Kiss Me Once Tour

Background

In July 2013, Minogue confirmed the plans for an upcoming tour on Twitter, in response to an article in The Mirror's 3am column. After the confirmation there was a rumour Kylie would perform in Malakasa, Greece. Thereafter, it was finally followed by the announcement for the official Kiss Me Once Tour dates for the European leg, with rehearsals starting around late March. On 30 June, The Voice Australia confirmed tour dates for her Australian leg. In August, a mini concert was held at Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel in Ibiza, Spain, serving as a testing event before the tour had officially got started. It featured seven songs, all of them also performed later on in the tour itself. On 8 September, Minogue started teasing fans by posting photos from rehearsals at her official website as well as her official accounts on social networks like Twitter and Instagram.

First details about the tour were announced around one month before tour started, during launch promotion of Glacéau Smartwater, of which Kylie is the official ambassador; also the crew members were announced, on 13 September, including Minogue's longtime partners creative director William Baker, musical director Steve Anderson, and choreographer Ashley Wallen, the latter previously had served as a dancer in Kylie's 1998 Intimate & Live Tour. In the days leading to the first show, it was announced there would be six songs performed from Kiss Me Once, a further 18 songs from the rest of her career (including a "medley or two" and an entire section consisting solely of some of her 80's hits), plus an "unexpected cover", which was revealed on opening night to INXS's "Need You Tonight". About the 80's section (which was found to contain the medley announced at the same time), Minogue stated, "We've got access to the actual PWL sounds", and, about her feelings about touring on the whole, she explained:

"It's a bit odd, but when we're fully on the road, you can't really think about anything else, and the crew becomes family. If someone needs a hand or is having an off day, everyone else just rallies around to pick up the slack and helps out where they can. It's an incredible thing."

On 22 September, Minogue announced via her Facebook page three support acts for the opening dates of her tour: FehrPlay will open for Minogue at her opening Liverpool date, and several dates after. Copyright will open for Minogue on her Manchester date, and chart-topping DJ Oliver Heldens will support her at two London dates, as well as performing at Minogue's sold out Cardiff show.

The costume designs were made by Jean Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana, Julien Macdonald, and Marchesa.

Before the main show, a short film by Baker titled "Sleepwalker" featured 3 unreleased Minogue and Fernando Garibay songs, "Glow," "Wait" and "Break This Heartbreak". All three songs were made available for free download via Minogue's official SoundCloud channel along with another unreleased Garibay song titled "Chasing Ghosts" which featured as an interlude before the 80's medley. On 28 September, a 47-second teaser of "Sleepwalker" was made available to be seen on Garibay's YouTube account. On 19 November 2014, the short film in its entirely was made available to be seen on Minogue's account on YouTube.

Synopsis

Before the show, a short video, shot by William Baker, entitled "Sleepwalker", was shown, containing three unreleased-at-the-time songs recorded with Fernando Garibay: "Glow", "Wait" and "Break This Heartbreak" respectively.

The show opened with a video sequence with excerpts of "Breathe", the video screen showing Kylie behind glass with water drops. She kisses the glass and everything goes dark. The lights then flash and Kylie rises out of the floor lying on a set of illuminated lips, singing "Les Sex". The lips, screens and dancers costumes for the section were inspired by Salvador Dalí. Kylie sings a short version of "Les Sex", missing out verse two and goes on to sing "In My Arms" and "Timebomb". After "Timebomb", Kylie goes on to sing "Sexy Love", followed by a new remix of "Wow". However, after the first five shows (Liverpool, Manchester and London) "Sexy Love" was removed and Kylie sang "Wow" after "Timebomb", closing the act.

The second section begins with an interlude with the male dancers performing. Kylie then rises from the floor to sing a remix of "Step Back in Time", which samples the bass line from "Rapper's Delight". This then leads into a new remix of "Spinning Around", and then "Your Disco Needs You". After talking to the audience, Kylie sings a new remix of "On a Night Like This", and finishes with "Slow". A video interlude is then shown featuring another Garibay song: "Chasing Ghosts". During the Australian leg of the show, after the performance of "On a Night Like This", Kylie invited Giorgio Moroder on stage to sing their collaboration: "Right Here, Right Now" followed by a snippet of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love".

