Kylie Minogue fans flock to see their pop queen make her Las Vegas residency debut

Kylie’s first Vegas show was a milestone for the singer, and it even surprised Tom Minear when he met her fans before the show.

There was a time not so long ago when announcing a Las Vegas residency was akin to entering hospice care for the music industry. The Strip was where artists went to die.

Cher – despite having spent years at Caesars Palace – has conceded as much, while Paul McCartney avoided a stint in the desert for that very reason.

But the stars have recently started to shine again in Vegas. On any given weekend, you could catch Adele, Lady Gaga or Katy Perry in their prime. For the next six months, Kylie Minogue is now part of that constellation.

By her own admission, she had her doubts about mistiming her Vegas debut and ending up in the musical graveyard. Such a long career inevitably has its ups and downs. I’ll be honest: until I saw her show’s premiere on Friday night, I had wondered the same thing. As the highest selling Australian solo artist in history and the first woman to top the UK charts across five consecutive decades, the 55-year-old would be well within her rights to rest on her laurels.

Kylie Minogue during her concert at the opening of Voltaire at Venetian Las Vegas. Picture: BACKGRID/Michael Anthony

For Minogue, however, her 20-show run to open The Venetian Resort’s intimate new Voltaire venue caps yet another remarkable reinvention. Beloved in Australia and the UK, she had never quite conquered the US until Padam Padam – the hit single on her 16th album – went viral across the northern hemisphere this year.

Plenty of artists try to adapt their style to keep pace with chart-topping trends. Few have Minogue’s capacity to succeed without compromising what makes them great.

For the American twenty-somethings at Voltaire, Padam Padam was the electro-pop song of the summer that opened their ears to Minogue’s back catalogue.

Kylie Minogue performs at her first Las Vegas show at Voltaire at The Venetian Resort. Picture: News Corp Australia/ Tom Minear

For her lifelong fans, who travelled from all over the world, it was just one more hit on their list of favourites.

Fans arriving ahead of the first show of Kylie Minogue residency at Voltaire, in Las Vegas. Picture: BACKGRID

But when I asked them what they loved about her, I was struck by the fact that their answers almost universally went to her personality, not her music. While she sings and dances just like she did in the ’90s, Minogue has also kept that girl-next-door magic.

She is not tainted by tales of petulant diva behaviour. Those who have met her can’t get over how kind she is. And on stage, she seems genuinely touched by the love of her fans. “Eight-year-old me would have a hard time believing all of this,” Minogue said between songs.

In a world increasingly filled with doom and gloom, long may the pop queen reign.

Originally published as Kylie Minogue fans flock to see their pop queen make her Las Vegas residency debut