Pop star fearless in 1st headlining tour
Camila Cabello spent a good deal of her show at the Fox Theater in Oakland on her knees near the edge of the stage, reaching out to fans, locking eyes and lavishing them with a never-ending stream of platitudes.
“I might get in trouble for saying this, but I think this is the best crowd so far,” the 21-year-old Cuban-born pop sensation proclaimed a few minutes after kicking off the set. The sold-out show, on Friday, April 13, was the fourth date of her first headlining tour in support of her debut album, “Camila.”
Cabello may have achieved fame as a member of Fifth Harmony, the vocal group formed by castoffs from the reality-singing show “The X Factor,” but the key to her success is rooted in something more old school: dishing out unfettered praise to the iPhone-waving disciples who have stuck with her since she released her breakout solo hit last summer, “Havana.”
“You guys know you’re my real friends, right?” she said introducing a song called — what else? — “Real Friends.” “The best situation would be that I could sing it to each
and every one of you.”
Instead, she settled for pulling about a dozen of her fans onstage to help her deliver the chorus — about the loneliness of life on tour, no less — closing out the song by kissing them all. On both cheeks.
The concert, part of the singer’s “Never Be the Same” tour, had all the makings of a spectacle fit for an arena — no, make that a stadium.
Topless male dancers pirouetted in and out of view, fog machines worked overtime enshrouding the live band in a white haze, and the video clips on the scrim above looked like trailers for a big budget motion picture.
Cabello was recently named as one of the support acts for Taylor Swift’s upcoming “Reputation” world tour, which reaches Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on May 11 and 12.
“Oakland, make some noise!” she wailed.
Musically, Cabello veered from slick electro pop (“In the Dark”) and windblown ballads (“All These Years”) to Latin-flavored jams (“Into It”) and a tear-stained take on the classic “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”
She also reworked some of her big-name collaborations to fill out the 90-minute set, throwing in renditions of Major Lazer’s “Know No Better” and Machine Gun Kelly’s “Bad Things.”
There was an admirable precision to the show. Cabello isn’t new to this. She recorded two albums and toured six times with Fifth Harmony, with her voice and persona growing more assured with every turn.
On “She Loves Control,” Cabello ripped a page from Janet Jackson’s playbook, asserting her independence with the mantra: “I want it! I need it! I love it! Control!”
But it was during the set’s more vulnerable moments that Cabello really showed signs of growth.
Unveiling a new song called “Scar Tissue,” she confided in her fans with hushed reverence: “There’s no way of getting around pain. You go through it.”
In the emotional “Something’s Gotta Give,” the daughter of immigrants lit the screen up with footage from recent protests in support of “Dreamers,” the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter.
“So many stories in one room,” she said, raising her fist. “Coming together for the power of love — and the power of music!”
And everyone in the room raised their fists with her, for her.