vocalist, singing in a warm alto, supported by a band that included four backup singers and a guitarist who stepped up on command when a wailing solo was needed. And though she was mocked as an ungainly dancer earlier in her career, she’s clearly stepped up her game and held her own with her troupe.

Highlights included a video duet with Elton John on “Cold Heart” with a “Rocket Man” interlude and the smash hit “Levitating” in which Lipa rose above the crowd on a floating platform while wearing a black bodysuit by French designer Thierry Mugler, who died in January.

Future Nostalgia has lifted its creator into the rarefied realm of dance-pop divas that have preceded her, including Madonna, whose unmatched 1980s heyday FN consciously nods to, and Lady Gaga.

Lipa’s songs have a feminist thrust. On “Cool,” which she wrote with Swedish singer Tove Lo, she sang, “I’m burnin’ up on you, in control of what I do.” And in “Future Nostalgia,” which kicked off a two-song encore, she walked the catwalk rhyming: “I’m going to get it without ya / I know you ain’t used to a female alpha.”

As a pop culture presence, Lipa projects an image as a cultured citizen of the world. She’s launched a podcast called At Your Service and the lifestyle newsletter Service 95, with stories about South African house music and London restaurants. This month on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she interviewed the host, resulting in a remarkable exchange about comedy and religious faith.

In her live show, though, there was no room for extraneous detail, or even the mild flirtations with perversity you would expect at a Madonna or Gaga show. (Save for a campy animated “Lobster Attack” video during a costume change, that is, in which an inflatable crustacean occupied the stage during one song.)

Stage patter, for that matter, was kept to a minimum, with little beyond an obligatory Philly thank you: “We’ve been dying to get onstage. We’ve been waiting two years for this!” And the show didn’t include any real ballads either. That would have run the risk of slowing down the pace of the evening and dimming the euphoria for fans who were finally able to dance with each other, rather than by themselves.

The show was the second night in the Wells Fargo’s busiest concert weekend since before the pandemic. Soft-rock guitarist John Mayer played Friday, and hard-rock band Tool was set to perform on Sunday. And the busy run of shows continues this week, with Journey (and Toto in tow) on Wednesday and New Edition, Jodeci, and Charley Wilson on Thursday.

The run of shows coincided with the arena dropping the requirement to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for entry last week. Though the venue’s website does note that “the city of Philadelphia still requires masks for guests in the arena,” that mandate largely was ignored once Lipa’s show began. Ticket holders for future shows should check the venue website as some acts have their own requirements for entry, beyond what the arena requires on its own.