Kylie Minogue embarked upon her first US tour on September 30th in Oakland, Ca and visited a selection of major metropolitan cities. She finished her two week American tour in NYC on Tuesday night and one can only pray that she’ll visit us Americans again very soon.
Kylie has been making pop music for about twenty years, hitting stardom in Europe and Australia in the 80s acting on TV series and then producing great pop hits and albums. She’s always had minimal success in the US, with hits like “Locomotion” and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” More recently, she hit some US headlines with her battle and conquer of breast cancer a few years back.
Worldwide, Kylie has had great success releasing album after album of great pop music. Kylie can sing; she can perform. Kylie is adorable; she is a star. Like a lot of great foreign cultural goods, Americans have yet to fully grasp the greatness that is Kylie. She has a presence like most American women in pop, with more of a Cher like performance quality.
I can see why she has had minimal success in the US. Her music is a lot more “pop” than a lot of the harder sounds I hear in popular American music. Her albums have had less R&B influence and I haven’t heard too much rap artists featured on her albums. Kylie is in my mind quintessential British/Aussie pop (she is Australian for those who don’t know).
If you don’t know Kylie, find her and explore. She has 20 years of consistent and indulgent pop. This should not undervalue what she produces, because lyrically she goes from songs about simply dancing and others explore deeper emotions. Think Madonna, but softer on the edges with less of an ego and need to be considered “an artist.”
Kylie USA 2009 was a brilliant theatrical production. Incorporating performance sets from her previous worldwide tours, about eight dancers accompanied Kylie through performances of hits spanning her entire career. Lasers shot from the stage. Scantily clad dancers hit the stage floor with slick choreography. Kylie’s voice was clean and actually live for those who think women in pop tend to lip sync. Kylie’s no Britney! For the small theatre stage, this tour used every inch magically. The show was intimate and sitting in the audience you could sense she was thrilled to finally be touring America and the audience was even more thrilled to have her here. She even said in her first show in Oakland that she had been waiting twenty years to do it and I have been waiting for almost half that time myself.
It is my sincere hope, now that we have leadership in Washington that looks to reach out to the world, that Americans, as a whole, will reach out more to our foreign reigning princesses of pop. I had to wonder if President Obama bringing in new American ideals about global citizenry helped persuade Kylie to finally bring her concert to American soil. In the end, I don’t care what brought her here; I am just happy she came. From what I have heard, Kylie’s tour has converted quite a bit of people who never knew her contribution to pop music. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a healthy career in the States.
Kylie, thank you for visiting America. It was a lot more convenient for me to cross the Bay Bridge than the Pond to Europe. Come back soon! For those reading and have some curiosity, Kylie’s “Ultimate Kylie” greatest hits collection is a great place to start.
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