Kylie Minogue: What to expect when pop icon launches world Tension Tour at Perth’s RAC Arena on February 15

What do nostalgic rockers R.E.M. and Aussie icon Kylie Minogue have in common? They‘ll be two of the biggest musical acts to have ever launched world tours in Perth when the singer opens her Tension Tour 2025 here on Saturday.

International artists choosing Australia’s west coast to catapult their jaunt around the globe is rare.

While the Losing My Religion hit-makers kick-started their global campaign in 1995 at Perth Entertainment Centre, it’ll be RAC Arena hosting the pop goddess in her first of 10 Australian performances.

The appearance will be her first in Perth since lighting up Sir James Mitchell Park in 2019 during her Golden Tour.

Departing our shores for Asia and beyond in March, Kylie will take the stage at least 70 more times before wrapping up in August with a finale in Mexico.

Set to celebrate her Tension and Tensions II albums of 2023 and 2024, respectively, the global campaign will consolidate the 56-year-old’s currency as a contemporary recording artist in the latter stages of a career that has traversed five separate decades — and counting.

Kylie’s recent projects mark her eighth and ninth chart-topping ARIA albums, punctuated by the anthemic hit Padam Padam which won her a Grammy for best pop dance recording in 2023.

And while she’s consistently re-invented herself, the effervescent export has never forgotten how to pull a crowd.

Dropping a second wave of tickets on Thursday for all national shows, local fans had vacuumed up every corner of RAC Arena’s allotment by mid-afternoon, amid public debate about NBL side Perth Wildcats having to move a home final because Kylie locked in the arena first.

“It’s been a while since Kylie has had the opportunity to start a tour at home in Australia so she’s excited Perth will host the very first show of the Tension Tour,” Matt Gudinski, chief executive of entertainment collective Mushroom Group, told The Sunday Times.

Given Minogue’s international fan base, scores of fans will be keenly focused on RAC Arena next week to see what the tour has in store. Mr Gudinski couldn’t give too much away about the show but promised “fans are in for a treat!”

Little has been revealed of the tour’s themes or set list, but one detail the promoter did confirm as recently as Thursday was the pop stalwart’s supporting act.

Brisbane singer Mallrat, 26, will feature as a guest on all national shows, which may come as a surprise to long-time Kylie fans who expected a more established Aussie artist to warm up the crowd.

“Kylie was keen to offer the opportunity for a fellow Australian female artist to join her on tour,” Mr Gudinski said of the decision.

But her selection was no fluke.

A staple of the domestic indie scene, Mallrat has featured several times on Triple J’s Hottest 100 Countdown, including in 2019 with hit Charlie, and has shared stages with the likes of Post Malone and The Chainsmokers.

She’s young, cool, and relevant to an audience that lives online — one Minogue really cares about harnessing.

“About to get a PHD in pop princessery,” Mallrat told fans on Instagram after the news was made public.

Since Padam Padam went viral on TikTok in 2023, the next generation of music consumers have connected with Kylie’s sounds, danced to her beat — and are jumping on the bandwagon. (Minogue has recounted young fans recently telling her they really liked her “new” song The Loco-Motion — which she released in 1987).

Continuing on the trend last year, she released My Oh My with stars Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo.

She also performed live with expressive country singer Orville Peck, and producer Diplo — tastemakers who don’t necessarily fit the “youth” tag but are influential to the audiences they appeal to and culture at large.

However, the real question on fans’ lips is: What will we actually see from Minogue in Perth? The star herself has teased it’ll be “all killer, no filler”.

“There are 37 years of songs to play with and heaps of new stuff,” she said last year.

The early 90s saw her embrace a punk-rock aesthetic through a black fishnet suit, and 10 years later she was sighted in a futuristic silver ensemble symbolic of the turn of the century.

In 2011, her Aphrodite Les Folies tour gave rise to a golden goddess motif featuring a pearly headpiece.

Kylie’s looks have always been indicative of the music she’s released, and the musical mood she’s in.

Judging by her two most recent albums, we should expect a party hosted by a party girl.

During the star’s most notable 2024 gig, where she headlined London’s BST Hyde Park, the performer opted for a classic red leather suit and a silver-tasselled black number.

A promising sign for fans young and old, the same performance saw her belt out more than 20 tracks, encompassing each of her spellbinding eras.

By that logic, Perth can expect classics like Can’t Get You Out of My Head, and On a Night Like This.

And you can be sure Kylie’s electro-pop single Tension will be a heavy feature.

As she’s already told fans, “I will be calling Lights, Camera, Action … and there will be a whole lot of Padaming!”