This performance was given in 2017 at American Music Awards, meaning this was performed at a Theatre venue. Although there is a live audience, the audience there are either performers or other celebrities so a lot of the audience was behind screens, it had 6.8 million viewers. To begin, Demi starts off by being sat in the audience whilst a flash of mean tweets flick through on the live screen behind the stage. This puts demi in the audience so for a minute, she’s like a by-stander looking onto her own online bullying and this kind of bonds her with the viewers online too because for a second, they’re all seeing the same. For the live audience, they’ll see an empty stage and will be fully submerged in just viewing the tweets but for the online audience, we see Demi’s up close reaction as the tweets flood the screens. It creates a sense of “aw” because these tweets can be very triggering to her but here she is, in the audience, watching them flood on the screen before she performs her song known as a “unapologetic self anthem”.
Before she starts singing, she walks onto the stage, confidently from the audience, whilst making a speech on how you should always be your own “unapologetic self”. She does this by talking directly into the camera too so it forms the connection between both audiences as she addresses the fact that you should be confident and unapologetic of yourself. Multiple times, she glances at the dancers and smiles as well as constantly playing the camera, by singing directly into the lens, but also singing into the live audience to keep them engaged with eye contact from time to time.
All dancers, and Demi, are dressed in dark outfits whilst the stage is well lit, not only is this aesthetically looking but also keeps them the focus of the room. Although Demi is actually only a singer, on multiple occasions, she dances along with the other dancers instead of just standing still. This keeps the stage looking alive and makes the audience never loose attention in case they miss something. All whilst we have dancing and singing, in the background we also have lights flashing to the beat. When Demi sings “sorry”, the lights flash white and spell out “sorry”. Same again when she sings “not sorry”, the lights flash red and spell out “sorry”. Throughout the whole performance, Demi stays centre of the stage and dancers which directly puts her in the light as she is supposed to be the main performer on stage.
In this performance, there is a live audience, which are just visible behind her and the dancers, playing the melodies to the song and the beats. She is the only singer on stage so she harmonises mainly with her own backing vocals from the underscore but you can hear her powerful vocals shining, even when she pulls the mic away so she can hit the high notes without distortion. There doesn’t appear to be any amps on stage, a side from the few on the side lines at the back, but this is to ensure safety and a wide enough space for all of the dancers to move around the stage safely.
Over all, this performance was successful because Demi managed to keep both the live and viewers at home, entertained due to the flashing lights spelling things out now and again, dancers, a live band and her herself. The speech to start of the performance connected the audience to Demi and inspired them to be their unapologetic selves. This song and the tweets also combat a lot of the social issues that lay around toxic social media, it inspires people to stop being “online trolls” and start being their true authentic-self, even if there are “haters”.