Wizards of Waverly what? Just like her fellow former Disney
darlings Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez has shed her squeaky
clean, wholesome image in favour of a sexier, more mature one – a side
we got to see up close at the 24-year-old’s Revival Tour gig in
Singapore last night.
Although an emotional statement she posted on Instagram last
week caused fans to worry that she might cancel the concert again like
she did in 2014 (to receive treatment for lupus), the show went on as
planned, and the audience made sure to give her an earth-shaking – quite
literally – welcome by screaming, jumping and singing along.
After
local crooner Gentle Bones opened the show with five original tracks,
Selena made her grand entrance to, interestingly, ‘This is What You Came
For’ by Calvin Harris a.k.a. her buddy Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriend.
Conspiracy theories and speculations aside, it didn’t take long for the
mosh pit crowd to sprint closer to the stage as the pop princess delved
into catchy hits ‘Same Old Love’ and ‘Come and Get It’, before taking
energy levels down a notch with the heart-wrenching ‘Sober’.
The
sultry ‘Good for You’ and funky ‘Slow Down’ followed after Selena had
made a quick outfit change into a low-cut top and skin-tight pleather
pants (one of several other fierce, sexy ensembles that showed off her
toned bod). The pop princess then finally took some time to speak to her
admirers, saying, “Sometimes I want to make sure I can see everyone and
say hello – everyone is so nice and so beautiful!”
Long-time Selena devotees (dubbed “Selenators”) were in for a treat
when their idol included a few older songs in the set-list, such as
‘Love You Like a Love Song’ and ‘Who Says’, in addition to more recent
mega-hits ‘Kill Em With Kindness’ and ‘Hands to Myself’. Selena also
mixed things up a bit with a cover of Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams (Are
Made of This)’ and a worship song, which she revealed helps her get
through when “I feel I don’t have it in me”.
Something we didn’t
quite expect to see happened during one of the videos played between
sets: after being shown emerging from a rose petal-filled bathtub and
throwing us some come-hither looks, there were a couple of short but
substantial shots of Selena in the nude, including a glimpse at her bare
backside, which drew excited screams from concertgoers.
While the
entire sequence was tastefully done, it certainly marked a very obvious
departure from her child star days – not that anyone was complaining,
obviously.
Perhaps the only gripe viewers had with the gig was
that it was way too short (about an hour and a half) and that it ended
abruptly without the expected encore. We also noted the absence of
tracks such as ‘The Heart Wants What It Wants’ and ‘Naturally’, but
considering all the gushing that’s happening on social media and what we
overheard while exiting the venue, we can all agree that Selena
definitely killed it.