Last Wednesday night, the girls, the gays and their allies came out in shimmering attires, curve-showing dresses, mesh tops, cowboy hats and feather boas. They converged at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani for "Dua Lipa: Radical Optimism Tour — Bangkok", her second performance in Bangkok, following her Thailand debut in 2018 at GMM Live House (now called CentralWorld Live).
You can (or better yet should) be loud and proud at her gig as the English and Albanian singer has already shown her allyship with a visit to the drag bar House Of Heals before the concert. Not to mention, her notable collab with Elton John.
The audience had dance music and YSL Beauty adverts starring Lipa to keep them entertained. Those who stood next to the FOH caught a glimpse of Lipa's boyfriend British actor Callum Turner, her mother, her model sister, Rina Lipa, and her father before the show started fashionably late, 20 minutes after the scheduled time of 8.30pm.
To the accompaniment of rousing music, "radical optimism" popped up on the screens in all lowercase before they cut between Lipa and her dancers. The stage was lit in red before "Training Season's Over" flashed on the main screen. Lipa sashayed on the stage with a microphone and its stand in her hands at an angle like a rockstar while fans screamed their heads off. This could only mean that she launched into Training Season, the second single from Radical Optimism, for a high-energy start. The disco-pop hit kept fans on their feet and had them singing along to its infectious chorus.
She kept the party vibe going with One Kiss, the tropical house number she collaborated with Scottish DJ Calvin Harris. Besides positively provocative choreography, Lipa also put on a "hairography" as she swayed her dark hair to the beat and ended it with an extended dance outro for good measure. She served up Illusion, the third single from Radical Optimism, while being bathed in red light, befitting the psychedelic vibe of the song.
This was followed by the first chit-chat break during which Lipa said she fell in love with Bangkok and wanted fans to have as much as she had while in Bangkok. Spoiler alert, she made good of her word.
End Of An Era, the opening track of Radical Optimism and one of her most underrated songs IMHO, was pure bliss, filled with sheer optimism of a hopeless romantic being hopeful about their new love. She transitioned seamlessly into Break My Heart, the second single from her sophomore Future Nostalgia, to much delight of the crowd. Staying on the disco-punk train, she continued with Whatcha Doing from Radical Optimism.
She then took the crowd "to the moon" with Levitating, a disco ode to the feeling you have when you fall in love fast. Lipa and her troupe of dancers busted moves as the screens were flooded with countless stars and sparkles behind them.
The arena fell into darkness before Lipa appeared in a pre-recorded video to write the tour name on the screens, complete with an exclamation mark (and a lick for good measure). She reappeared to perform These Walls, a breezy breakup bop you can dance to.
She paused to express her appreciation for her fans and said she loved that people were unapologetically being themselves here and took time to introduce her band members. Day-one fans were then in for a treat with Be The One, the first single from her self-titled debut album. She performed the first part of the song in a stripped-down version, showcasing her vocal pipe, before going full power-pop as it originally is. Its addictive beat inspired clap-along from the crowd without fail. Lipa turned the stage into a dancefloor again with disco-influenced Love Again and Pretty Please, both of which are from her sophomore effort. Towards the end of the former Lipa commanded cheers and applause from the audience in different sections simply with hand gestures, as you do. The latter had an extended high-energy outro during which her dancers went wild without all kinds of moves, inciting cheer and clapping from the crowd.
Lipa returned with a new outfit to turn the party up with disco-house Hallucinate, another hi-energy banger from her Future Nostalgia era. She continued to raise the roof with New Rules and Electricity, a dance-pop number she collaborated with Silk City. She asked the crowd to turn their phone flashlights on to her performance of a remix version of Cold Heart, a hit collab with Sir Elton John, albeit without his vocal. The crowd got the only breather of the night with Anything For Love. Preceded by a beautiful piano solo, Lipa belched out the ballad with no problems despite approaching the final arc of the night. The song's original version is a "fake-out" since it shifted into an upbeat sound in the second half but she only performed the first sad half. Lipa finally "sent off" fans with Happy For You, the closing track of Radical Optimism about being happy that your ex is happy with someone new.
The quotation marks are there because she returned with a four-song encore consisting of Physical, Dance The Night, Don't Start Now and Houdini for a high-energy last hurrah.
It's safe to say that the audience went home filled with "optimism" (see, what I did?) as they sang and danced on their way out to Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody being played in the arena.
Dua Lipa said Bangkok "can have me back anytimeeeeee" in a post-concert photo dumb on her social media and the feeling is optimistically mutual.