The third section is a medley, entitled "Dollshouse", containing five of Kylie's songs from her PWL days. It begins with a ballad opening of "Enjoy Yourself", seeing the dancers emerge looking like Ken and Barbie. Kylie then rises out of the stage and sings "Hand on Your Heart", "Never Too Late", "Got to Be Certain" and "I Should Be So Lucky", taking off a layer for each song, being left with a garter and corset to sing "I Should Be So Lucky" from a bath paying tribute to the music video's bath scene.

The fourth section begins with a dance interlude of "Skirt". It then continues with Kylie singing a cover of INXS's "Need You Tonight", rising out of the floor on a table dressed in a PVC Trench coat and hat, as the male dancers sit on a big lounge chair on the opposite side also dressed in black trench coats, taking both off before the end of the song. She then goes on to sing "Sexercize" before a segue that uses excerpts of "Nu-di-ty" and "Sexercize", which involves the male dancers removing their trench coats and pants. A new remix of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" is then performed, where Minogue re-emerges wearing a William Wilde latex garcon dress. She then introduces the band whilst closing the act with a rendition of "Kids".

The fifth section begins with a video interlude, with visuals similar to the one at the beginning of the show, showing Minogue behind a sheet of glass covered in rain. It then changes to a window and Minogue emerges barefoot wearing a blue flowing dress. She sings the duet "Beautiful" by herself walking down the catwalk. She then goes on to close the section with "Kiss Me Once".

The sixth section begins with the Steve Anderson remix of "Get Outta My Way", where the dancers perform during the intro. Minogue then rises out of the stage wearing a showgirl costume that is black on one side and silver on the other. She then sings a new remix of "Love at First Sight". After this she took requests from the audience before singing "All the Lovers"; the most requested songs were "Better the Devil You Know", "Tears on My Pillow", "Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi", "In Your Eyes" and "I Believe in You". During the three O2 Arena shows in London, Minogue sang the Abbey Road version of "The Loco-Motion" as a request after "Love at First Sight". After these shows it was performed between "Love at First Sight" and "All the Lovers".

For the duration of the tour, Minogue performed a one-song encore of "Into the Blue". For the first seven shows, she wore a blue dress by Julien McDonald, but after this she wore another William Wilde garcon dress, in blue.

Critical reception

The tour gained positive reviews from music critics. The Mirror gave a positive review of Minogue's opening night in Liverpool, saying that she "powered through a greatest hits set that included "Wow", "Step Back in Time", "Spinning Around", "On a Night Like This" and "Slow"". However, they stated the highlight was "an unexpected treat which is unlikely to happen at any other date on the tour. Minogue super-fan Paul St. German threw his Liverpool Loves Kylie T-shirt onto the stage... in return, Minogue promised to sing a request for St. German. The stan chose "Especially for You". Dave Simpson from The Guardian gave the same show 4 stars, stating "however over the top it gets, the show is minimal enough to focus the attention on her charisma and music", concluding that "[i]t defies belief that she is 46 and has endured a bout of cancer, but the secret of her longevity is obvious: everyone, including the artist, exits grinning from ear to ear".

Daisy Wyatt from The Independent gave the opening London date 4 stars, stating that "the pint-sized pop star exudes energy and charisma - even if she is too keen to prove to a younger audience that she still has it". Wyatt compared Minogue to fellow popstars, saying that "she saunters around in a leather outfit Rihanna would not think twice about wearing" and her "dancers twerk while a Beyoncé-inspired black and white video of Kylie flashes in the background". She concludes that "her shining stage presence sees her through and is likely to keep her going for another decade". Lewis Corner from Digital Spy gave the first London date 3.5/5 stars, stating that "Minogue shows no sign of stopping yet". He goes on to say that "the hits have aged [...] well. "On a Night Like This" soared with its impressive laser show. Of course, "Can't Get You Out of My Head", "Kids" and "Love at First Sight" appealed to the middle generation of Kylie fans and still retain their sense of forward-thinking pop that makes them the best soundtrack of the late '90s/early '00s." Corner concluded that "the Kiss Me Once Tour may be a more stripped-down affair when it comes to a Kylie production, but her glamour, charisma and strong vocal performance made sure it didn't fall completely flat." Alice Vincent from The Telegraph gave the concert a mixed review, saying that she is "both entertained and alarmed by Kylie's robotically polished performance at The O2". She goes on to explain that "The Kiss Me Once Tour is a textbook "Good Time": lasers; a series of outfits that, like Russian dolls, get increasingly smaller; gyrating dancers and, at the centre of it all, tiny Kylie, delivering hit after hit". More critically, Vincent said that it was "unsettling to see Minogue promote her more recent songs trussed up in an outfit better suited to Taylor Swift ... she held less allure than an Ann Summers catalogue as she sang "Les Sex" and "Sexy Love" over thudding club beats", although she wrapped the review stating "with a set-list as good as hers, none of this seemed to matter much: two hours whizzed by in the shake of a tasseled headpiece".

