Katy Perry brought the California Dreams Tour back to Manchester last night in what was a truly triumphant return.
It was a concert that, like Alice Cooper's recent Halloween Night of Fear show, focused heavily on theatrics and big production to create a very special evening for her fans.
The tour was led by a loose narrative, helped along by some admittedly funny videos to move it along.
For a few hours last night, the stage of the MEN Arena was transformed into Candyfornia, complete with candy-cane banisters, candyfloss clouds and so much more.
There was a lot to take in, the whole stage featuring some kind of sweet or cake, as Perry clearly took influence from Alice In Wonderland to create her "dream world".
The show had it all - costume changes, brilliant dancers, mimes, a kidnapping at the hands of the Joker, a live band, and all the hits.
It would be easy to only talk about how visually exciting the production of the show was, but that would be to discredit not only Perry's catalogue of hits, but also her undeniable charisma.
She had the entire MEN Arena in the palm of her hand, as the costume changes saw her move from sophisticated to sexy from song to song.
Perry has a knack of making the most extravagant of stage shows shuffle towards intimacy, particularly on a moving trio of performances, featuring 'It's Not Like The Movies', 'The One That Got Away' and 'Thinking of You'.
The three tracks worked together beautifully to create an emotional passage in the show, as Perry showed she has a soaring, crispy voice in the live environment, even when the production is stripped down.
It was an admirable performance, 'Thinking of You' seeing the singer perform at the far end of the arena on a pink cloud, giving the fans further away a chance to be close to their idol.
The crowd more than played their part, singing along to every song, from opener 'Teenage Dream' to the glorious climax of 'California Gurls'.
They were helped along by the occasional intimacy of the evening - Perry was joined by around 15 constume-clad fans towards the end of the show, even taking a picture on-stage with one girl.
Humorous and clearly talented, this was an artist excelling in a stage show that, whilst following a narrative and succeeding as a piece of musical theatre, will be tough to rival in the live music scene.
She's best known for hits like 'I Kissed A Girl', the innuendo-filled 'Peacock' and 'Hot n Cold', but Perry showed that there's more to her than the hits.
The fans reacted just as well to 'E.T.', 'Waking Up In Vegas' and 'Ur So Gay', and the atmosphere lifted the show from fantastic to spectacular.
Any pop superstar will have their critics from "serious" music fans, but a show of this caliber, from an artist that seems to thoroughly enjoy (and be humbled by) the opportunities she has, should not be disregarded.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge (Twitter: @AlistairMcG)
Tagged in Katy Perry