Hilary Duff Gives ‘The Math’ Its First Stage Outing Since 2006, as Y2K Nostalgia Overruns Lucky Me Tour

Hilary Duff has spent years wincing at “The Math.” The Metamorphosis track, sung from a frustrated relationship using arithmetic signs and a *69 reference, is something the 38-year-old told Rolling Stone she now finds cringe. “I literally die inside every time,” she said. “Those lyrics? I’m ashamed.” So of course, on August 6 at Madison Square Garden, she revived it — for the first time since 2006.

“I hope you remember the words to this song,” she told the crowd. “I hope I remember the words.” She did, turning a private embarrassment into a shared act of catharsis on a tour that has unearthed fan favorites con entusiasmo. The Lucky Me Tour, supporting her first new album in over a decade, Luck… or Something, leans heavily into the catalog Duff hadn’t touched live in years, including the deep cut “Anywhere But Here.”

Where other legacy returns might tiptoe around their teen-pop past, Duff’s run has become a full-throttle costume party. Fans arrive in Lizzie McGuire’s pink tank and blue capris, Sam’s pancake-batter apron from A Cinderella Story, or Cadet Kelly’s camo. The unofficial dress code is early-2000s overload: butterfly clips, sequined skirts, space buns by the hundreds. It’s less a concert uniform than a rewinding of a cultural VHS tape.

Duff herself frames the excavation as a way of letting a younger self “out every once in a while.” What could have been a rote nostalgia exercise feels sharper because the performer is willing to be surprised by her own material — and willing to play the song she once hoped everyone would forget.