Only Mandy Moore can deliver a moody midtempo performance of “When I Wasn’t Watching” without an audience watching after The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon taped its first show without a live crowd on Thursday night (March 12) due to coronavirus concerns.
It’s that kind of riveting spirit she’s had since she was 15 years old, selling “Candy” cassingles while opening for *NSYNC‘s 1999 summer amphitheater tour, that still moves through the 35-year-old singer today. “For a long time, I apologized for that time of my life and that chapter because I had no creative control,” she said about her earlier days that she consolingly croons about in her Silver Landings track “Fifteen.” “And I’ve kinda come full circle to have a lot of affection for that girl ’cause she lives in me and I carry her around.”
That girl Moore carries around with her to this day triumphantly found her way back onto the stage in front of the Fallon staff and The Roots to belt about her “full circle” journey in the rock-tinged pop ballad “When I Wasn’t Watching.”
Watch Moore’s interview and performance on Fallon below.
