Hannah Montana Concert Review

The Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Tour rolled in North LittleRock, Arkansas's Alltel Arena on December 1, and like venueseverywhere, the seats were gone in a matter of minutes. All the ticketangst led to quite a build-up, and fortunately the show lived up to thehype, especially for Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus fans.

Forthose of you who have been living under a rock, Hannah Montana is aDisney-created pop star by night, who morphs into dorky Miley Stewartby day. The show has spawned a cottage industry of t-shirts, dolls and posters and two bestselling sountrack CDs. The voice behind the platinum blond wig and sparkly stage clothesis Miley Cyrus. The Best of Both Worlds tour gives fans the chance tosee Hannah Montana in all her glittery glory and also gives Cyrus achance to introduce her fans to her own brand of aggressive pop.

The Jonas Brothers opened the show with their smash hit "Kids of the Future," from the movie "Meet the Robinsons." Unlike a lot of Disneyacts, the Jonas Brothers played their own instruments, actually sangtheir own vocals and worked the stage like arena-rock pros. Judgingfrom the screams of the tweeners in attendance, the Jonas Brothers maywell be Disney's next sold-out sensation.

After the short JonasBrothers set and a brief intermission, Hannah Montana appeared,dropping from the ceiling in a shadow box. Screams reached a feverpitch when the first strains of "Rock Star" filled the arena. As HannahMontana, Cyrus is as bubble-gum as Britney and Christina, but inkeeping with her squeaky image, the lyricsare positive and girl-power wholesome and her outfits are fun, butextremely conservative. The Hannah Montana set was upbeat and expertlytimed. Even the many costumechange were built into the canned dialog to keep the show moving. Atthe end of the set, the Jonas Brothers were brought back onstage forthe ska-influenced "We Got the Party." The Jonas Brothers stayed onstage with "Year 3000" and the power balled "When You Look Me in theEyes," much to the squealing delight of the mostly female audience.

The Jonas Brothers introduced Cyrus as the huge screens flashed "MeetMiley" in time to booming bass of "Start All Over." At first, it seemedan odd choice of introduction, since every 8-year-old in the countryknows her name, but Miley Cyrus and Miley Stewart are as different asMiley's music is from Hannah Montana's. Her clothing style is funkier-even through a number of costume changes- and the music is guitar-driven and relies more on boy-trouble than girl-power. Cyrus herself is credited with writing many of the songs and they are stronger than those crafter for Hannah Montana.

Throughboth sets, Cyrus demonstrated power-house pipes that leaves many oftoday's mini-divas in the dust and a stage presence of someone twiceher age. While the show was promoted as a Hannah Montana concert, itwas designed to introduce the world to Miley Cyrus. If her firstheadlining tour is any indication, Cyrus' career will outlast the flash-in-the-pan pop of her TV alter-ego.