You Don't Know Alysa Liu's Power Until You See It In Person | Defector

Alysa Liu’s arrival on the ice at Stars On Ice produces the loudest, most sustained crowd response, with thousands of fans screaming as soon as they believe she is about to skate. Fans come to cheer, cry, and sing along to songs used in her routines, showing a level of readiness that adults struggle to match. The event takes place in Anaheim, California, at a Southern California tour stop featuring multiple figure skaters, including Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito, and Olympians such as Madison Chock and Danny O’Shea. The show begins late due to traffic and scheduling pressures from a nearby Dodgers/Angels game, but the stands fill quickly and the crowd remains highly engaged.

"There is no fandom quite like the fandom of teenage girls. It is powerful and pure, untainted by the burdensome knowledge of adulthood while burning with an intensity that feels beyond human comprehension. That's why the screaming for Alysa Liu sounds the way it does, and why it starts immediately, the moment her thousands of fans believe she is about to head out on the ice. They have come here to cheer, to cry, to sing along with the lyrics to the songs she skates to."

"We are here, at the Southern California tour stop of the Stars On Ice show, for all the figure skaters, of course-for "Quad God" Ilia Malinin, for U.S. champions Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito, for Olympians Evan Bates, Madison Chock, Danny O'Shea, and Ellie Kam. All get heavy rounds of applause and calls from the crowd of "We love you!" But there's no denying that there is one skater for whom the audience got and stayed the loudest, for whom the most phones go up in the air."

"Liu is still in college, but there's no age minimum for being a pop star. The 20-year-old from Oakland is inarguably one of those now. At this tour stop, the show starts late because its up against the most recent installment of the Dodgers/Angels non-rivalry. That game is happening across the street as I arrive, making traffic around the arena even worse than the usual woeful Orange County standard."

"But by the time the lights go down, the stands are packed; Shohei Ohtani played to a sold-out house, too, but these stars come to town much less often. Our show opened with a group number to a brooding p"

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