A Pop Music Feature
The extraordinary landmark live event that has catapulted Kylie Minogue back onto the world stage, the TENSION TOUR//Live 2025, comes home on CD and a special-edition 2-disc vinyl release!
The 21st Century has been very good to Kylie Minogue. Specifically speaking, the last decade has proven very fertile ground for the artist who, at one time, had been relegated to the music charts across the pond. Ever since landing on the US charts with her electro-pop remake of “The Loco-Motion” and the original single “I Should Be So Lucky,” Minogue has had to enjoy pop dominance in the US from a distance, sidelined by the 1980s MTV proliferation set by Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna. International acts were only starting to penetrate the scene and would eventually merit their metal, but for Minogue, it would be a slog of a journey.
That all changed with the hit “Can’t Get You out of My Head,” from her 2001 album Fever, which dominated across the charts, ably competing against the likes of an overly saturated pop scene that included Britney Spears, Beyoncé, and Justin Timberlake. The album was a standout, including crossover hits “Love at First Sight” and “Come Into My World.” It ignited all-new interest in Minogue, who, after escaping the sugary confections of her early days with the Stock Aitken Waterman, darted into more daring dance and Euro-electro. Her keen eye and passion for fashion would also elevate her to iconic status as a muse for many of the most celebrated designers in haute couture.
As an artist, as a live act, Kylie Minogue readily put it all out there! She took risks that no other artist would attempt, perhaps because the spotlight wasn’t as hot on her as on her contemporaries. It wasn’t Kylie’s talent or image that was in question; the US just didn’t know what to make of her, especially when she had established herself winningly, calling the shots in her career. Minogue waited patiently for the rest of the world to catch up to her. That was never more evident than when the showgirl set out on her most ambitious world tour, which was suddenly derailed by a life-changing cancer diagnosis.
The largely indestructible talent had to face her own mortality and pulled the brakes on her lavish greatest hits tour, taking a few months off to deal with cancer and rebuild her body. Kylie stunned the world, returning to the stage, eventually completing the run of “The Showgirl” World Tour. She would push expectations even further with the release of X, her tenth studio album, and supported it with a spectacular European tour, aspects of which she brought to the States in the “For You, For Me” [working title] North American Tour, a scaled-down live presentation that wowed her fans in New York and Los Angeles.
Her next album, 2010’s Aphrodite, produced alongside Stuart Price (Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor), once again solidified Minogue’s flair with visionary elegance and a shrewd understanding of pop music, especially dance music. The album was a critical success and led to another tour. “Aphrodite: Les Folies” Tour would be her most expansive tour, bringing her for the first time to several cities in North and South America, and Canada. Although she had to scale back the show for certain venues, it still showcased the majesty of music and fashion that had become synonymous with Minogue.
The 2-disc CD track list is expansive.
Baby, Break The Tension
You could have used a knife to cut the excitement surrounding Kylie Minogue’s latest live escape. After a spectacular Las Vegas residency, Kylie Minogue promised her fans that she would be hitting the road, and this time it would be global! No shrinking violent, on the heels of not one but two record-breaking hit albums, the Tension Tour//Live 2025 was a feat decades in the making. With a setlist that capitalized on four decades of hits, the Pop Goddess of Love had accumulated an entirely new fan following with her hit albums Tension and its sequel Tension II featuring the international hit “Padam Padam,” the title track, “Lights, Camera, Action” wedged between her greatest hits including songs from Disco an album that she worked out and released during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Captured in a 2-disc CD set and 2-vinyl album, for anyone who has had the privilege of catching Minogue live, a recording, even a live recording, doesn’t exactly do her justice. The ultimate exuberance experienced in the venue is unlike anything that can be replicated; it’s a movement — an intermixing of media, sonically, lyrically, and visually that is astounding and overwhelming. If Madonna’s “Celebration” Tour represented the pinnacle of her four decades as a recording artist, Kylie’s “Tension” Tour is the exhale after having held her breath for years, a validation of profound excellence.
It isn’t just that her fans had been waiting years for this; it’s also, for the artist, a culmination of pursuing the unreachable star and striking with impact like an earth-shattering comet. Minogue set records, selling out venues across the world, including stateside, the Holy Grail of which was having to add a second date to her New York City, Madison Square Garden concert, after selling out her one scheduled performance in minutes. For nearly 2-hours, Kylie Minogue exceeded expectations — bringing her audiences to their feet.
The Prize Package
If you weren’t able to secure a ticket during the tour’s itinerary, the live recording does in spades to bring the show to life one more time — it’s best heard through earphones. The iTunes digital release, which plays in DOLBY Atmos, is quite impressive and recreates a stunningly atmospheric experience. The setlist spotlights Kylie’s latest hits from the aforementioned Tension and its sequel, along with giving Disco the love it might have been denied (under the circumstances of a quarantine). In between those standouts are the greatest hits from four decades of pop excellence.
“The Loco-Motion,” for all of its kitch, has always remained a crowd favorite, and Minogue and her band give it a stellar dust-off and performance that takes it to a next level, sitting properly among dance anthems like “Spinning Around,” “Get Outta My Way,” and newer fare like “Timebomb,” and “Edge of Saturday Night” (duet featuring the Blessed Madonna). Known for inserting several track medleys illustrating her musical forays through the ages, the “Tension” Tour is unique in that it features few of those and goes for nearly full-length interpretations of her catalog.
A worthy successor to her previous live works, Minogue is a spectacular live singer, and the “Tension Tour//Live 2025” masterfully encapsulates the best of what Kylie is capable of. It’s an excellent addition to any collection, and the ultimate tour souvenir featuring previously unpublished photos from the tour, which is the best we have until the home video release of the full show is produced.
Here is your #FanzEyeView of Kylie Minogue Live From the Tension Tour (Visualizer):
TENSION TOUR//LIVE 2025 | by KYLIE MINOGUE | is available on iTunes and available in a 2-disc CD and 2-disc vinyl set through the kylie.com website.
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