Kylie Minogue can’t stop smiling. Throughout almost the entirety of the two-hour runtime for the Tension Tour, the 56-year-old beams as she leads the crowd through a hit-drenched setlist that barely gives you a chance to catch your breath.
To be fair to Ms Minogue, she has a lot to be happy about. Since her performance in the Legends Slot at Glastonbury in 2019, her career has gone from strength to strength as she’s settled comfortably into living legend status. Her slinky 2023 single “Padam Padam” became a viral hit, boosting her profile in the previously ambivalent USA, where, to capitalise on the success, she set up shop in Las Vegas for a residency at The Venetian hotel and casino. Tension, the parent album for “Padam Padam”, proved so popular that it got a sequel, Tension II. Ahead of that record’s release, Minogue announced she would head out on her biggest run of live shows in a decade. If you were a pop star over 36 years into your career, you’d likely be smiling, too.
After making its way across Australia, Asia and North America, the Tension Tour has now finally landed in the UK. At tonight’s show in Sheffield, Minogue emerges on stage atop a swing as lasers shoot out into the crowd only to coalesce around her in the shape of a diamond. The song kicking things off is “Lights Camera Action”, a strobing warehouse-sized banger, which sets the pace for the next run of songs, as Minogue blasts her way through condensed but clubbier takes on “In Your Eyes” and “Get Outta My Way”. The Stock Aitken Waterman-era “What Do I Have To Do” gets a muscular new mix, its clacking drums replaced with a beefy bass and thumping house beats, while a softened “Come Into My World” begins with Minogue accompanied by only a piano, before expanding out into ethereal electronics.
The staging throughout is simple. Aside from a few lights, Minogue is joined on stage by a band, a small troupe of dancers and three exceptional backing singers. But when you have songs with such an indelible impact as “Better the Devil You Know”, “On a Night Like This” and “All the Lovers”, you don’t need to distract the audience with spectacle. Anyway, there is a magnetism to Minogue — you can’t keep your eyes off her. She’s approachable, too. Following a shortened version of “Shocked”, complete with rap, she chats with the crowd. When she spots one fan wearing some vintage merch – a scarf – she asks to see it, wrapping it around herself before quipping, “Don’t come near this with a naked flame.”
During an acoustic section, she takes requests from the audience, performing a cappella renditions of “Je Ne Said Pas Pourquoi” and “In My Arms”. It’s a shame that “Say Something”, taken from 2020’s lockdown album Disco, is denied its full mirror-ball majesty, but there is something poignant about the more stripped back, acoustic guitar-driven arrangement.
A strange video interlude, featuring Minogue and a rather threatening red telephone, introduces a menacing take on “Confide in Me”. Distorted guitars and the metallic crash of cymbals build towards a headbanging climax, while Minogue’s voice has never sounded stronger as she reaches into her operatic upper range. She follows this with the seductive breathiness of “Slow”, the squelching synths exploding for the last chorus. It sets the scene for the final act, which consists of back-to-back hits. Out of the songs from Tension here, it’s the sexed up and robotic title track rather than “Padam Padam” that really pops off.
Rounding things out is the same souped-up version of “Love at First Sight” that closed her stellar show in Hyde Park last year. It’s a euphoric conclusion to an already serotonin-boosting set. It’s further proof that Minogue is not just a living legend. She’s also one of the greatest pop stars of all time.
