State Fair Grandstand review: At 20, Demi Lovato impresses when she cuts loose

At 20 years old, Demi Lovato already has lived quite the life. She made her first big splash in the Disney TV movie "Camp Rock" at 15, bought her family a new home the next year and dropped out of a Jonas Brothers tour in 2010 to enter rehab for "physical and emotional issues."

To her credit, Lovato didn't shy away from her past when she headlined the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on Tuesday, Aug. 28. In fact, she embraced it fully, chatting with the young, mostly female crowd of 5,567 about her various problems numerous times during the 80-minute show.

After one particularly heartfelt speech about how her fans kept her going while she was "away" in rehab, she broke into "Skyscraper," a makeshift "I Will Survive" for millennials.

To be honest, Taylor Swift does a far better job with the whole "I'm just like one of you" thing, and she's got far stronger material, but it's easy enough to like Lovato. For one thing, this girl can actually sing, a skill not always associated with teenage pop stars. She's not quite up to the level of, say, Kelly Clarkson. But chances are she'll have more useful, knowledgeable criticism next month when she assumes her new position as a judge on "The X Factor" next to Ms. Britney Spears.

Lovato has issued three albums to date, but has only just recently started scoring genuine hit singles, with the aforementioned "Skyscraper" and "Give Your Heart a Break."

In concert, she was backed by a fairly traditional bass/drums/guitar

rock band, with a synth player and a pair of backup singers on the side. That gave her a sound more akin to mid-'80s Heart than much of what's heard on pop radio today.

Unfortunately, Lovato isn't quite big enough to land A-list material, and many of her songs suffered from a certain pleasant dullness. Even her edgier stuff, like the hip-hop track "Who's That Boy," sounded wholesome enough to score a Kohl's back to school commercial. (Everything's 35 percent off through Monday!)

Other Disney-reared vocalists! -- from Hilary Duff to Miley Cyrus -- have struggled at a similar point in their career. Lovato clearly wants to transition into more adult material, but she's growing faster than her audience. To wit, she was dressed like Olivia Newton-John at the end of "Grease," but with a bulky white blazer thrown on top. Maybe that's her version of business casual?

A highlight of the evening was "My Love Is Like a Star," an old-school R&B torch song that gave her a chance to truly cut loose behind the microphone. With any luck, there'll be more of that in her future.

Pop music critic Ross Raihala can be reached at 651-228-5553. Follow him at Twitter.com/ RossRaihala.