Concert Reviews
Panned in the past for lackluster moves, Dua Lipa came out with barrels blazing in Boston and never let up.
Dua Lipa brought the energy to TD Garden on Tuesday night for her “Radical Optimism Tour.” Brent Goldman
Dua Lipa, with CIL, at TD Garden, Boston, Sept. 9, 2025.
Go girl, give us everything!
Dua Lipa has returned to Boston — and she brought electricity to TD Garden.
In 2022, British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa graced TD Garden in support of “Future Nostalgia.” Three years later, she’s back, and this time she brought new material to the stage.
Her latest record, “Radical Optimism,” arrived in 2024, following the enormous success of “Future Nostalgia” in 2020. While it didn’t quite reach the same heights as its predecessor, “Radical Optimism” still found its audience, scoring the biggest opening week for a British woman artist in three years.
Opening the night at 7:30 p.m. was CIL, who hyped up the crowd with her distinct sound blending soulful pop with a danceable edge.
As the clock approached 8:42 p.m., fans grew restless. But what came next was worth the wait. The lights dimmed, and the stage emerged from the darkness. Shaped like a giant wave, the stage projected oceanic visuals paired with the sounds of crashing tides. The visuals stretched on for what felt like several minutes (too long) before the swell came to a crest.
Lipa emerged like a mermaid — à la her cameo in the movie “Barbie” — through a cloud of fog from the top of the wave, bathed in blue light. Her opening track, “Training Season,” set the tone for the next two hours of pure pop spectacle. From that moment on, she danced the night away.
Feathers, fishnets, and flair
Lipa’s performance felt akin to the musical film “Burlesque” — with Dua as a Christina Aguilera-esque femme fatale dressed in shiny corsets, fishnets, and tall boots.
From the stage design to the costumes to the choreography, the show felt like one giant cabaret. For “End of an Era,” a troupe of dancers with ostrich feather fans traipsed across the stage, encircling Lipa in fluttering plumage. Later, Lipa performed a chair routine for “Whatcha Doing.”
Dua Lipa performed her “Radical Optimism Tour” at TD Garden on Sept. 9 – Brent Goldman
Even when the stage was stripped of choreo and flashy visuals for emotional ballads like “Anything for Love,” her voice was more than enough to command the stage, letting her raw talent shine through.
And at one point, she let one of her drummers, Adam “Smiley” Wade, showcase his skills in a solo that electrified the crowd, with every beat set to a strike of lightning on screen.
‘I came all the way from Japan for you’
After a cosmic version of “Levitating,” she walked through the crowd to greet fans and take selfies with them. She asked each one if they were from Boston, but to her surprise, most of the fans she met were from other faraway countries, including Turkey and Japan.
“I came all the way from Japan for you,” one said.
Dua Lipa greets fans at her concert at TD Garden. – Madison Phipps
Lipa even borrowed a large black feather boa from a fan for her next few numbers, after complementing her “glam” and “fabulous” outfit.
“I’m having a delicious, marvelous time,” the fan told her.
Among the standout moments of the show was Lipa’s performance of “Love Again,” in which she was hoisted in the air on a platform, cloaked in a white fur coat. The crowd went wild as she ascended — er, levitated — and beckoned opposite sides of the arena to challenge the other in a screaming match, like a conductor leading a high-octane orchestra.
‘Baby, keep on dancing like you ain’t got a choice’
Lipa captivated the audience with elevated choreography — reclaiming her power and stage presence after becoming a meme years ago for the lack of energy in her performance.
This tour’s choreography was nothing short of clean. For most of the night, she was surrounded by a team of synchronized dancers, like bees in perfect unison circling their queen. Her team even lifted her up overhead, like a goddess in gold.
Dancers hold up Dua Lipa as she performs on stage at TD Garden. – Brent GoldmanThe visual elements, while engaging, lacked harmony
Though the “Radical Optimism” album cover focuses on water, Lipa brought all of the elements to TD Garden, with lots of fire effects and on-screen visuals like moving waves and sand dunes. But honestly, she probably should have just stuck with water.
After the opening ebbs and flows of the waves, it varied from cowboys with lassos to horses running through a field, which felt more like an on-board airline commercial than a representation of her album.
Coupled with lasers and large UFO-like lights — which also felt more in line with the themes of her previous “Future Nostalgia” album — the show moved us through space, the wild west, and underwater in one night. There wasn’t a single overarching visual, except maybe for confetti, which was canoned throughout the arena at least five times.
Confetti showers TD Garden as Dua Lipa performs “Break My Heart.” – Madison PhippsAn Aerosmith cover?
At every show, Lipa performs a cover of a song by a local artist from the city she is performing in. Despite her confidence throughout the show, Lipa admitted to having some pre-song jitters ahead of the cover.
“I’m very excited, but I’m a little bit nervous about this next song,” she said, before launching into a rendition of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.”
Her nerves were apparent in the beginning of the song, but she quickly found her footing, easily finding vocal strength and emotional power with each line.
Fans, both old and young, swayed along to the song, turning on their phone flashlights and waving them overhead to the music.
It was a heartfelt moment, especially for an older crowd who grew up with the group, as the Garden was filled with more millennials and Gen X-ers than kids.
A reflective, thankful moment
Before her encore — which featured back-to-back bangers — Lipa took a moment to share with the audience her thanks for their support, and for the chance to perform in Boston two days in a row.
“For me, a dream of mine is to be able to come and stay in a city for a little period of time and really get to know it, and really feel the culture and the food and the streets, and just kind of understand the city,” she said. “Being able to be here for a little bit longer means a lot.”
Setlist for Dua Lipa at TD Garden, Boston, Sept. 9, 2025
ACT I
Training Season
End of an Era
Break My Heart
One Kiss
ACT II
Whatcha Doing
Levitating
These Walls
“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (Aerosmith cover)
Maria
ACT III
Physical
Electricity (Silk City & Dua Lipa song)
Hallucinate
Illusion
ACT IV
Falling Forever
Happy for You
Love Again
Anything for Love
Be the One
Encore
New Rules
Dance the Night
Don’t Start Now
Houdini
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