Although honeymoons aren't designed to last long, pop star Ariana Grande has somehow kept her Honeymoon Tour going strong around the world for the better part of this year, even in the wake of a silly doughnut-licking controversy (look it up). She already brought her lavish production to Dallas' American Airlines Center once in April and was met with a rousing, cat-ear-wearing reception. The last visit went so well, in fact, that she and her musical cast came back to the same venue on Sunday night for an encore.
We'd normally label such a return a victory lap, but the crowd on Sunday was slightly smaller (with part of the arena's unused top section screened off) and a bit more muted than in April. That's not to say the show on stage suffered all that much, or that the screams weren't as loud after bigger songs.
Having presided over this spectacle so many times, the 22-year-old Grande and her gaggle of top-notch dancers are working with enough muscle memory for the feat to seem effortless. Perhaps the repeat audience members -- those who generally follow Grande's every move -- were simply less surprised by the show's bells and whistles this time around. It featured the same set of songs, reshuffled just a bit for more sensuality at the beginning. After Grande opened with "Bang Bang," she moved directly into the provocative "Hands on Me" and got a little closer to her male dancers.
As she hit every dog-whistle note and nailed every Mariah-Carey-level run, Grande also kept up with most of the breakneck choreography. Now that she's a more commanding presence in all of pop culture, fresh from a run on the TV show Scream Queens, one could consider the performer a triple threat. She can sing, dance and act capably enough to never run out of options in her career.
Yet Sunday magnified the notion that Grande needs to move beyond her technical perfection and take some chances once this tour is done. Sure, she didn't miss a note or a mark in the physically demanding performance. She flew on fake clouds, held onto moving chandeliers and postured like a diva princess. But at times we're still missing an emotional connection to the material she's giving us.
Especially when working through some older material like "Right There" and "The Way," Grande went through the motions on Sunday as a kind of Pop Diva 2000 rather than a living, breathing woman. No cause for worry, though -- it's been a long tour and perhaps she just needs to get to work on some new material that will bring back a spark of spontaneity. We saw a little of that when Grande transitioned from the epic tune "One Last Time" into a mini-cover of Justin Bieber's current hit "What Do You Mean."
Speaking of sparks and of Bieber, the male pop heartthrobs of the world have some fearsome new competition in Sunday's opening act, Prince Royce. The 26-year-old Latin singer with a model's dimpled smile brought plenty of screams while performing recent hits from his latest English crossover album Double Vision. From the dancehall-infused banger "Back It Up" to the soft and sensitive guitar ballad "Extraordinary," he brought the vocal goods and left the audience wanting more. One to watch.
