Review: Kylie Minogue The Golden Tour-3Arena Dublin

Kylie Minogue The Golden Tour3Arena Dublin, 3rd December

It feels like pocket-sized, popprincess, Kylie Minogue, has always been there. Her three-decade career has straddled so many images and personas, that she has somehow also managed to remain relevant, and it is difficult to imagine the music scene without her.

The travails of her personal life have also endeared her to the public – or at least the LGBTQ community, and women of a certain age who made up the majority of this crowd.

In this rescheduled date, following the cancellation of her show in October, she was determined to show us just why she has remained at the top of her game for so long, and took us on a roller-coaster ride through 30 years of hits.

The show was split into acts that reflected different elements of her life and career. Taking to the impressive stage in a sweeping red number, surrounded by a team of swarthy dancers channelling their inner cowboy, she opened with the title track from her most recent offering, Golden, and was very much an elder stateswoman of pop.

By the time she reached her fifth song– the breathy and infectious, Confide in Me, she was a coquettish kitten in white. She also treated us to a snippet of her duet with Nick Cave, Where The Wild Roses Grow, which marked a more grown-up Kylie at the time. The infectiously catchy In Your Eyes followed, and had the already enthusiastic crowd on their feet.

By act three, she was decked out in highwaisted flares and a gold top, and when she launched into a mash-up of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain alongside her mega hit Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, more than a few of the thousands of people packing the 3Arena were spotted trying to replicate the dance from the video.

Bafflingly, after this she departs the stage for an interval! An interval no less! She had the crowd eating out of her hand, and simply departed the stage. I found this most astonishing, as I have never seen an artist take an extended break like this. As everyone departed for the bar or the bathroom, Twitter was awash with people just as confused as I was by this development.

Returning to the stage for Act IV, there was a definite shift in the energy after the break, and she did have to work to regain the crowd, despite their adoration. Clad in a black leather cat-suit, and looking somewhat like Batman’s feline nemesis, she launched into Slow, before segueing into her duet with Robbie Williams, Kids.

Two more songs, and she changed outfits again for Act V, which very much harked back to her early Stock, Aiken, & Waterman days, with I Wouldn’t Change A Thing, and the hugely crowd-pleasing Especially For You.

For many acts this would have been the peak of the show, but Kylie has such a vast backcatalogue that there were plenty more hits

to come, including her first-ever hit, The Locomotion, and the song that made hotpants fashionable again, Spinning Around.

As part of her encore, she even threw in a Christmas song, Let It Snow (clearly oblivious to the travails of Snowmageddon in Ireland last year) before wrapping up the show with Dancing, which is exactly how she left her fans.

She may not be the best singer (she definitely had a lot of help in the vocal department) or dancer (which explains the numerous backing dancers who gyrated to the hits while she performed) but Kylie is definitely one hell of a performer.

Despite the large venue, she managed to make it feel intimate. The diversity of her hits ensured that everyone was left with at least a couple of ear-worms that they probably sang throughout the next day.

She may have been forced to reschedule, but she was definitely worth waiting for – despite the annoying interval.

Song List:

Act I

Golden, Get Outta My Way, Better the Devil You Know

Act II

Blue Velvet (Interlude) Confide in Me, Where the Wild Roses Grow (Snippet) In Your Eyes, A Lifetime to Repair

Act III

Shelby ’68, Wow, Can’t Get You Out of My Head (Contains elements of “The Chain)

Act IV

Slow Kids, The One, Stop Me From Falling

Act V

Wouldn’t Change a Thing, I’ll Still Be Loving You (Small excerpt) Especially for You, Lost Without You, All the Lovers

Act VI

New York City / Raining Glitter / On a Night Like This, The Loco-Motion (Carole King cover) (Contains elements of “Bad… more ) Spinning Around

Encore:

Love at First Sight, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!(Vaughn Monroe cover) Dancing