Concert review: Raw and soulful, a gutsy Demi Lovato emerges

Theres not much that can shake Demi Lovato anymore.

Not even swallowing a bug could faze the 19-year-old from Texas, who found herself unable to sing some of the lines of her defining anthem Skyscraper on Tuesday night at the San Diego County Fair. Sitting at a piano under a spotlight, the song should have been one of her most emotional of the night, but the singer/songwriter/actress just shrugged and laughed as she tried to cough the pesky thing out.

Even though I choked on a bug, those are the moments where I have fun with you guys, Lovato laughed. Thats never happened before and I got to share it with you.

By the end of the show, she would share so much more with her fans. Its been about a year and a half since the Disney actress and musical workaholic left rehab, and she spent the show half diving deep into the lingering emotions from those days and half proving that she is trying to put them behind her.

With the whizzing bright lights of the carnival nearby adding to the excited buzz of the crowd, Lovato blazed out onto a stage situated on the Del Mar Racetrack in monster black wedges, black-and-white leopard leggings, a long white rocker shirt and a bright pink blazer, the ensemble she donned for the entire show.

Starting with All Night Long, the first song on her most recent album Unbroken featuring hip-hop legends Missy Elliott and Timbaland, Lovato spent the first couple of songs establishing her command of the stage, flipping her super long blonde waves all over the place and stopping for sexy interactions with her guitarists. In front of an audience that was a mix of die-hard teenage girls and boys and random fairgoers, she wanted to remind them that she wasnt 14 anymore.

Vocally, the singer belted the high notes and ends of phrases right from the beginning, impressing the crowd with the gutsy and powerful voice shes been known for since she debuted her singing voice on Disneys musical TV movie Camp Rock. On stage with just a four-man band and two ba! ckup sin gers, Lovatos vocals were the focus of the night.

At times she slowed it down, sitting confidently on a stool with her acoustic or electric guitar. She seemed almost nostalgic as she happily ran through two of her older and most well-known songs, Catch Me and Dont Forget. Most of her older songs she performed were in that pop/rock style that questions why she was never the lead singer of a band like No Doubt or Paramore.

But the point being made by most of the songs she performed, which were from Unbroken, is that as shes grown up and away from her tortured past, her sound has also grown up and away from the antsy lyrics and attitude from those days. There is an obvious change in her vocal strength and focus and an improved musicianship on this album.

Songs like My Love is like a Star show a rawer and more soulful Leona Lewis power-ballad-type sound and Youre My Only Shorty introduces a top 40 dance-hit vibe to match the more playful attitude shes developed as she sheds her teenage skin. The songs on this album allow her to express her darkest days when she was receiving treatment, but also allow her to show that shes moving on.