Kylie Minogue’s Tension Tour 2025 to begin in Australia with seven concerts
Just a few years ago it seemed Kylie Minogue’s career was on the downslope. Now, she will soon embark on her biggest world tour since 2011, with a new album to be released next month.
Kylie Minogue will begin her biggest world tour since 2011 with seven Australian concerts early next year, while also announcing that her new album will be released next month.
“I am beyond excited to announce the Tension Tour 2025,” said the pop singer-songwriter in a statement on Thursday night.
“I can’t wait to share beautiful and wild moments with fans all over the world, celebrating the Tension era and more!”
That era will extend with the release of Tension II, her 17th album, on October 18 via Mushroom Music – a follow-up to her 2023 collection Tension, which is nearing half a billion streams worldwide.
Presented by her longtime promoter Frontier Touring and its new offshoot MG Live, Minogue’s seven-date Australian tour is set to begin in Perth (February 15), followed by Adelaide (Feb 18), Melbourne (Feb 20-21), Brisbane (Feb 26) and Sydney (March 1-2).
In a promotional photo to coincide with the tour announcement, she sports a severe, militaristic black outfit while stood in a dimly lit room that appears to contain plans for world domination.
Such a plot was laughable just a few years ago, when she last toured Australia in 2019 in support of her country-tinged 14th album Golden.
Although Minogue had earned a dedicated fanbase here and in her adopted home of England, it seemed her career was on the downslope, as often occurs with pop performers after initial success.
In a 2022 list of the all-time top touring artists tracked by live music industry trade publication Pollstar, Minogue was ranked 135th with a reported live career gross of US$182m from 2.27m ticket sales – a healthy total that put her above the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd (142nd), Adele (147th) and Neil Young (149th).
But one great song can change an artist’s fortunes, as her story well shows.
Tension’s lead single, the earworm dance-pop track Padam Padam, became her biggest hit in decades after it was embraced by fans on social media, particularly TikTok, where it introduced the Melbourne-born artist to a generation of new listeners.
At 56, her year so far has included a run of wins: completing her inaugural Las Vegas residency, receiving the Global Icon Award at the BRITs, winning a Grammy Award for best pop dance recording, and in July – the same month she was booked to headline Splendour in the Grass near Byron Bay before the festival was cancelled – performing a highly acclaimed headline show in London’s Hyde Park.
With seven arena shows booked in Australia before she moves on to Asia and the UK, Minogue is once again an artist in demand: her three-week stand here includes some wiggle room to add more dates if the first shows sell out.
The lead single from Tension II is titled Lights Camera Action. It will be released next Friday, September 27, and you never know – it might just be another life-changing hit in the style of Padam Padam, the whose onomatopoeic hook imitated the sound of a heartbeat.
“It’s been an exhilarating ride so far,” said Minogue. “Now, get ready for your close up because I will be calling Lights, Camera, Action … and there will be a whole lot of Padaming!”
