Rarely do we see a hot mama so wild as to jump off the stage during a concert and run past thousands of fans to the end of the stadium just so she could “see everyone at the back” and dedicate an entire song to them. But that’s precisely what made Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape Tour such a blast when she performed at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Aug 14.

The 37-year-old American singer and mother of one astounded a crowd of 8500 screaming fans near the end of her sell-out concert when she dashed up and down columns of stairs and in between rows of seats to personally greet fans while singing her single, “Cool”, from her 1st solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby.

Fans went berserk and swamped around her to get a handshake, a hug or even just a close-up glance of their idol. Thank goodness for the 7 or 8 security guards who chased after her, or who knows how much more chaotic the situation would have gotten?

The 90-minute concert opened with a heap of excitement. Gargantuan spotlights searched through the sea of people in the dark and a siren rang through the speakers, denoting the escape of a prisoner. A chamber then appeared on the screen that hung above the stage. Gwen’s trademark key closed in to unlock the prison gates as the tambourine beats that introduce her hit single, “The Sweet Escape”, was played. The lights on stage came on and Singapore’s biggest party that night began as one of music’s leading ladies made her sweet escape from prison.

From “Luxurious” to “4 In The Morning” and from the trademark Harajuku Girls to quaint dance routines that live up to the unique, dance styles of Gwen’s songs, there was hardly anything not to like about this massive spectacle, which featured hits from both her first solo album in 2004 and last year’s “The Sweet Escape”.

But it was Gwen’s better-known songs like “Rich Girl”, “Wind It Up” and finale number, “What You Waiting For”, that really got the crowd bursting with sprightliness, especially “Hollaback Girl” during which the pop star called for “all [her] Singaporean girls” to join her.

The Harajuku styles of “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.” also lived true in the show through the smashing costume designs, which were probably designed by Stefani herself, judging from the daring combination of kimonos with black stockings and white, short skirts smeared with pink, to getups inspired from Japanese school girls’ uniforms, and even seductive blue, green, yellow and pink muffin-like dresses topped with chef’s hats for numbers like “Yummy”.

Animated as her performances were, Gwen was careful to avoid vulgarities, unlike during the North and Latin American leg of her tour, and even reworded the line “this my shit” from “Hollaback Girl” to “this my shhh”. This can be attributed to the stereotypical image Asia has of being conservative, especially since Stefani had to cover up as well when she performed in Malaysia the following week.

Alas, the explosive opening, kick-ass costumes, and even jumping off the stage could not sustain the heat of the show during the performance of lesser-known songs like “Orange Country Girl” and “Wonderful Life”, which were cause for potential yawns if one was not well acquainted with Gwen’s song collection, despite the obvious effort made to spread the better-known numbers evenly throughout the show. A very dynamic 6-piece band, which gave the concert a slight rock feel, also unfortunately drowned the singer’s voice at certain points of the show, so much that, at times, it was almost impossible to make out what she was singing.

Still, with her flamboyant styles and jazzy personality, Gwen was able to pull off a much-heated concert, and if there’s one thing about the show that anyone in the audience would remember (besides her shocking stunt offstage), it’s her natural ability to work the crowd.

With 20 years’ worth of experience on stage, the lead singer of third wave ska band, No Doubt, had an initially-reserved crowd not just all on their feet by the 15-minute point, but frantically jumping, unanimously clapping to the beats of her songs, as if in a Christian rock concert, and hollering non-stop if not singing and dancing along (including the 56-year-old man sitting beside me). Even diva Christina Aguilera couldn’t work half her crowd to this extent during her Back To Basics Tour in June.

Gwen’s personality shined brighter than any other element in the show with cheeky lines like “Now look what you’ve done. You made me all worked up and sweaty, sweaty” and the way she embraces her audience by “search[ing] for people who inspire [her]” and then pointing to the entire crowd from left to right and even thanking an elderly man for being at her concert.

“I can’t believe I’m finally back in Singapore!” Gwen expressed in her absolutely adorable Californian accent after her 3rd number, “Yummy”. “This is my third or fourth time performing [here] and you are just as gorgeous as I remember you.”

Gwen also took time to share about her music and how her second solo album was a result of writing and producing too many songs for the 1st record. Her sincerity plunged through to the audience with her constantly thanking the crowd for taking time out to spend time with her and expressing how grateful she was.

“I’m just a girl from California who writes music and to have you guys listen to it, you know how happy that makes me?” she shared. “Don’t wake me up from this dream, seriously.”

Don’t worry, Gwen. We won’t. Isn’t that what sweet escapism is about anyway?

Pictures provided courtesy of Erwin Villanueva, Heather Pinkston, Stephanie Harwin, Nathaniel Daniel from the USA.