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After COVID-19 put a pause on live entertainment, your favorite artists are ready to hit the road and entertain audiences safely with brand-new tours and experiences. And regardless of where you are, we're offering an all-access ticket to every must-see concert of the year. Welcome to E!'s Backstage Pass.
From the outside looking in, it's understandable to think that Dove Cameron has done it all.
At just 25 years old, the actress has landed roles on Broadway, in Disney movies and countless TV shows including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Liv and Maddie.
But earlier this month, the singer and actress was able to accomplish a brand-new career goal and milestone: For a few select nights in Brooklyn, Chicago and Los Angeles, Dove was able to sell out an intimate tour and perform a collection of her own work for her loyal fans.
"I've done basically every form of performing, but I've never done this where I'm touring a body of my own work for my fans," Dove exclusively shared with E! News. "It was really different actually. It was a bit of a learning process to do my own set every night but it was amazing to be so close to everybody especially after a time of such intense separation from the fan base."
For each show, Dove would self-style her looks and watch fans sing every word of her latest songs including "Remember Me," "LazyBaby" and "We Belong." The experience quickly left her inspired to create even more music.
"I just wrote the very first song on what I hope will be my next EP and I'm going back in the studio today," Dove shared on Oct. 19. "I'm actually in the studio every day this week in a writing camp. This was just sort of like a precursor to the bigger tour to come."
It's further proof that Dove is a multi-hyphenated artist who doesn't have to stick to one lane with her singing and acting skills. In fact, the former Disney Channel star hopes fans take away an important lesson from her career in the spotlight.
"It's really, really hard to be an artist and only want to do one thing," she said. "If you're an artist, you want to be creative in every possible way and surely there's nothing stopping anybody these days, so definitely hone every craft that you're interested in, pursue everything that calls to you, but never ever, ever let somebody tell you that you can only do one thing."
In the midst of writing new music and preparing for acting projects, including the live action Powerpuff Girls series and movie Good Mourning With U, Dove offered E! News an exclusive look at her latest shows.
"I hope people are left with a feeling of empowerment," she explained. "I hope you feel like the main character for an hour or so and I hope you feel more connected to yourself because really that's literally all the matters in this life is that we are connected to ourselves, our higher selves and our sense of being alive. We feel reinvigorated and ready to go back out in the world for more adventures."
On Oct. 4, Dove Cameron kicked off her shows with a performance at Schuba's in Chicago.
"I performed for big audiences before, but it's always somebody else's work," Dove explained to E! News. "It's always a show or special for a film or a TV show or Broadway or something. But it's very rare for me that I'm just being myself, just me talking about my music with my songs and the things that are important to me, so it was quite different."
"It felt very intimate and I was almost kind of faced with this feeling like, 'Oh, people actually like me,'" the singer reflected after her shows. "I never really had that experience. It was kind of emotional actually."
"I'm actually super pleased to say I was completely self-styled," Dove revealed when discussing her outfits for the tour. "All the corsets I got, they're all one of a kind and made by street vendors that I found in Los Angeles before I left. All the jackets and pants were vintage and all the shoes were my own from my closet, so it was all just like complete and total mishmash of me cutting and taping and glue gunning things together."
"Before I was going to go into acting and singing, I told myself I was going to go to the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising," Dove revealed. "I used to sew a lot of clothes so fashion has always been something that I was highly interested in. I was kind of worried about self styling. I was like, ‘Can I trust myself with this?' I was really pleased that it kind of worked."
On Oct. 6, Dove took her show to Baby's All Right in Brooklyn where she covered "I Can't Feel My Face" by The Weeknd. "I knew I wanted to gender bend something," she explained. "I knew I wanted to cover something typically done by a male artist. I love that song."
Most of Dove's setlist featured her very own songs. "Hearing what people responded to was almost like not what I expected. People really loved ‘Remember Me' and ‘LazyBaby' and ‘We Belong,'" she revealed. "I also think people really respond to ‘Bloodshot.' But again if you're coming to a show, I think typically the fans are fans of the whole discography. They really went all out for basically every song."
"I think Gwyneth Paltrow said this in one of her shows. She was like, ‘I am here to milk this life for every single thing it has to offer,'" Dove shared with E! News. "I've always felt like if I don't soak up every human experience possible, what's the point of being a human being? I'm only here to do that."
On Oct. 10, Dove traveled to Los Angeles and the Moroccan Lounge for another sold-out show.
"This was just sort of like a warm up to test the waters and then I think we're probably going to try to do like a national tour," Dove predicted. "And then we'll probably go to London and Scotland and all over the place."
Want more insider access? Go behind the scenes of JoJo's Trying Not to Think About It shows and Kane Brown's Blessed & Free tour.