Concert review: Ariana Grande at the Bell Centre in Montreal 

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Ariana Grande performs at the Bell Centre in Montreal, on Thursday, August 6, 2015.

Copious with melisma and brimming with charisma was feline-headwear-sporting pop star Ariana Grande at the Bell Centre Thursday night.

The diminutive American with a knack for effortlessly hitting the high notes had little trouble singing over her screaming fans, who were deafening in their own right and wore their own cat ears — including official tour ears that lit up and changed colour to the music through some sort of phone app witchcraft.

Aside from a recent doughnut-licking incident that made celebrity gossip rounds, the 22-year-old Floridian is still in the ingénue phase of her pop career. It was a congenial 90-minute set with an amiable host in Louboutins flanked by 12 dancers, a shiny shoed tap-dancing DJ and a backing band with a string section. At one point, Grande soared above the stage on a cloud, then later on a chandelier during the Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby-inspired portion of the set.

The show began with Grande rising from under the stage — an oft-repeated visual trick on this night — with her back turned to the crowd of just under 12,050. Bang Bang, her collaborative effort with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj, was the on-the-nose opening number, complete with loud fireworks designed to extend her vocal flourishes.

While her fans filled the empty gaps with screams, they were surprisingly attentive during the songs themselves. They were downright silent as Grande floated on a cloud to Best Mistake, from 2014’s My Everything. During that song, rapper Big Sean, her former beau, appeared on the big screen in a pre-recorded video. Grande employed the same strategy for Childish Gambino’s guest verse on the Mo Money Mo Problems-recasting Break Your Heart Right Back, as well as Mac Miller’s on The Way. The mercurial The Weeknd, on the other hand, was a mere disembodied voice without a visual on Love Me Harder.

Singer Ariana Grande performs at the Bell Centre, Thursday Aug. 6, 2015.

Her cover combo of Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman and Madonna’s Vogue twisted in the wind despite her best intentions. As New York bachata-pop crossover star Prince Royce discovered during his opening set, this was a very young crowd: his cover of Usher’s 1998 single Nice & Slow was met with confusion, while a version of The Weeknd’s Fifty Shades of Grey hit Earned It drew screams.

Later on, Grande returned from a costume change to capture galloping ballad One Last Time’s effective restraint until the final bars, when she threw out the recorded version’s concise ending for extended histrionics. On One Last Time she was backed by three dancers who dove through holes in the stage only to reemerge and apocalyptic red smoke on the rear screen. It showed Grande’s undeniable range, but it was also another instance where she concluded a song with excessive vocal gymnastics. Following that, Grande donned a pair of Imogen Heap-designed Mi.Mu gloves, which allowed her to manipulate loops with various hand gestures. It was a welcome technological demonstration.

Outside of the wardrobe changes, Grande ran a tight ship. The only off-script moments were when she acknowledged her cousins in attendance and thanked a security guard who retrieved an errant glittery pump sent flying from her foot during a dance sequence. She ended the night with her two biggest hits from My Everything: the bustling Zedd-produced EDM track Break Free, and then as one-song encore, the yakety saxing Problem.

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