Hilary Duff’s big thing these days is the notion that dignity isn’t for sale. It’s the tagline to her latest album, appropriately entitled “Dignity,” and it’s the basic tenet by which she lives. Fans in Everett can appreciate it even more as Duff rolls into town on Monday to make a long-awaited appearance at the Everett Events Center.
It was nearly three months ago that Duff abruptly backed out of a performance at the KISS 106.1 “Girls Night Out” radio show that also featured Lily Allen, Katherine McPhee and Fergie, due to illness. In dignified fashion, Duff is making the Pacific Northwest stop on her solo tour in Everett and treating fans who held on to their tickets from the May 13 show to see her sound check at 4 p.m.
Duff’s scheduled stop in Everett is a sign that this starlet shares little with others in Hollywood that trip over the obstacles that come with the transition from teen sensation to adulthood. Her music also speaks volumes.
Duff, 19, co-wrote every song on “Dignity,” and the concept appears throughout, particularly on the title track about her experiences growing up in Los Angeles that includes the lines “Where’s your dignity?/I think you lost it in the Hollywood hills.”
Her new album shoots Duff into adulthood almost as quickly as she burst onto the kids’ television scene as the clumsy-but-lovable “Lizzie McGuire” in 2001 and instantly became a one-person marketing machine. Moving beyond lunch boxes, dolls and even a kids’ bedroom set featuring her image, Duff now markets the adult version of such items, including her own clothing line, “Stuff by Hilary Duff,” and a perfume.
Through it all, she’s avoided the pitfalls suffered by the likes of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, and it sounds like she’s singing all about it. “All Music Guide” describes Duff’s “Dignity” as “the sound of the most popular girl at school shedding her longtime boyfriend and her old friends and starting life all over again.”
She also appears to be venting a little something toward her ex-boyfriend, Good Charlotte lead singer Joel Madden, who produced Duff’s previous album. Since their breakup, Madden hooked up with Nicole Richie and could be the father of her rumored baby if she’s pregnant. Duff has insisted that such songs aren’t actually about any of those people. She told USA Today in April that she’s happy being single and taking a moment for herself, rather than continuing to race through life.
“I want to be married and have kids, definitely, but not any time soon,” she said. “A lot of things in my life have come faster than they do for most people. There are people in this business who have done what I’ve done, and maybe marriage comes sooner for them because they’ve already experienced things and are financially set. But I hope that I don’t do that.”
Andrew Macpherson photo
Hilary Duff performs Monday at Everett Events Center.
Hilary Duff
With Lifehouse: 8 p.m. Monday, Everett Events Center, 2000 Hewitt Ave., Everett; $38 to $48 at the box office, 866-322-8499, www.everett eventscenter.com.
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