Concert Review: Kylie Minogue Conquers Madison Square Garden
The international superstar shined during her first U.S. arena tour.
It seems like America is finally getting the message on Kylie Minogue. For nearly four decades, she has been an international sensation, but she’s remained a blip in America, save for being a mainstay at your local gay bar. Last weekend she brought the Tension World Tour to New York City and proved that, nearly forty years into her music career, America has finally shown up. She headlined the Mount Olympus of American venues, Madison Square Garden, for the first time in her career. For two consecutive, sold-out nights she left the crowd electrified and invigorated with her enduring brand of joyous pop music.
There are a few things that the average person has to understand about Kylie Minogue. First and foremost, she is an international sensation. She has been selling out arenas, especially in the U.K. and Australia, for decades. Second, she is sunshine personified. She emanates brightness, is unstoppable, and can be relied on to keep shining and spreading the light wherever she goes.
Third, she’s resilient. In the face of a mid-2000’s breast cancer diagnosis, she took a brief hiatus to treat and conquer the deadly disease, and got right back to the tour her diagnoses disrupted. Instead of making her cancer-time album a sad album, she made an upbeat, fun record: 2007’s X. Her catalog is 17 albums deep, which includes two Grammy Awards (won 20 years apart in 2004 and 2024), and she has a resume beyond music that most entertainers would kill for.
One of the things that has made Minogue standout from somewhat-peers, perhaps the closest of which are Madonna, and, to a lesser extent, Janet Jackson, is that she has managed to skirt controversy. There are no Kylie Minogue controversies that have permeated and overly occupied mainstream media to eclipse her talents. And she seems to shy away from controversy or anything that might lead her down that road. She simply brings fun and joy with her wherever she goes, especially on stage.
Lastly, this Madison Square Garden thing is a big, big deal in the Minogueosphere. The last venue in Manhattan where she performed a full show for the public was the 500-person-capacity Bowery Ballroom in 2018 (plus an intimate mini-set at the 90-person-capacity Café Carlyle in 2022). Her only full scale U.S. tour, ‘For You, For Me,’ landed in Manhattan in 2009 for 3 nights at Hammerstein Ballroom, coincidentally just around the block from Madison Square Garden. Hammerstein’s capacity is 3,000 a night. In comparison, The Garden holds 20,000 for concerts.
The Tension World Tour certainly lived up to the name and broke the tension, just like she sings in the namesake song. The show moved with joyful electricity from the opening, when Minogue descended from the ceiling surrounded by diamond-shaped lasers and delivered “Lights, Camera, Action” (the lead single to her latest album, 2024’s Tension II), all the way to the closing, when she bounced around the stage to 2001’s “Love At First Sight.” Though she paused after her fourth song to let the audience roar, and even shook her hands to draw louder cheers, she didn’t even stop to speak to the crowd until she finished the very apt “Come Into My World” from 2001’s Fever, and was five songs deep.
When she finally did stop, Minogue gave herself a few moments to take it all in. The chants of “Kylie, Kylie, Kylie” that erupted from the crowd clearly added fuel to her fire as she conceded that she was at a rare loss for words on night one. This was a big deal for her, clearly. And it is a big deal. There’s magic in seeing an artist take the stage at Madison Square Garden for the first time. Seeing Kylie Minogue finally accomplish the feat after decades, especially when it seemed like it wasn’t in the cards, made it all the more thrilling.
She burned that added fuel and delivered two consistent, energized, exciting, and thrilling performances at Madison Square Garden. On the second night she seemed even more excited than the first. On the first night, she told the crowd, she had to say that the last time she’d staged a full-scale production in New York City was 2009. But on that second night, that wasn’t true anymore. “Tonight, I get to say the last time I did a full-scale show in New York City, was last night. Because you sold out two nights at Madison Square Garden!” The audience roared as she basked in that revelation.
It’s hard to pinpoint a single peak of the show, because The Tension Tour is full of peaks from end-to-end. The show is stacked with hits (and a few lesser-known favorites) across her four-decade career. Even the vignettes to occupy her costume changes are solid. Her production graphics and pre-filmed bits are just the right amount of camp for this very camp-friendly crowd. Though the army of Kylies in sunglasses, suspenders, and suit pants against a blue background that preface “Tension” is fantastic, nothing tops the Kylie who appears on-screen mid-stage during “Shocked.” Dressed all in the red ensemble and a platinum blonde wig that adorn the tour poster, but with the top inflated, her arms are outstretched horizontally and she tilts occasionally like a plane and spinning around. It’s a true sight to behold.
