Live Review: Dua Lipa, Eves Karydas

Eves Karydas can't seem to make up her mind about her stage name. Some may recognise her by former monikers Eves or Eves The Behaviour, but her most recent musical identity shift appears to be a good move to propel her in the right direction as she releases her most personal material to date. Karydas's fresh and fun pop tunes have crisp vocals and big choruses, as demonstrated on a new song that she put out just a few weeks ago called Further Than The Planes Fly. "It's a dream come true to support Dua Lipa," Karydas tells us excitedly as she rounds out the set with her powerful hit, There For You.

During intermission we can hear the audience cheering in the stalls so turn our heads to catch a glimpse of two guys having a dance-off in the aisles to a Rihanna song. A few minutes later, the house lights dim and an epic instrumental string intro blares through the speakers. The stage wash is a fiery red as Dua Lipa makes a grand entrance with Hotter Than Hell. "Welcome to the self-titled tour. I hope you're ready to party!" she shouts. The crowd throw their hands up to clap along and Lipa amps us up by dancing seductively across the stage while wearing a Madonna-esque cone-shaped bra and high-waisted wide-leg pants.

Lipa then tells us that Blow Your Mind (Mwah) is a song she wrote about proudly being herself and not listening to other people trying to tell her to fit into a certain criteria box. "Be who you are and your most unapologetic self!" Lipa shouts, before singing this song and waving around a rainbow flag that's presented to her by a front-row audience member. She brings it down a notch on Thinking 'Bout You to showcase her mesmerising, deep and husky vocal tones, before continuing with the first song she ever released, New Love. Lipa's blown up in a big way since she last visited our shores and she recalls her intimate show at Northcote Social Club in 2016. But she was always destined for big stages and tonight Lipa plays a sold-out headline show on her night off from supporting Bruno Mars.

"Goodbyes always fuckin' suck, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do," she says, before diving right into a pair of heartbreak anthems: No Goodbyes and her Martin Garrix collab, Scared To Be Lonely. Text on the onstage screen states: "This song is for all the fuckboys who have done you wrong." We raise our middle fingers in the air for IDGAF. Lipa ends Begging by sitting on the floor and arching into a backbend before quickly leaving the stage to take a breather. She then returns with the biggest smile on her face and releases a final charge of energy to power through her final two hits: Be The One and New Rules. We chant along and crouch down low as directed before Lipa counts down for us to jump back up in unison for the final chorus.