For the opening date of her Oceania Leg at the Perth Arena, Chloe Papas from the The Guardian gave the show three stars, stating that Minogue "kicks off [her] homecoming Kiss Me Once tour in good voice - and sequins - but in a pop world dominated by political and personal narratives, Kylie falls short". She later comments that the show is "slick and practiced" and "bar a few wavers here and there, Minogue can hold her own as a musician, hitting the high notes and showing off her a cappella skills while bantering with the fans." She concludes that "her musical offerings struggle to bring in new audiences" and that her "brand of superficial pop falls short", before summing up the review saying that "she still puts on an incredible show". Simon Collins from The West Australian reviewed the same show, giving it four stars for a show that "confirmed two things. Minogue remains Australia's pop queen. And we're sending the wrong singer to Eurovision". He was also complimentary about how "Kiss Me Once eschewed the spectacular but overwhelming waterworks of 2011's Aphrodite World Tour, homing in on the star's hits." Joel Meares from The Sydney Morning Herald gave the Sydney show four stars, noting that whilst "the Qantas Union Credit Arena was not quite full for this single Sydney date (her last major tour [...] included three nights at the same venue) if Kylie's spirits were dampened, however, she wasn't showing it". He, like most reviewers, noted that "the sets weren't as elaborate as they were during say, her 2008 KylieX tour (three shows at Allphones), but a kind of light-up disco scaffolding provided a fun backdrop".

Commercial performance

On Pollstar 's "2014 Year-end Top 100 Worldwide Tours" list, Kylie ranked at number ninety-six with $17 million in gross and 186,813 tickets sold for 28 shows in Europe.

According to Billboard Boxscore, the Australian leg grossed an estimated $4 million in total.

Broadcasts and recordings

Minogue's performance at iTunes Festival, as the other performances from this festival, was recorded and streamed live and available at Apple platforms such as Apple TV, iPod, iPad, as well as Minogue's iTunes Store for a limited time. During the 12 November performance at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, the show was professionally filmed, presumably for a future television broadcast and DVD/Blu-ray release, which was confirmed by Minogue herself on Twitter, on 24 December 2014, a day following the broadcast of the Glasgow footage on British TV channel ITV. A wardrobe-malfunction that occurred that evening, in which during part of the "Dollhouse Medley" part of Minogue's outfit started to fall off but was quickly fixed, was edited out. That broadcast was edited to fit in a circa 50-minute special, featuring the following:

1. "Les Sex"
2. "In My Arms"
3. "Wow"
4. "Spinning Around"
5. "On a Night Like This"
6. "Slow"
7. Dollhouse Medley: "Enjoy Yourself" / "Hand on Your Heart" / "Never Too Late" / "Got To Be Certain" / "I Should Be So Lucky"
8. "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
9. "Kiss Me Once"
10. "Love at First Sight"
11. "The Loco-Motion"
12. "All the Lovers"

Six songs from the iTunes Festival performance were made available for digital download at iTunes Store, with the re-release of Kiss Me Once (deluxe edition) in Australia.

The show was recorded in 4k Ultra-high-definition television and has been shown on Belgium 4k channel festival.

Kiss Me Once: Live at The SSE Hydro

Kiss Me Once Live at The SSE Hydro is a concert film of its corresponding tour. The show was filmed at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow and directed by William Baker. It was released on most formats including a double-disc CD, DVD, and Blu-ray. "Timebomb", which was not aired on the ITV special, was released to Kylie's official YouTube account as a sneak peek for the Blu-ray/CD and DVD/CD sets on 4 March 2015. "Tears on My Pillow" was performed in Glasgow and is also included on the DVD/Blu-ray, but is not included on the CD. The official cover of this video is a slightly silhouetted image of Kylie performing "Les Sex" on a giant lip couch. The video was released on 23 March 2015. The DVD/Blu-ray also includes "Sleepwalker", a short film which was played before each show started, and screen projections for "In My Arms", "Skirt", "Chasing Ghosts", "Sexercize" and "Can't Get You Out of My Head".

Personnel

Band

Designers