The return of Charlene

And Kylie’s "Showgirl" Homecoming tour was broadcast the other night too. She played (or should I say performed?) in her home country of Australia! Strewth, mate!! It was great to see her back and on form!!

It was a dazzling show and a fairly lengthy one too (I think every song from the concert was included as opposed to the edited version of Madonna’s "Confessions" Tour shown on TV a couple of months back). Kylie looked radiant throughout, and was flanked by an array of hunky and interestingly clad dancers who performed some amazing routines. There were some amazing costumes on display too, although I must confess I didn’t like everything that Kylie wore! (Queens everywhere are sooo gonna hate me for saying that). For instance the outfit she donned for “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” was rather … odd. A bizarre silver wig, multi-coloured pashmina and … I can’t actually remember the rest of the costume, but it was a bit of an unflattering combo. The saucy white revealing number and metallic dress that she wore in the original video were both much more effective.

I also couldn’t help noting the similarities to Madge’s recent concert. The religious theme during “Confide In Me” and “Cowboy Style” did rather echo the “Live To Tell” / “Isaac” section of Madonna’s own show. There was a tribute to “Vogue” (The “Greta Garbo and Monroe” rap bit) thrown in during one of Kylie’s songs, which was very … Madonna. Stylistically there was a certain amount of resemblance to Madonna’s show too.

Which begs the question: Who copied who first?

But I’m really just being a quibbling queen. It was still great entertainment.

Highlights for me were the opener “Better The Devil You Know”, one of Kylie’s most enduring anthems and a highly appropriate choice for opening song. Kylie looked utterly resplendent in feathered headdress and sequinned leotard (see above - very obviously camp attire but she still looked amazing and it made for a very effective entrance!) “Come Into My World” was sung ballad-style with Kylie sitting on giant crescent moon high above the stage. And “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, one of the encore tunes, had … wait for it …a Dr Who theme! Which naturally floated my boat! Kylie’s dancers wore Cyber-helmets and at one point a TARDIS materialisation sound could be distinctly heard above the music. (Mmm, I wonder how Ms Minogue managed to get rights from the Beeb? Come to think of it, Dr Who producer Russell T Davies is a bit of a queen and probably a Kylie fan to boot ... so I can see a "way in" there...) The laser lighting during "Can't..." was amazing too. So all in all there were lots of great moments.

She also engaged far more with her audience than Madge does. At the end she gave a long speech saying how glad she was to be back which was lovely. And she does seem to have a nice, down to earth approach with people in spite of the fact that she’s a megastar. At one point an audience member handed her a Charlene t-shirt which prompted her into doing a humorous impersonation of her old Neighbours character.

Unfortunately news has just broken that Kylie has been taken ill again. Apparently she has a respiratory tract infection and has cancelled her next two tour dates, leading to speculation that she didn’t give herself enough time to recover from her breast cancer treatment. From the fans’ point of view this is of course very disappointing, but the most important thing of all is that she gets better soon. She’s been through enough already. Viva Charlene! (As Scott Robinson might say).