iFeature | KYLIE MINOGUE Brings the TENSION TOUR to the World

A Pop-Culture Event

Can you feel the tension? KYLIE MINOGUE is mounting her most ambitious and far-reaching live event, the TENSION World Tour, which will hit every major city and continent, including two shows in New York City!

With a career spanning decades, Kylie Minogue has never been more radiant or popular than she is now! The Pop Goddess of Love has ridden a wave since the late 80s that garnered her comparisons to Madonna. Still, the supernova stardom that the Queen of Pop commanded somehow eluded the Australian export, a phenomenon across Europe and Britain. That all changed at the turn of the millennium when Kylie struck a chord stateside with her international hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”

In 2005, the pop goddess was brought back down to earth when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was forced to cancel the Australian leg of her immensely popular “Showgirl” World Tour. The events of her cancer journey and return to finish her commitment were chronicled in a personal portrait documentary entitled White Diamond and heralded her homecoming. The music that followed brought Kylie Minogue closer and closer to the celebrity of her music contemporaries as she continued to explore her range (from pop to pop-rock and even country) and her gift for live performances.

A profoundly devoted fanbase was elated when Kylie returned to the dance floor, releasing the high-concept revelry of DISCO and not allowing the pandemic lockdown to keep her from letting go. The nu-disco-inspired setlist brought a strobe light into every living room worldwide and even got her streaming across the internet with a New Year’s Eve live performance. With life returning to the club scene, Kylie kept-in-step and dared her audience to follow the sounds of “Padum Padam” — the international hit followed suit, launching Minogue to the stratosphere with her sixteenth album.

Tension, released on September 22, 2023, was a game-changer. Abundantly joyful and excitedly kinetic, the album featured a setlist that many saw as pure Kylie. Each track is buoyantly energetic and inspired by ‘80s music and culture. Tension pushed the dance genre and emphasized the accessibility of electronic dance, synth-pop, and Euro-pop, all types of music that Minogue had relied on throughout her career but now was dominating and pushing into the 21st Century. The album inspired a rarity in the music industry — a sequel and a world tour, the Tension World Tour 2025, with two historic stops in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

Lights, Camera, Action… That’s It!

Within the scope of Minogue’s career, the last two decades have been one of extraordinary growth, with her music and influence making a break on this side of the globe with hits that started with the 2001 single mentioned above, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and continuing with “All the Lovers” (2010) and the sonically transcendent single “Timebomb” (2012). In 2009, her popularity continued at a fever pitch, and she finally brought a live show, a scaled-down version of her tour, to smaller stateside venues. She followed suit with the 2011’s The Aphrodite World Tour.

To properly position Tension in all its musical ferocity, the original showgirl was given a Las Vegas residency, inaugurating the Voltaire Club. Kylie performed songs from the new album as well as new arrangments of her greatest hits, all the while riding the success brought about by Tension several iterations of the album, including an “extended” setlist, were produced, and in October of 2024, Minogue announced that Tension II, a second volume of tracks, continuing the Tension experience and inspiring a world tour. Kylie hadn’t been on the road since 2019, and this would be her return to form.

The Tension World Tour would profit from featuring songs from both Tension and Tension II that Kylie hadn’t brought together on stage before and include tracks from DISCO. The obligatory greatest hits will likely get sprinkled throughout, providing interludes and nostalgia galore in medlies to satisfy fans of all eras. Of note…this will also be the largest-scale show of Minogue’s long career coming to North America. On April 4 and 5, Kylie will have achieved what for many artists is a holy grail, performing to sold-out audiences at the historic Madison Square Garden.

The TENSION WORLD TOUR 2025 | Kylie Minogue | is coming to a city near you! Visit kylie.com for all “Tension Tour” dates and merch.

#StayTuned for the official review of the NYC stop this weekend.