The singer-songwriter explores her dual personalities with her latest album ‘Hell’s Belles.’

I think you’re all in the lesbian cult after tonight,” Zolita exclaimed after turning the Marquis Theater into a place of sapphic worship.

On Oct. 6, the 32-year-old singer-songwriter stopped in Denver on her Hell’s Belles Tour. Zolita typically writes about sapphic romance and personal growth. Her fourth album, “Hell’s Belles,” embraces her dual personalities as an angel and devil through sweet, romantic country-pop and dark, booming electro-pop. It’s the Los Angeles-based artist’s most ambitious project yet.

The music video for the title track is a campy broadcast in which Zolita, playing a private investigator, infiltrates a lesbian cult of popular sapphic influencers to take it down. Instead, she falls for the leader. Her work is deeply cinematic and rooted in worldbuilding.

Her tour continued this storyline with backup dancers AnnMarie Arcuri and Sierra Fujita Puett adding to the sexual tension. Puett choreographed plenty of steamy moments, from the dancers dropping to their knees in front of Zolita to the duo rolling around on the ground together.

Off to a sexy start

Delicate lingerie hung on a clothing line behind Zolita as she kicked off the show with her album’s title track, “Hell’s Belles.” She wore a bedazzled yellow bra, gloves and a layered tulle skirt with a large silver belt buckle. Arcuri and Puett line-danced and thrust with Zolita until they pulled off her skirt to reveal frilly booty shorts.

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Zolita leaned into Y2K pop-rock vibes on “Misunderstood,” jumping and shimmying across the stage. She made sure to sing to individual fans, letting them know how much she appreciates them.

“Denver, I am so fucking excited to be here tonight. Are you ready for a gay culty night?” she asked, to cheers from the audience.

During “I F*cking Love You,” audience members held up colorful hearts that read “Denver 💖 you” in an adorable fan project.

“You guys are going to make me cry,” Zolita said. “Thank you, guys. That was so sweet.”

On “Everybody’s Lover,” she sat in the relatable sadness of a partner who bounces from lover to lover because she doesn’t know how to be alone.

zolita onstage

Photo: Maddie Browning

Country vibes

Zolita and her dancers briefly popped out from behind window shades, carrying a cult symbol as part of their outfits. They reappeared in ruffled shawls and cowboy hats for her unreleased track “Cowgirl Casanova.” Zolita rode one of her dancers like a horse while whipping a black lasso.

She reveled in Sabrina Carpenter-laced country charm with “Small Town Scandal.” Leading the audience in a dance, she sang the best lines: “She rode my big pink tractor straight until the dawn/And she didn’t even care that I hadn’t mowed the lawn.”

Continuing with the cult story, Zolita opened a letter from hell inviting her to a healing ceremony. “What do we think that is?” she asked. A fan immediately yelled, “Sexual!”

Sexual liberation

Arcuri and Puett reemerged in black leather bras, booty shorts and lace capes. On “Final Fantasy,” Zolita knelt as Puett sipped from a chalice, then waterfalled the liquid from her mouth into Zolita’s.

As deep red lights and fog covered the stage, the dancers brought out a black throne. A voiceover began, with Zolita explaining her dual personalities. She said her darker side is “the part of me that wants to feel everything without apology, without permission.” Zolita concluded she doesn’t have to choose one — she can be both.

The artist changed into a sparkly silver bra and rhinestone-studded black mini shorts for “Hardcore,” gyrating with her dancers. On “Voodoo Doll,” Arcuri and Puett took turns giving Zolita a lap dance on her throne. Then they quickly put on blonde wigs for Zolita’s track “Dopplebanger,” which pokes fun at queer women dating their clones.

Zolita asked the audience who was interested in joining her lesbian cult, and hands immediately shot up. With help from her dancers, she chose a drag performer, a newly out lesbian and a person studying to be a therapist. They took a photo together before heading back into the crowd.

With “Hypocrite,” Zolita pursued “hot girls on the internet” with Lauren Sanderson sensibilities. She dropped into the crowd for her popular single “Somebody I F*cked Once” and traded can-can kicks with her dancers on “All Girls Go to Heaven.”

The venue seemed about half full, which didn’t align with Zolita’s important impact on sapphic pop music. Still, Zolita delivered a theatrical, energetic set worthy of a sold-out house.

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Maddie Browning is a freelance arts and culture reporter who covers music, theatre, visual arts, books, food, and fashion. She has more than five years of culture writing experience, and her byline has appeared in NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Marie Claire, The Boston Globe, Business Insider, Denverite, Westword, Boston.com, WBUR, and Colorado Public Radio, among others. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Emerson College. On a day off, she enjoys checking out new local coffee shops and thrifting with friends.