One Year Ago: Kylie Minogue Tours North America!

Over 20 years into her career, Kylie Minogue toured North America for the first time ever in 2009. One year ago this week (October 4, 2009), she played in Los Angeles for the first time ever on tour at the Hollywood Bowl. This post is to commemorate the occasion, which was honestly one of the most fun nights I've had in a while and was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. All of these photos I took myself, so please credit me and don't steal them.



Kylie Minogue 2009 North American For You For Me Tour, Hollywood Bowl, October 4, 2009:

Overture
Light Years
Speakerphone
Come Into My World
In Your Eyes
Shocked/What Do I Have to Do/Spinning Around
Better Than Today
Like A Drug
Boombox/Can't Get You Out of My Head
Slow
2 Hearts
Red Blooded Woman/Where the Wild Roses Grow
Heartbeat Rock
Wow
White Diamond Theme
White Diamond
Confide In Me
I Believe In You
Burning Up/Vogue
The Loco-Motion
Kids
In My Arms
Better the Devil You Know
I Should Be So Lucky
Love At First Sight



Throughout the whole world Kylie Minogue is a pop sensation. Her music is played all the time on the radio, her private life is all over the tabloids, and her image is instantly recognizable. That is everywhere EXCEPT for America. In the U.S., Kylie is barely known as that Australian singer who did those songs "The Loco-Motion" and "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (except in the gay community, who absolutely adore her).

It is therefore not a stretch nor an insane notion that Kylie had never gone on tour in America. Her shows are humongous, spectacular, theatrical stage shows that fill up arenas all over Europe, Asia, and Australia. American arenas, on the other hand, are not capable of being filled with 20,000 fans per show. There simply is not a large enough audience here (there are only so many homosexual men in each city, especially ones who are willing to spend money on a Kylie concert). So she simply never came. And American fans eventually accepted as fact that we would never be able to see Kylie on one of her tours in the U.S.

After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, she had a sort of new-found appreciation for life. It was no coincidence that four years later, shortly after she wrapped up her KYLIEX2008 tour throughout the rest of the world, she decided to take the plunge and finally perform in America. Granted, she needed to scale back her shows to perform in much smaller venues than she is accustomed to playing in, but she swallowed her pride and set out on a mini 6-city tour throughout North America for the very first time in her career.


For this North American 2009 Tour, also known as the For You, For Me Tour or KylieUSA2009, Kylie compiled a "best of" collection of song arrangements and performances from her previous tours. Some may think of this compilation of Kylie's past tours as cheap regurgitation. On the contrary, since none of her previous concerts were performed live in America, it was actually exciting to finally see some of the performances and arrangements live on stage that we had previously only been able to watch on DVD. Taking the best parts of different past tours and combining them all into one single show actually made it the ultimate Kylie concert experience.

The torch version of "I Should Be So Lucky" that Kylie did, for example, was originally performed on Kylie's Intimate and Live Tour and then on the On A Night Like This Tour. The Overture's Sound of Music homage borrowed heavily from the opening of the KylieFever2002 Tour. Most of the show, however, was a combination of Kylie's most recent tours: Showgirl: Greatest Hits, Showgirl: Homecoming, and KYLIEX2008. A majority of the music arrangements mimicked those from KYLIEX2008, such as the "Can't Get You Out of My Head"/"Boombox" mash-up, the added brass instruments on "Wow," and the version of "In Your Eyes" where Kylie belts out an incredible note towards the end of the song and holds it for a good few seconds.

Most of the show was not actually pure duplication of Kylie's past tours. Every song had at least something new added to it, making it stand out from the original time it was performed on an older tour. Certain song arrangements, for example, differed slightly from their original ones. The jazz version of "The Loco-Motion" was a highlight from Kylie's Showgirl: Greatest Hits and Showgirl: Homecoming tours. The live brass band, which Kylie first debuted after these tours, on KYLIEX2008, enhanced the original performance even more on KylieUSA2009.

There were also three songs that had entirely new mixes done specifically for the North American Tour: "Light Years," "Speakerphone," and "Come Into My World." These new mixes, along with Kylie's first ever performance of material from her upcoming album (she sang "Better Than Today" from 2010's "Aphrodite") made the American audiences feel special for once in Kylie's career, as they were the ones this time witnessing something live that the rest of the world had not seen before.

Additionally, the entire Hollywood-themed section of the show, which included the "White Diamond Theme," "White Diamond," "Confide In Me," and "I Believe In You," was completely new and never seen before on any one of her tours. Sure, some of the musical arrangements were recycled: the arrangement and choreography of "Confide In Me" first appeared on the Showgirl: Greatest Hits Tour, and the ballad version of "I Believe In You" was on the KYLIEX2008 Tour. However, the story Kylie put together that tied together this section was entirely original. Also, the ballad version of "White Diamond," a beautifully poignant piece of this section, had never even been performed before--only the dance version on the Showgirl: Homecoming Tour. Every costume Kylie wore throughout the entire show was also completely new, except for one that appeared in red on the KYLIEX2008 Tour and in the promotional posters for the North American Tour (but this was actually worn in white for the For You, For Me shows).

Ultimately, this over two hour pop extravagant could not have been more satisfying for Kylie's American fans, some of whom had waited over 20 years to see her bring a live tour to their soil. She brilliantly resurrected some classic performances that, until now, U.S. fans had only been able to see on her concert DVDs. However, she did not simply duplicate aspects of her previous tours, but added new elements to them, enhancing and reinventing them. Here's hoping that this North American 2009 tour proved to Kylie that she can still put on quite a magnificent show in a non-arena setting, and convince her to come back again quite soon. From what she's said about her upcoming Aphrodite: Les Folies Tour 2011, it is a very strong possibility that she will.