The American Demi Lovato received the Brazilian Luísa Sonza on stage at The Town this Saturday night, 2nd, the premiere of the festival in São Paulo, at the Interlagos Circuit. Demi plays the penultimate show on the main stage, Skyline, before closing with Post Malone.
Demi introduced “my new friend” who entered with an awkward “make some noise, The Town”. The duet between them was bola cantada, since, at the beginning of the week, Demi appeared on the third album of the Brazilian, Escândalo Íntimo, singing (in Portuguese) in a duet on the track Penhasco 2.
In the ballad with a short and super emotional performance, Luísa sang hugging the microphone, and Demi entered with a Portuguese diction that is still a beginner, but incredibly clearer and more understandable than the Brazilian.
The rain stopped before the show and started again towards the end, adding to the impression that Demi is Brazilian.
A few years ago it would be hard to imagine that the following sentence would be written: Demi Lovato shook her head hundreds of times and performed the heaviest rock show among the headliners on the first day of São Paulo’s biggest festival. But was.
Demi, a former Disney star, started her music career doing fun teen pop-punk, but later ventured more into pop and more adult themes – especially after 2018, when she was institutionalized after an overdose.
However, the 31-year-old American singer is at the end of the Holy Fvck album tour (2022), in which she takes a strong turn back to rock – by coincidence or not, the guitars are back in high with the public. teenager just before that.
The all-female band is even sharper than at the start of the tour, which took in Rock in Rio last year. This Demi Lovato re-guitarization project was so successful that she is about to release the album Revamped, on September 15th. It’s a backwards remix project, with band arrangements of their more electronic pop hits.
All in black, green, blue and yellow, Demi walks through hard rock (Holy Fvck), post-grunge (Freak), power ballads (29, with great vocals, strong and emotional, even if imperfect) and, especially, pop punk (Substance).
For those from a previous generation, a reference: Demi walks through the same territory as Avril Lavigne’s second album, Under My Skin (2004), with the less happy Canadian. And for those who don’t follow international pop-rock, a reference from here: Demi Lovato on stage resembles a kind of Pitty from New Mexico. All in a good way.
The balance is positive, but it is necessary to point out the biggest drawback: the rock versions of the mid-career hits are irregular. Sometimes it just seems like guitar karaoke, with arrangements that aren’t quite finished yet. On Sorry not Sorry the band doesn’t fit the muffled guitar in place of the electronic beat and falls into a soft metal pastiche. Aims at Green Day and hits Evanescence.
Putting the entire show in similar arrangements also reveals a certain limitation in the melodies: the “ôôôô” choruses of 29 and Heart Attack, for example, seem recycled. All good. At a festival like The Town, an extra dose of pastiche and another dose of repetition is even an advantage. Demi took big turns in her career and it looks like she went home, at ease.
