Secondhand Setlists

Inna told us this was only her second show in LA ever. Someone needs to change that immediately.

Admittedly, I went into this show expecting to satisfy a guilty pleasure, not come out of it feeling transcendent. The last time I followed her music, I was in high school a decade ago, when the glitchy and homogenous Hot turned her into a Eurodance superstar. Since then, she has grown from electropop origins into something of a “global artist” in the vein of J Balvin or Shakira, and last night I saw that growth firsthand.

And it felt “Amazing” (a hit she unfortunately skipped).

Entering the stage to rapturous applause, Inna started the evening with Hot-era staples like “Deja Vu” and “Sun is Up”. From there, she segued into more recent hits imbued with elements of reggaeton and dubstep. “INNdiA” in particular reminded me why the world loved dubstep all those years ago. Though her recordings are drenched in autotune, Inna sounded better live than expected. Her steady tone complements her beats by never adding unnecessary riffs or flourishes, meaning anyone can sing along.

An added bonus, Inna delivers immensely entertaining banter between songs. “I don’t dance, I just move onstage,” she joked, in one of the few instances of a dance artist admitted their limited mobility. To a group of enthusiastic Romanian fans, she complimented their “sexy t-shirts” featuring her visage, albeit from 10 years ago. “I no longer look like that!”

But what resonated the most was Inna’s linguistic fluidity. Speaking in Romanian, Spanish, Arabic, French, and even Japanese (a parting “Arigato” as she left), Inna showcased what it means to be a pop act in an era of global streaming. Pop is all about appeal, and what better way to engage others than by speaking their language? Like other global pop acts of today (the aforementioned J Balvin and Shakira, Christine and the Queens, BTS, etc.), Inna embraces wordplay to get all her fans in on the party.

And a decade later, she’s even better at it than before.