LONDON, Ontario - Pop princess Hilary Duff has gone from blond to bronde, adding sexier outfits on stage and almost adult heartaches to her songs. None of which prevented a crowd of 5,200 fans, mostly preteen and tween girls and their faithful moms, from screaming their adoration to her at the John Labatt Centre last night. Duff didn’t disappoint her young fans with lots of hits — Come Clean, Wake Up, Fly and So Yesterday were in the set list — to go with her four dancers and solid band.

“If you feel like standing up and dancing with me, nobody’s watching. It’s a good time. We’re in this together,” Duff said late in her 100-minute show. That observation produced screams, as did Duff’s other friendly stage chat even if she spoke so quickly it obviously took young ears to figure out what she said.

They had also screamed when the stage crew cleared the stage for Duff by removing the table equipment used by the MC and DJ combination who opened for the teen star. The duo’s job was to mention Duff’s name so many times this critic lost count. Each mention produced screams.

To go with the thousands of young fans, there were some older ones. They would have enjoyed her good choice of covers, The Go-Go’s Our Lips are Sealed and Pat Benatar’s Love is a Battlefield. One of those fans might have brought along the night’s best pop culture sign. It said: “Can’t Get Enough of that Wonderful Duff.” Hey, isn’t that Duff beer, the brew that keeps Homer Simpson so mellow?