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Is it healthy to want to be someone to the point where Single White Female springs to mind?
Probably, when you consider that half the women in Auckland - those who saw Gwen Stefani last night, anyway - will be signing on for personal trainers this week.
Although Stefani, 37, is the most grown-up of the blonde pop stars to play the Vector Arena this year, she gave the crowd a night of energy so relentless she was like the aerobics instructor you just can't keep up with.
Whether skipping across the stage, hollering the big ballads or giving a lighthearted rap, Stefani gave a performance custom-made for the arena.
This was her first gig in New Zealand since No Doubt played the Powerstation in 1996. Since then she has transformed from geeky Orange County girl fronting a ska-punk pop band to ballsy ringmaster of one fabulous dance-pop career - and a fashion designer with her own label, L.A.M.B.
Her Sweet Escape tour to promote her second solo album came complete with six-piece band (including brass section) and eight flamboyant back-up dancers, and her show was part pop spectacle, part fashion show.
The singer paraded her sculpted body in a series of unforgiving yet flattering oufits, from sexy school ma'am to princess meringue to naughty nun.
Like her dress sense, her music is a dreamcatcher of pop culture references, from hip-hop (Yummy) to The Sound of Music (Wind it Up) to decadent pop (Luxurious).
But the big ballads, 4 in the Morning and Early Winter, showed she's also got the pipes, a combination of her strong punk tremolo from her No Doubt days and sweet, high-pitched babydoll, although songs such as Wonderful Life, which she wrote about "a boy I used to make out with in high school", could have done with a little more dynamic subtlety to make way for that big chorus.
Even her cutesy, between-song banter felt theatrical - "Where are all my New Zealand girls?" - and parts of the finale, including the album's least memorable song Orange County Girl, paved the way for a spot of unadulterated Gwen worship, complete with back-up screens flashing her baby photos and a thrilling meander through the crowd.
But Stefani isn't interested in subtlety and nor should she be. She's a master of the stage, who projects herself to the fly on the back wall. After that performance, even he would have been dancing.
Review
* What: Gwen Stefani.
* Where: Vector Arena.
* Reviewer: Rebecca Barry.
