Hilary Duff on Sold Out L.A. Shows and Balancing Nostalgia

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Hilary Duff said just hours before her second sold-out Los Angeles show.

The 38-year-old singer and actress is in the midst of The Lucky Me tour, her first major tour in over a decade. She waded back into the touring water last year with her intimate Small Rooms, Big Nerves tour. Hordes of young millennials and older Gen Z fans flocked to Inglewood’s Kia Forum on Wednesday. The crowd, many of whom were dressed in bright pink, green and orange, looked like they wandered off the set of Duff’s teen star-making show Lizzie McGuire.

Duff got emotional about playing in L.A., noting that her family was in attendance. “I’m home,” she shouted to Wednesday’s gathered crowd, telling them that she’s been to so many shows at the Forum over the year.

“Honestly, [the tour’s] just been joyful and fun and extremely rewarding. That’s not to say not a ton of work,” she told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of her second L.A. show. “But what a summer.”

Duff’s promoting her latest album, Luck… or Something, her first in a decade. The singer’s prolific career as a teen and young star was a bit of a balancing act, juggling acting and an earnest pop career, and balance seems to be a theme of the new tour as well. The singer has been made to thread the tough but necessary needle of fitting her aughts hits and her new music into a single setlist. She also has to make sure it’s engaging for both new and old fans.

She started the show with her 2005 song “Wake Up” and her early-career hit single “So Yesterday.” Starting with songs any fans in the audience would know felt like Duff was easing the crowd back into seeing her live.

“The first new song that I sing is ‘Roommates,’ and I feel like that one really goes off,” Duff said. “It’s exciting to me when they’re scream-singing the new stuff back to me as much as they do the old stuff.”

The singer’s right. She has no reason to be concerned about the ratio of old to new music — the crowd was equally as passionate about her older offerings as they were about her songs off of Luck… or Something. They were hanging on her every word.

“It’s just a dance, honestly. Everything’s been very intentional on my part, and I don’t quite know how to explain what the formula for the balance is for me,” she explained. “I think it’s more intuitive.”

Throughout the show, while Duff changes, she’s played video packages that acted as a buffer in between acts of the show. Some of those videos were Duff now but some were of the singer in her younger Lizzie McGuire days.

Naturally, those nostalgia-heavy videos got major applause. Duff took the time to thank the fans, many of whom have been with her since her younger days. “I’m so glad that girl was there for you,” she told the crowd. The singer described this tour as not only a “healing experience” for the audience members but for her as well.

“I’m a Libra, so I feel like naturally balance is something that I gravitate towards,” she told THR. “The show for me feels like a very big celebration that’s representative of my present self and celebrating an important part of my life, which is my past. When I first met everyone.”

She added, “And that naturally is the nostalgic element that feels emotional for people.”

Duff, now in her 30s and more heavily involved in creating music, is certainly singing about different things than she did in her youth. When she and her collaborator (and husband) Matthew Koma work on music these days, she has a very specific process. “When Matt and I were tackling Luck or Something, it was about the storytelling first,” she said.

“It’s more a feeling of what I want to get across first and what I want to talk about,” she continued. She doesn’t create the music, but she’s particular about what she likes.

Some of those new lyrics have landed her a new partnership. “Was it a sip of wine or Aperol?” Duff sang in her Luck or Something… song “Adult Size Medium.” The callout landed the singer a sponsor on the tour through a partnership with Aperol, whom she also called out mid-concert when explaining the wine fridge she keeps on stage. “I feel like I summoned them,” she joked.

“It was really sweet when this came up, and I obviously love being partners with a brand that genuinely resonates with me and that I use,” she said. Duff explained that the messaging of their partnership, “share the moment,” has been particularly relevant to her current state.

Duff added, “In my life right now where I feel like I’m just pedaling as fast as I can to keep up. It’s important to slow down and realize all the little victories or the goals that I’m meeting.”

Duff’s iconic 2003 hit, “What Dreams Are Made Of,” from the Lizzie McGuire Movie, served as the perfect finale to her set, clocking just shy of two hours long. The singer leaned all the way into the feel-good and joyful song, dropping pink, white and orange balloons from the ceiling as confetti shot in the air.

“’Dreams’ is always such a fun one,” she said of the finale. “I get to relax and let all the tricks do the job and just enjoy with everybody.”