Dressed in armor as if from Wonder Woman if it were, this is how it has risen Katy Perrand to the stage of Movistar Arena from Madrid this Tuesday. The American singer has given the last concert of her career in the capital. The Lifetimes Tour in Europe. A show that is difficult to define, due to the amount of stimuli, acrobatics, eighties aesthetics, pyrotechnics, simulation of video game games, races, and even pizza.
The show is divided into five acts/screens, being Artificial the first. In it, her dancers come out accompanied by Game Boys in their hands, leaving the singer the role of protagonist and heroine to the rhythm of Chained To The Rhythm, Tear Eyes and, the most successful, Dark Horse. Its orchestra also flanks it, on both sides of the stage, which extends along the venue’s floor with a figure-eight walkway. “Do not be afraid of the fears that try to kill you,” he bellows in one of the interludes between songs, inviting the audience to give their “body and soul” to the at times surreal recital that has just begun.
After a ‘robotic’ closure with echoes TerminatorPerry mutates in his second act, Woman’s Worldtowards a look light green navy, white sneakers and untying with California Girls the euphoria that was yet to be awakened among the fans. It’s a shame that the artist chooses to shorten precisely her most legendary songs, including Teenage Dreamin an increasingly common act – and at the same time most unforgivable–, in the concerts of great international figures.
It cannot be said that the singer does not have a good time on stage and that she transmits and spreads very good vibes, but between races, there are moments in which her tuning remains loose, no matter how many choirs she has as a base. Even so, the climax of the episode comes when Perry climbs onto a metal structure that reigns in the center of the court, before remembering all the time that has passed since her career started, and that she is now 41 and looking “fabulous!” And with this energy, it goes to Hot n Coldwhich ends up mixing with Last Friday Night, another of his most iconic songs.
After a more decaffeinated last album, this block is undoubtedly celebrated because it constitutes the soundtrack with which the American managed to hit the world’s big hit. A mini-repertoire that, judging by the public’s dedication despite the cuts in the songs, continues to vibrate the same. The singer remembers that this is her first visit to Madrid, to which she awards the medal for the most beautiful city in Europe, but for the beauty of its inhabitants, men and women. He also wants to know where the gay clubs are where you can go out on a Tuesday, so he knows where to go once the show is over, and he returns to liven up the party with a brief impasse Peacock.
The culmination of the act is put I Kissed a Girl. “I kissed a girl and I loved it,” she sings as, inside the metallic sphere that previously occupied the center of the catwalk, it rises to about four meters high, with Perry surrounded by her dancers, flying over the floor. “We don’t need to go anywhere else, the party is here today,” she claims as she ascends to, attached to a harness, begin doing acrobatics as if she were a mix between an artistic gymnast and a dancer. pole danceadding more accentuated doses of electronics to his song than the original.
Garden-shaped Nirvana
After the first 45 minutes of the concert, the feeling of being in an arcade game is distant. Or maybe not, and this is just another screen, now transformed into a Nirvana shaped like a garden in which Katy Perry dances again to unleash her skills as an acrobat on the audience. Its walkway is covered by two species of rotating mushrooms, which it also climbs to continue singing. Crush, I’m His, He’s Mine and the climax of the chapter, Wide Awakeagain converted into a more electronic version. The visuals in the background, meanwhile, continue to show Perry moving around her used stage, keeping a kind of avatar of herself in the center, who between observes and monitors what is happening.
The video game returns, this time letting the audience choose their own adventure, their own journey, in the third act. In it, Perry emerges from the center of the track, with a look summer. The singer pretends that the fans can choose what songs she is going to play, but the truth is that she gives great power to the ‘computer’ that accompanies the band. This proposes By The Grace Of Godalthough it is Unconditionally the one who gets the biggest cheers, along with The One That Got Away. The singer takes the opportunity to claim that, 83 concerts on tour later, this is the one with which she says goodbye to Europe: “They said I wasn’t going to make it, but here I am.”
The artist then thanks God, joining the flow recent spiritualityultimately starring on the latest album Rosalía, Luxwhich other artists such as Lady Gaga previously promoted – who also mentioned him in her concerts in Barcelona two weeks ago – and which in Spain has been endorsed by other examples such as SiloamIñigo Quintero and Rigoberta Bandini herself. Perry gets serious to say thank you, in the first ballad of the show that illuminates the stands with lights from cell phones, and that allows her to show off her voice more, more in tune without so much running, jumping and flying through the air.
From the intimate moment, we move on to the most surreal moment of the night, with Perry bringing a sextet of fans on stage, each one more peculiar. One of them says that his grandfather has just died, another calls an acquaintance live, another says that he is from London and is booed until he ‘confesses’ that he lives in Madrid and long live Spain! Perry, meanwhile, delivers pizza and, together, they “share.” The One That Got Away.
The truth is that it is difficult to understand why one of the singer’s most emblematic and emotional songs has a staging that ends up being ridiculous; for the pints, for the narrative, for the randomness. “And pretty, and pretty, and pretty, and pretty, and pretty! And queen, and queen, and queen, and queen, and queen!” fans then roar, who end up having to translate what both words mean. Evidently, she is satisfied with understanding that he was called “beautiful” y “queen”.
The concert continues to progress and, with it, the madness. The dance troupe reappears dressed from head to toe in black, listening to the apparently villain of the omnipresent video game who bellows at them from the visuals with a gloomy, distorted, harsh voice. Perry reappears to fight him with a red laser sword and a suit with rhinestones and lights with which he fights the creatures that try to take over his parallel. The singer insists in her vindictive speech that she “knows who she is” and that she hopes her legion of fans feel the same way to the rhythm of a powerful Part of Me.
The butterfly
When it seems that Perry can’t surpass herself again, the singer enters the final stretch aboard a giant butterfly with which, once again, she flies over the Movistar Arena. The American invites you to enjoy the last opportunity to dance with her during her show. The party is on, it’s eleven at night, but it could be three in the morning on any Friday – even sometime later, or early, depending on how you look at it, worthy of after on the weekend.
So there is still time to Daisiesfor LIFETIMESfor capital letter Firework. The best closing to a concert that, frankly, is impossible to leave indifferent. A fair that is difficult to define, a fun circus, a real party.
