Even though her career kicked off with a Hi-NRG bang 37 years ago when her cover of “The Loco-Motion” hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, Kylie Minogue achieved a historic first over the weekend. On Friday (April 4), she headlined New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden venue for the first time. (She had performed at MSG as part of the Z100 Jingle Ball lineup in 2002 when “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” returned her to the Hot 100’s top 10, but this was her first time delivering a full concert as the top-billed act).
During her Saturday (April 5) night show at MSG, the Australian pop legend was still pinching herself: “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,” she said, beaming.
“It’s wild,” she told Billboard last October when asked about headlining the Garden for the first time. “It feels slightly like an out of body experience.”
While Minogue is always energetic and upbeat on stage, she seemed particularly effervescent as she treated her rabid fanbase to a career-spanning selection of hits and deep cuts, everything from 2023’s viral breakthrough “Padam Padam” to 2003’s sensual “Slow” to 1994’s trip-hop foray “Confide in Me” – and of course, a healthy selection of songs from her most recent albums, Tension and Tension II (it is the Tension Tour, after all).
From surprise songs she sang as part of an audience request section to her final encore, here are seven fabulous moments from Kylie Minogue’s MSG show on Saturday night.
Minogue told Billboard that a vocal tube is one of her touring musts, and from start of the show, you could tell that she’s been taking very good care of her pipes. Minogue has always been a stronger singer than some give her credit for, and during the evening’s second song, “In Your Eyes,” she belted out a long note that made her vocal precision abundantly clear.
After years of mixed feelings about her breakout hit (“it’s so uncool” she told Billboard), Minogue has learned to embrace “The Loco-Motion.” “Let’s take it back to where it all began, a time and a place known as the ’80s,” she said before launching into the Stock Aitken Waterman version of the song, camping it up by making train motions with her arms and toot-tooting her way through the dated but delightful hit.
During the audience request section, Minogue sang bits of “Wow,” “Golden” and, fittingly, “New York City.” But the standout was “Story,” with Minogue and her backup singers sounding marvelous on the rushing, poignant pop song. “Thank you so much for requesting that,” she told the fan who had their setlist wish fulfilled.
“Who’s my wild rose tonight?” Kylie asked before singing a snippet of her Nick Cave duet, “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” with one lucky audience member. “The rose chooses, not me,” she said, holding out a long-stemmed rose that decided upon a man named David. As she knelt down to serenade him, he greeted her with a huge smile and a cell phone in her face. “You don’t have to film this,” she said, eliciting a round of laughter from the crowd. “Everyone else is recording.”
Before performing a sparkling, four-song medley from her fantastic pandemic LP Disco, Minogue sat down next to her guitarist to sing a heartfelt “Say Something,” which had all the phone flashlights swaying throughout the arena. “This particular moment is a dream come true,” she said from a square-shaped platform in the middle of the crowd. “I wanted to sing this in a round.”
“Padam Padam” was always going to be a highlight, but the dramatic staging made it feel like a capital-m Moment. As her dancers undulated on a red light-drenched stage, an extended intro built up the (yes) tension until Minogue emerged, rising up from a fog-filled hole in the floor. While folks were singing along throughout the night, it seemed like the entire arena joined in on every word of Padamdemonium.
Her final song, “Love at First Sight,” felt like a much-deserved victory lap for the dance-pop queen. While her band jammed on an extended outro to the Fever single, Minogue danced with an infectious, joyful abandon. Before leaving, she seemed to take a mental photo of the crowd, pausing to soak up all the love and energy radiating throughout the famed venue.