“Who’s performing?” he asks. “Kylie Minogue,” I say, almost spilling over with the kind of excitement you can’t fake. He squints, processing my response. “Is she famous?” A beat. A breath. A moment to calibrate the absurdity of it all. “Is she famous?” Oh, you mean Kylie Minogue, Australian queen of pop, dance music’s sparkling widow? I pop in my AirPods, letting “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” flood my skull. “Hell yeah, she is.”

Minogue has done what few of her contemporaries dare to—she’s sidestepped the all-too-familiar traps of stale, cash-grab albums and lacklustre tours. With the release of 2023’s Tension, she turned heads and sparked the LGBTQ+ community’s unwavering support, especially with the infectious “Padam Padam.” The track not only bagged the 2024 Grammy for Best Pop Dance Recording, but also marked Minogue’s first UK Top 10 hit in over a decade. That energy wasn’t just confined to Spotify streams—it erupted when Minogue reappeared for her encore, wrapped in a custom trompe l’oeil mini dress where caution tape was swapped for the word “Kylie.” Everyone and their mother (yes, literally) collapsed into a collective scream, their voices tangled in a surge of liberation.

For almost two hours of pure kinetic energy, Minogue compellingly commanded every concertgoer’s energy. From classics like “The Loco-Motion” and “Come into My World” to fan (and Cam) favourites “Slow” and “Confide in Me,” each track felt like a different universe, leaving no corner of her catalog untouched and every person in the crowd feeling like the show was made just for them. The air was thick with confetti, and the theatrics were nothing short of surreal (i.e. a descent from the ceiling on a neon diamond). It was a declaration of her unbridled joy in performing, as well as a tribute to her fans, whose celebration of her legacy felt as infinite as the stars she’s aligned with.