Concert Review - Dua Lipa - Auckland - 2nd April 2025

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Dua Lipa Live in Concert Auckland 2025 - Photo Credit Ginny Cocks

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Review By: Annora Gollop

Artist/Band: Dua Lipa

Venue/City: Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand

Date of Event: Wednesday 2nd April 2025

I was so excited to be going to see Dua Lipa, keen to wash off the farm dirt, put on pretty clothes and dance. I stopped at The Warehouse on the way, for hair clips, and discovered ‘Training Season and Houdini’ were playing in the store. It felt like Auckland was celebrating Dua Lipa being here. Her songs always catch my attention, even before I know she is singing. Often I just want to dance, but behind the catchy words there is always an idea she is unfolding.  Radical Optimism is her take on recognising good love; while not being fooled by the illusions and I couldn't wait to see the Grammy winning singer unleash these sweet songs into the dance extravaganzas she is world famous for. 

Outside Spark Arena seven- and eight-year-old girls in sequined skirts were spots of glitter in the all-ages crowd. I’m delighted by a dad in a classic Future Nostalgia t-shirt shepherding his teens and throngs of excited young adults cheerfully waiting to get in. Inside, opening singer Kita Alexander quickly charmed the friendly crowd in her first NZ show. Her gauzy belly dancing inspired costume and bare feet giving a down under summer feel. Kita dedicated her emotive song Hotel to “anyone who has lost someone” the crowd got out their phones making a swaying constellation. Alexander gave a slice of life set that was slow burn, she then turned up the beat with the EDM Atmosphere and got the crowd energised.

For the main event the venue is full, and the stage is transformed. 

Act one of Radical Optimism opens with a wave curling in slow motion on the curved front of a full Broadway style double staircase. The wave flows up the entire back wall of the stage. Dua Lipa appears silhouetted against the crashing ocean; when the lights come up she is dressed in sequined boots matching all those sparkling kids in the crowd, for the first time I am considering metallic sequins as a fashion choice.  

Dua, her band and dancers launch into Training Season in a full Broadway style production number. Dua struts the low catwalk stretching right out into the crowd, and lets her powerful voice carry the now wildly excited crowd into her anthem on ‘knowing your worth’.  It is already the most immersive show I have ever seen at Spark Arena. The giant contoured screen, multi-level stage and catwalk pushing forward through the crowd under the serious lighting rig, all warming up the Spark Arena connecting the performance with the crowd in a way that I haven't seen in this venue. There are more surprises ahead because above us is a mysterious set of rings like a space age chandelier.

Her dancers celebrate contemporary forms and diversity rather than conformity and she dances among them rather than out in front. Dua hits every choreographed mark to produce insane visuals with lights and smoke on the big screens. Like Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show we both get the overall spectacle and the up close and personal perfect perspective on the screens. The show is split into acts each with their own atmospheric landscapes building the cinematic intensity. 

Every song is a full production in a different style with Cabaret, Burlesque, confetti cannons and fireworks by the time we reach ‘Levitating’ in Act two. Dua heads over to ask some kids in the front of the balcony how they are doing while her crew adjusts the set. The girls' voices are bell clear in the arena, the crowd holds its breath. She chats to some nice young men and a guy who wants a signature he can tattoo that she decides to make small. She asks one young girl if she can borrow her floor length faux fur scarf and then dances wearing it for the intimate lounge style rendition of ‘These Walls’ together with the band at the end of the catwalk. To finish stealing our kiwi hearts she does a true to the original rendition of Lorde's ‘Royals’ with the crowd singing in support.

Act three starts with an hilarious spoof of a jazzercise video that most of the younger crowd may have been bemused by introducing the pumping ‘Physical’. The seventies vibe is strong, for ‘Hallucinate’ a trippy neon ring drops down from the chandelier with billows of white confetti which falls so slowly and it’s hypnotic.

Act four goes much bigger, Dua is lost in the clouds for ‘Happy for you’ and for ‘Love Again’ she is in a literal ring of fire. Has anything even close to this use of fire happened here in an indoor concert? We love our fire dancing outdoors. In the USA I once saw a man fired out of a cannon though a ring of fire, this show definitely brought the fire to Spark Arena, it was marvelous. 

Dua wasn’t finished -  rising up on the central ring of her magical chandelier to reach out to the whole crowd. She asked us to reach back to her with stars and we did. It was a moment that reminded me of Tina Turner high up on a platform over the crowd decades ago. It was a moment of connection where the dancing stopped for a moment.  

Dua introduced ‘Be the One’ as “a song I first sang  in Auckland and I think I'm going to sing for the rest of my life”.  The crowd was then completely beside themselves when the huge hits of the encore began with ‘New Rules’ and the Grammy winning ‘Dance the Night’

Shy kids in their seats at their very first concert jumping up and going mad for her show closer ‘Houdini’ finishing up a really joyful night.

Listening to the album of Radical Optimism; Dua's idea of love has shifted from the spring brightness of Future Nostalgia. Her version of living life with radical optimism is being able to keep going when life gets harder. She is learning how to recognise healthy love in a sea of illusions; how to choose to be happy, to choose yourself even if that means having to leave.  Her focus on choosing self-love and kindness to others, shows why The Trevor Project chose Dua as a mental health champion for LGBTQI+ youth in 2024. Every word and image is as inspiring and appropriate to me as it is to the eight year old girls who are so entranced as we are screaming our hearts out for Barbie's dance the night. These young people have chosen a thoughtful warrior princess as their role model.  Dua Lipa is reaching out to all of us and tonight Auckland reached back with joyful love. 

As a show Radical Optimism takes the personal songs of love and explodes them into a heart stopping wild ride of vocal passion and mesmerising visuals, celebrating the beauty of the world and the healing power of  human creativity. Dua Lipa is more than a vocal and dance Diva, although she wears that crown with ease, she is an inspiration for searching for the best way to live this life well and sharing it in a way that an eight-year-old can happily follow. 

RADICAL OPTIMISM TOUR SETLIST

Act I 
Training Season
End of an Era
Break My Heart
One Kiss
Act II
Whatcha Doing
Levitating
These Walls 
Royals (Lorde Cover)
Maria
Act III
Physical 
Electricity
Hallucinate
Illusion
Act IV
Falling Forever

Happy for You
Love Again
Anything for Love
Be the One
Encore:
New Rules
Dance the Night
Don't Start Now
Houdini

Dua Lipa NZ AUS Radical Optimisim Tour PR 2025

***Review Amendment made 4:45pm 5th April 2025 - Editor

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