Demi Lovato at Wolf Trap: Girls flock to pop star

Demi Lovatos bio would read like a teen celeb version of the Book of Job. Shes confessed to Cosmopolitan that shes bipolar, gone on Ryan Seacrests radio show to admit being a cutter, told People magazine she lost her Disney TV show because it wasnt healthy for my recovery from bulimia and announced on Twitter that shed been dumped by Joe Jonas.

Her public travails have only left Lovato, just 19 years old, easier to shriek for. Sunday at Wolf Trap, it had to be more than the music that had an amphitheater full of mostly adolescent girls shrieking nearly nonstop for 90 minutes. It just had to be.

(Kyle Gustafson/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) - Demi Lovato performed Sunday at the Wolf Trap in Vienna.

Rick Elkins of Woodbridge took his teen daughter, Barbara, to her third Lovato show, loaded with posters with flashing lights and slogans such as Lovatic 4 Life! Elkins said the way Lovato has confronted her flaws helped make her a hero in his household. This is a person my daughter looks up to as a role model, Elkins said. Theres so many scumbags out there. And, yes, I like her.

Lovato, whose show-biz career started on the kiddie dinosaur show Barney and Friends when she was 7, does have some obvious star qualities. She oozed genuine sweetness, constantly complimenting her band and thanking the fans for their ovations and for sticking by her. And, although decked out in a full pantsuit and black pleather jacket and running and hopping and flipping her long and new bottle-blond locks all night, she didnt appear to sweat at all.

And she knows her audience. Before Fix a Heart, Lovato warned the masses that summer means theyre going to get dumped by their seasonal romance partners. Ive gotten through it, and so can you guys, she said to screams. The tune, alas, had her wailing, You never really can fix a heart. S! he got m ore howls when she announced: Its not a school day tomorrow! No homework! Thats awesome!

As for the music, most of Lovatos set was taken up by processed pop-rock, over which she sang PG-13 lyrics Come on with me and well stay up all night long! from All Night Long in a mid-rangy, competent voice. Nearly every song would have fit just fine on a Disney or Nickelodeon sitcom soundtrack. The artistic high points came with My Love Is Like a Star, a light blues number that even fans of, say, Bonnie Raitt, could accept, and Got Dynamite, a guitar rocker worthy of Pat Benatars canon.

The show peaked with Skyscraper, a smash ballad from last year. If melodrama were an Olympic sport, this tune about getting dumped by a really cruel dude could bring home the gold for Lovato. All the fans sang along as if her pain was their pain, and they tried to get their voices to break just like the girl who wasnt good enough for Joe Jonas.

McKenna is a freelance writer.