Going into the Selena Gomez show, I knew I was going to a Wiggles concert. It does scare me, the idea of young girls looking up to a young lady who sexualises herself via song and image, but regardless, they love her and I’m sure throughout history there has always been one artist in the same position. Madonna, for example. Maybe even Britney. Selena is a popular artist amongst kiddies, so I guess I had to suck it up.

Before the concert even started, so many kids were being crashed and pulled out of the mosh pit in obvious distress.

This would be my first time watching a show at Margaret Court Arena, and I must say, not bad. I am very impressed by how nice and cosy it is, and the quality of the sound. For the level of popularity of Selena Gomez, the size was perfect.

The show started with the warm up act, of course. This time we were graced with the presence of a Jonas brother. Joe’s new and improved band, DNCE (minus any of his brothers) is known best as the group behind the widely loved hit Cake by the Ocean. The song about having sex by the beach is the only one I knew, but despite that, they put on a cracker show. There’s so much effort in their performance, constantly jumping around and interacting with each other. The bassist does backflips and handstands, and Joe himself suddenly runs down the stage and into the crowd, even running up the steps to the second level. He leans over into the crowd allowing them to touch him. The band is clearly having a lot of fun with their time on stage, and it’s great to see. Best part of their time in the spotlight was their cover of Prince’s Kiss and James Brown’s Get on Up. Not only because it was nice to hear familiar songs, but the little girl next to me looked at me like I was the loser as I sung along and danced energetically. Not my fault you got no clue, little girl. Nevertheless, I loved their renditions of the two classics.

Finally, the show was to begin with the introduction of Revival. Selena casually walked on stage with a sparkly, one-piece swimsuit-like number. The one-piece swimsuit style and sparkles looked to be the theme in her wardrobe for the entire show. Same Old Love was the first out of the gates. After that, she would mention that she would do a throwback, meaning going back to her old songs. That means songs from basically a couple of years ago. She performed a remixed version of Come and Get It. This throwback didn’t last, as she entered a newer track, Sober. I actually quite like this song. I must admit, I’m not a huge fan of any of her tracks. It was during the performance of Sober that I noticed, she’s not the strongest, vocally, at all. Honestly, she seemed pitchy, and a little off key. But, the music was loud enough to cover her vocal flaws, and those who are musically challenged would not have noticed.

Selena added a bit of leather and came on again to perform Good For You, which isn’t a bad song either, but was performed with not a lot going on. A chair made an appearance, but that was it. It was quite a boring and effortless performance for such a big hit. Never fear though, I wasn’t bored for long. Slow Down seemed like the most fun to perform by the dancers and Selena. It’s also here we got to really meet the keyboard player. She strapped the board around her like a guitar and rocked out better than anybody. And I must add, she looked a lot better in a similar number than what Selena had first appeared in. She was very cool.

Selena would then ask the crowd to participate in some finger clicking, which obviously meant Hands To Myself would make an appearance. She would then walk off stage and back on with a white flowey skirt and white corset, and slow it down. She gave some advice, stating, ‘the older you get the more insecure you get,’ which to me was horrible advice. This is where she performed her more inspiring track, Who Says. She then mentioned that when she wakes up in the morning and feels ‘nothing’, she puts on some Worship music. Here she would jump on the piano herself and sing a cover. She says it’s what inspired her to write Nobody, and that song from her Revival album would follow.

Selena would reveal that she is currently working on a new album, and performed one of those new tracks. I can’t really remember enjoying it.

So far, the stage was plain. No steps or prompts, just the big screen behind the performance which would change themes according to song. But finally, as a Spanish guitar strummed away, two huge inflatable flowers came out of nowhere while her Latino sounding hit Me and My Girls warmed up. She performed in a gold sparkly number and high knee boots, whilst her dancers all dressed in costumes that represented bull fighter’s attire. The Latin part of the show continued with a very sexy track called Body Heat. As the song was coming to its finally few seconds, the red head of the dancing crew remained on stage and seductively danced while the guitarist went for his solo. She was too good for this.

This time also sporting a denim jacket with a sparkly green swimsuit-like number, Selena walked onto the stage singing the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams. Again, I got stares from the 12 year old next to me. Okay, maybe she was 13.

After this, Selena mentioned that ‘the world could use more kindness.’ The crowd roared, realising that the next song to be performed was her hit Kill ‘Em With Kindness. For some strange reason, the choice of prompt by the choreographer was big exercise balls. I found this distracting from a perfectly fine song.

The second last song of the show was her Zedd collaboration I Want You To Know. Despite slow moving and lack of effort in her performances thus far, Selena was very happy to dance along to this one. It was nice to hear this right at the end after what had been quite a boring show. Revival ended the show and after thanking her band and dancers, she waved at the crowd and casually walked off stage just like how she casually walked on.

I can’t say I expected much from an artist with the standards of Selena Gomez. She’s no Beyoncé or Jennifer Lopez, whose stage production and work ethic are extremely noticeable when they are on stage. But as mentioned, Selena’s standard requires less pressure to put on a huge production of her own. It would have been nice to make a show less lackluster, but I know now, I wouldn’t pay to see her again so swiftly. Maybe watching DNCE perform would help inspire her and her crew.

Selena Gomez, live at Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne was nice, and good to see her smiling and happy, but not worth much more. I give her show 2 out of 5.