The opening night of Hilary Duff’s “Lucky Me Tour,” her first global run in almost two decades, was briefly hijacked Sunday night by a Florida thunderstorm. Driven outside iTHINK Financial Ampitheater near West Palm Beach, Duff fans ignored orders to seek shelter and blasted her songs from open car windows instead.
“It’s like the summer solstice,” said 34-year-old Lindsay Brown, dressed in pink like Duff’s cartoon alter ego Lizzie McGuire. “We’re like, reconnecting with our old selves while also evolving into our new selves.”
Strangers sang aloud to the studio recordings of hits they hoped Duff would perform live — including the 2003 hit “Come Clean,” whose chorus welcomes a downpour. Katie Perez, who flew from Arizona to celebrate her 31st birthday at Duff’s opening show, said that “for once, we don’t want to ‘let the rain fall down.’ “
It didn’t. The all-clear came at 8:20 p.m., and thousands of ticket-holders flooded the venue.
They came in low-rise jeans, platform flip-flops, layered tanks, charm bracelets, butterfly clips, mini skirts, studded belts and fingerless gloves. They slapped at mosquitos and posed for selfies as, somewhere out of sight, Duff prepared to retake a stage she last stood on nearly two decades ago. The moment she did was raucous.
“This is totally an out of body moment, truly,” Duff said, her voice amplified over the screams of a mob of thirtysomethings. “I do think I was on this stage 18 years ago, and we’ve all grown a whole lot since then.”
Those who first met Duff as the fashionista klutz Lizzie McGuire on Disney Channel cheered for the girl, now a woman, who’d navigated first crushes and bra shopping alongside them. Many now had young sons and daughters of their own who whooped from atop their parents’ shoulders.
“I wanted to be her,” said Rachel Lugo, 35, of Coral Springs, who dragged her boyfriend, Dan Graham, to the concert when her best friend couldn’t make it. “Even now, if I’m up late, I’m watching the ‘Lizzie McGuire Movie’ for fun.”
Duff opened the first of her two-night set in West Palm Beach with “Wake Up,” kicking off a career-spanning celebration setlist that mixed years-old fan favorites with her newer material.
She revived “Play With Fire” for the first time since 2008 and “Anywhere but Here” for the first time since 2006, and debuted three songs live: “Growing Up,” “Holiday Party” and “Adult Size Medium.”
Songs that once soundtracked the melodrama of middle school crushes and cafeteria humiliations hit differently for a crowd now navigating mortgages and marriages. Elise Woods, 37, of Fort Lauderdale, screamed and clapped from the amphitheater lawn.
Woods said she’d never stopped loving Duff, even as the teen icon stepped back from the limelight before her comeback with the February release of her album “luck … or something.”
Asked what she would tell Duff if given the chance, Woods said she would thank her for an “amazing childhood.”
“We loved you then, and we felt seen by you then,” Woods said. “We feel even more seen by you now, in our next chapter of life.”
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New tour’s first show proves Hilary Duff is anything but so yesterday
Reporting by Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
