Free to be ... Jessica

It won’t stand as oration alongside John Kerry’s or John Edwards’ speeches at the Democratic convention, but Jessica Simpson made a strong, pointed case for herself during her concert at the Universal Amphitheatre on Friday.

“A couple of years ago, I felt I always had to be in competition with others,” she said, a not-so-veiled reference to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, whom she once seemed to be shadowing in the bubblegum-pop wave.

But by embracing her inner ditz for a very accepting public via the MTV reality series “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” which chronicles her relationship with her husband, Nick Lachey, she declared that she had been freed.

“Success comes from within,” she told her mostly young, mostly female fans. “And thank you all for teaching me that.”

Framing that statement with an unpretentious, engaging if rarely dazzling show made it more than an empty promise. Simpson at 24 has separated herself from Spears (who wants to be the Madonna of her generation but is closer to Ann-Margret or Joey Heatherton) and Aguilera by eschewing glitzy, choreographed staging in favor of spotlighting her personality and big voice. Perhaps she’ll wind up her generation’s Olivia Newton-John, which wouldn’t be bad at all.

She’s also effectively cementing her pop culture place as a new wave of young female singers rises, led by Hilary Duff and Jessica’s own sister, Ashlee, who also stars in a new MTV reality series and whose first album debuted at No. 1 last week.

What Jessica lacks is musical identity, never transcending generic approaches to such hits as the recent “Sweetest Sin” and versions of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” and Robbie Williams’ “Angels.”

Arguably, the evening was more about her emergence as a TV persona than about music. Video clips from the MTV series sprinkled through the concert proudly highlighted her reputation as the Simpson with more d’oh moments than Homer. And further giving a variety-show tone, about 30 fans were perched on platforms flanking the stage, several getting to ask questions of the star. Simpson revealed that she’s proud of her sister, that her role model is her mother and that she wishes to have all the Louis Vuitton bags in the world, plus global peace -- not too different from what politicians say, really.