After touring Europe and Japan, Kylie Minogue has brought her world tour to the US last night and officially kicked off Aphrodite Live 2011 in Boston, MA. Because her US tour isn’t as extravagant as her European tour (ie. no Splash Zone), I was worried what the “stripped down” version of the show would look [...]
After touring Europe and Japan, Kylie Minogue has brought her world tour to the US last night and officially kicked off Aphrodite Live 2011 in Boston, MA. Because her US tour isn’t as extravagant as her European tour (ie. no Splash Zone), I was worried what the “stripped down” version of the show would look like. As I understand it, very little changes have been made to the show now that it is here in the US. All of the numbers have been kept in tact, as well as the costuming and staging from the Les Folies 2011 Tour. Kylie has brought her FABULOUS show to our shores and she will be trekking her way across the country performing along the way! Check out some photos from the show and read a new interview with Kylie below.
Kylie Minogue jokes that she considered making a “Kylie 101″ video for her upcoming North American tour. It’s an amusing idea because the United States is perhaps the last place in the world that needs a crash course in the Australian pop star’s long and celebrated career. “We were trying to think how funny we could make it, acknowledging that [in America] it’s only my fanbase who really have a clue who I am and where I come from and what I do,” Minogue says recently in a one-on-one interview with the Globe. “Other than that, we might need a Kylie 101.” She might be right. A casual fan here probably knows Minogue from her two Top 10 radio hits — “The Loco-Motion” (1988) and then “Can’t Get You Out of My Head’’ arrived 14 years later — but that’s the extent of the dent she’s made, at least on the charts. At 42 and on her first extensive tour of US cities, starting with Agganis Arena in Boston on Friday, Minogue is in an unusual position: She’s the global pop icon who’s on the verge of properly introducing herself to American fans who have adored — no, make that idolized — her from afar and for a very long time. “I know it’s taken forever, but if it’s anything like the last tour, which was my first tour in the States, the welcome was just mind-blowing,’’ Minogue says. “I can’t wait to get there and share the show with you, share an evening.” That first US tour was in 2009, when Minogue tested the waters with a string of headlining shows in big cities such as New York and Los Angeles. If the tour’s scope was limited, it at least spoke volumes about her fans here. “You are, in fact, fierce and mighty,’’ she says about what she learned from those shows. “I don’t have the numbers, I’m not across the board in the States like I am in other countries, but honestly, the noise levels, the excitement levels, the dedication — it was overwhelming. I loved it.” It’s astonishing to think Minogue will be making her Boston debut a full 23 years since her first album, “Kylie,” was released. The closest she has come to this city was in 2002 at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell for the multi-artist “Jingle Ball” tour. The Globe’s review of that concert noted, “Euro-pop princess Kylie Minogue attempted to turn pop into art during her set,” before singling out Destiny Child’s as the star of the show. That was the year when “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” an irresistible hit that lived up to its name, was in heavy rotation. Even though her commercial clout here peaked shortly after that, Minogue still wanted to give this market a go. “I finally bit the bullet and said, if I don’t do this now, it’s not going to happen. But I needed to go and put on a show that is representative of where I am in my career and how I like to present things,’’ she says. “It was a beautiful experience. And now I’m coming back for more. So I’m making up for lost time” … Minogue’s new tour centers on last year’s “Aphrodite,’’ the latest entry in her repertoire of exuberant European dance pop. Its songs extol the virtues of losing yourself in the music, of finding solace in the beat; but that doesn’t mean the new tour is nearly as straightforward. Au contraire: It’s a hulking spectacle, with aerial performers, dancers, and an epic theme based on the myth of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. And just where does Minogue, who’s famously petite, fit in such a production? “At the center, darling,” she says, letting out a girlish giggle that’s as sexy as it is knowing.
What a great interview … and what great photos! The show really looks fantastic from what I can see. I was BLOWN away by the show I saw in Berlin, Germany last month so I know that this show, even slightly scaled down, will WOW US audiences. Wee!! I’ll be seeing Kylie here in LA and then in LV in a few weeks … until then, she’ll be rockin’ and rollin’ her way across the US … just like she was ALWAYS meant to :)
Eliza Dushku
Adriana Lima
Daniel Miller 
