KYLIE MINOGUE IS IN AMERICA!!!!!

actually ~ kylie minogue started her music career when she was 19 years old and has been one of the worlds biggest pop artists since the 80s pic.twitter.com/0ceryIGBVb
— 90s Kylie (@kylie_90s) October 7, 2024

Pop icon Kylie Minogue is currently touring North America in support of her Tension and Tension II albums, and I recently attended one of her shows!!!

April 2025 makes it the second time I’ve seen her perform and in the U.S. This is really cool because she rarely does shows stateside. The first time I saw her was actually her first tour in America and it was just a small number of dates.

It was titled For You, For Me (though according to Wikipedia, it was “promoted as KylieUSA2009 and is also known as Kylie Live In New York), and I saw her at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom.

It was practically an all-nighter for me once I arrived in Manahttan because the show was on a Monday back in October 2009 and I didn’t have enough money or chutzpah to get a hotel and stay overnight. I literally had class and probably work-study or my part-time job after class that Tuesday!

But the exhaustion I felt was worth it! Kylie was in America!

I was especially excited because I loved the X album that was released in 2007 and thought it was brave of her to consider some U.S. tour dates after battling breast cancer and having completed her Showgirl: Homecoming tour. I was aware that she hadn’t toured America before and I felt we were robbed of her shows that I always heard great things about. The closest America got of Kylie here was the “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” video on rotation and her appearance as an presenter at the 2002 VMAs. And I’m sure a late night show performance of two because there was no denying the Fever era from which the aforementioned song came from. I wanted to support her mini U.S. shows!

And it was so fun! I was surrounded by Gen X gays and we had a blast!! It was so incredibly cool to see her live and she reacted so appreciative that we were there. It seemed the older fans in particular were waiting for Kylie so they could jam along with her.

I was saddened to hear after her tour had concluded that despite being in music since the mid-late ’80s, and with a couple of crossover hits in the America such as “The Locomotion” and of course “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” she was talked out of touring the U.S. from her management.

Post-Fever, there was safe assumption that she would finally tour the U.S., but it didn’t happen, and that was the early 2000s. I hate when acts from outside of the U.S. are nearly convinced that they don’t have fans here. It’s a lie and unfair to American fans.

Like, even last year, my friend and I saw S Club (formerly S Club 7) and it was their first U.S. tour despite seasons of their television show airing in America, and they were quite known for their first album. For every Adele and Ed Sheeran, other acts are being told not to come here it seems. Lame.

Good thing I saw acts like Dizzee Rascal and Mabel when they came to town and I wasn’t the only one that had bought a ticket and knew the words.

Sixteen years later, Kylie would tour the U.S. again, except this time full-scale! More American cities on the roster, and even some second dates added due to high demand such as in New York City! And how exciting for Kylie considering the Tension era has given her another iconic hit and her second Grammy Award for the track “Padam Padam.” Legends only!!

Before we knew it, April 2025 was here and it was time to attend the Tension show!! I wanted to wear vibrant colors, glitter and shimmer to go with the disco vibe she’s been in lately. The album before Tension was Disco, in ode to the genre’s heyday.

I put some pins in my hair because why not and wore a vintage bedazzled jacket (bolero?) I’ve had for years.

Once we were at the show, my friend and I, a lot of us felt the dress code was color, fringe, glitter, and shimmery touches.

Kylie was as vibrant as ever!!! As one of our ultimate pop icons (overseas, she’s comparable and beloved as Janet Jackson and Madonna), she moved as if it was 2009 and the bops were back to back!! And us American fans knew every song!! I know that’s right!!

It was great that there was a smaller stage close to the middle of the arena, giving other fans a closer look. The smaller stage also really showcased her background singers and guitarist! It was so cute and she walked through the aisles to our delight to get to the small stage and back to the main stage!

The costumes and production were also fantastic! The setlist was stellar too and considering her massive catalogue, she honestly could’ve performed for another hour! We do wish we heard certain songs!! We needed “I Was Gonna Cancel”, “Red Blooded Woman,” and “Fever.”

I left the concert with a Kylie t-shirt from merch, a handful of compliments about my jacket, and the flex of being able to say I’ve seen Kylie Minogue twice in America!

In celebration of her Tension tour, below will be a list of my favorite songs sung by her!

A time was had for us and for Kylie, a reminder that her fans have always been here and we’re thankful she considered us!