Millennials are so back, baby.
After years of being mercifully labelled “cringe” and blamed for basically, well, everything, on a particularly balmy Saturday evening in Sydney, we all gathered together under one roof to prove we’ve still got one weapon in our arsenal that’s still universally adored: Hilary Duff.
The American singer stormed the Afterpay Arena in Olympic Park on October 24, marking her second show on the Australian leg of her Lucky Me Tour and her first time back in the state in 18 years.
And for nearly two blissful hours, the world felt like a giant, fairy floss-pink cloud and not an enormous dumpster fire.
Beginning the set with the euphoric Wake Up, Hilary sauntered around the stage in a blue feathered top and jeans, before launching into the seminal So Yesterday, as the 21,000-strong audience scream-sang the lyrics back to her.
“Sydney, you’re crazy,” she said as the lights lit up the arena, laying bare a sea of glitter-soaked hands, which were mostly free of iPhones, and Hilary-inspired costumes. “I’m so happy to be back,” she smiled.
In between crowd favourites such as Why Not, Fly and With Love, she also sang almost the entirety of her brilliant and eclectic new album Luck… or Something, and for the first time in what felt like a long time, I saw a crowd that did not simmer down in the newer songs. Everyone was just happy to have her back.
In a particularly stirring moment, about half-way through the show during a costume change break, a montage of early 2000s BTS footage played out, showing Hilary on set of her iconic music videos, Disney breakout series Lizzie McGuire, and beloved films such as Cadet Kelly, Cinderella Story, and Raise Your Voice.
It was comforting yet melancholic.
And when Hilary, who is somehow now 39-years-old (when did that happen!?) returned on stage to perform Growing Up, a song about that conflicted feeling of ageing and falling out of touch with people, I wasn’t surprised to see a few people around me shedding a tear.
Not because they were mourning their youth, although maybe that was a small part of it, but I think it’s because Hilary serves as a marker for a simpler, happier time that sometimes in this crazy new world we’ve all reluctantly grown accustom to feels like never happened.
So when Hilary was cooing, “Let’s go back to the beginning” at the end of 2003 banger Come Clean, and the crowd echoed it back to her – they really meant it. And when she sang, “I remember it all. And I remember nothing. How did we get here?” in Adult Size Medium, it was obvious we really were asking ourselves that very question.
But it wasn’t all yearning for a forgotten time. Just witnessing Hilary on stage again looking so full of life and thriving just as she was in her Lizzie McGuire days was enough to feel at least a tiny bit hopeful about the future.
And after the final pink balloons and butterfly confetti rained down on the crowd as closer What Dreams Are Made Of came to a crescendo, it was hard not to feel the fuzzies as a teary-eyed Hilary, who was clearly overwhelmed with the rapturous ovation (seriously, I’ve never heard an applause like it), stood on stage for a few moments with her eyes closed, fully soaking in the moment.
Because if time has taught us one thing, it’s that what we all need to live in the moment, and you know, if you can put aside the slow, degradation of the world for a few moments, have some fun… or something.
Hilary Duff’s Lucky Me Tour will play two shows in Melbourne on Oct 26 and 27 before wrapping in Perth on Oct 29.
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