There is something particularly magical about her trip to the b-stage though, especially if you get to be near it (I was against the railing of the b-stage on night 2). Midway through the show, during “The Locomotion,” her 1987 debut single (a cover of the 1962 Little Eva classic, penned by Carole King and Gerry Goffin) she choo-choo’d herself from the mainstage, through the crowd, to the diamond-shaped b-stage near the back of the floor. After she finished running train on the audience, she dove into “Hold On To Now,” a standout from 2023’s Tension. Then, carnage, as she jokingly called it in apology to the rest of the crowd, ensued. It’s request time, and Kylie loves a request. During her intimate 2018 show at the 500-person-capacity Bowery Ballroom, she heeded a request to perform 2000’s “Your Disco Needs You” on the fly, even reaching for, and landing, the song’s immense high note.
On night one, she clocked a sign with “Dreams” written on it, a cut from 1997’s underrated Impossible Princess. She delivered a quick acapella piece of it, her first time performing the song in 18 years, before diving into “The One” from 2007’s X. On night two, the requests portion was more extensive. She delivered a rapid-speed acapella of “Wow,” also from 2007’s X, a few bars of 2018’s ”Golden” and “New York City,” the latter an unfinished cut from 2018’s Golden which she debuted at that aforementioned 2018 Bowery Ballroom show, before catching the sign that really clicked with her. Apt for this tour, the final request on night 2 was the closing cut from Tension, “Story,” which she only performed one other time, back in 2023.
Then, she got intimate. After letting a rose pick her subject for the evening, she performed a snippet of her Nick Cave duet, “Where The Wild Roses Grow” directly for a fan. The rose’s choice on the second night, David from Texas, was standing one over from me and was fully enthralled by the moment. It’s beautiful to see her make a connection like that with a fan each night.
The intimacy continued as 2020’s Disco took hold. She’s often lamented how much she wished she could’ve toured that album, which was hampered by COVID-19 lockdown. She began the Disco set with an vocally charged acoustic performance of the album’s lead single “Say Something,” a song she said she dreamed of performing just like that, in the round, in an arena. As the song reached its climax, a disco ball descended from the ceiling and she marched into a medley of “Supernova,” “Real Groove,” “Magic,” and “Where Does The DJ Go,” which brought her back to the main stage.
Perhaps one of the most astounding and notable pieces of the performances is her microphone; it’s on for the entire show. These days, a lot of performers in the pop field, whether they’re big into choreography or not, rely more and more on their studio vocals to carry their live performances. While there are certainly backing vocals from the studio and some additional assistance during choice hooks, Minogue doesn’t rely on them for the heaviest vocal lifting. She’s singing live and her mic is very clearly at the forefront of the mix every night. Look no further than the crazy highs she reaches during the haunting performance of 1994’s Bond-theme-esque “Confide In Me.” Her highs strained a bit during “Things We Do For Love,” on the second night, it didn’t detract even slightly from the show or the experience, or the rest of her voice, which is more powerful than many realize.
But the truly profound moment of the Tension World Tour came after, in reflection. The audience is among the gayest crowds you’ll ever experience, and also the greatest age ranges. Minogue is fully conscious of that, and even took time to acknowledge all the fans from the day ones, to those of “Padam” origin, and everyone in between. There are audience members who weren’t even born when she re-cracked the U.S. charts in 2001 with “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head,” and know her best from 2023’s “Padam Padam” (both of which were performed during the show's final acts). Others, including yours truly, weren't born when she released “The Locomotion” in 1987. But the enthusiasm is universal and intergenerational. The crowd radiated that same shine that she espouses. They were among the best concert experiences I’ve had, which says a lot, because usually someone pisses me off at a show, whether obstructing my view, not shutting up, or finding some other inventive way of being obnoxious and distracting. Everyone was there to have a good time, and did. Kylie Minogue brings out the good in people, and that’s more important now than ever.
More footage from Kylie Minogue’s Tension World Tour: