Singapore Welcomes Kylie

That, in a nutshell, summed up Kylie Minogue's concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night. Called Aphrodite Live, the show here - organised in conjunction with MediaCorp Radio's 75th anniversary - was actually a "reduced" version of her much grander, US$25-million (S$30.7-million) Aphrodite Les Folies show that was staged in Europe and Australia. But that didn't mean concertgoers here were short-changed.

Once again, the pop princess proved that you still could have the same amount of fun without too much bells and whistles. Well, she did bring some: At one point, Kylie appeared singing while astride a statue of a flying horse; during All The Lovers, her dancers were suspended in the air as they twisted and contorted their bodies a la Cirque Du Soleil; and during Looking For An Angel, three of them appeared to be "flying" above Minogue.

And, yes, there were costume changes galore - it wouldn't be a Kylie show otherwise, right? Goddess Kylie, spunky Kylie, Victorian Kylie, cabaret Kylie ... they all made an appearance in the show.

"Aphrodite Live" hits Singapore, as a full house of costumed fans welcome Kylie to the Singapore Indoor Stadium...



But what really sealed the deal for this reviewer was just how easy it was to enjoy the show. Truth be told, Kylie's voice isn't the strongest in the biz - someone suggested that she only registered treble and mid-range frequencies on the equaliser machine. But she is the consummate performer, throwing herself into every song. And the 43-year-old singer oozes sex appeal and schoolgirl charm - sometimes all at once - which only makes her all the more sexy.

Minogue was also astute enough not to give note-for-note reproductions of her songs, with only tracks from Aphrodite such as Get Outta My Way and The One sounding closest to the arrangements on the album.

Can't Get You Out Of My Head, for example, was ramped up crunching guitars and a rockin' backbeat; Slow was a sultry slow burn of a jazz number; and her rendition of The Eurythmics' There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) was also deliciously delightful (although she didn't attempt the stratospheric notes of the original version).

She also took requests, recalling oldies like The Locomotion and I Should Be So Lucky, turning the stadium into one big sing-along session.

If we only had one word to describe the evening, it would be "fun". Yes, it's a cop-out word, we know - but we did have fun. And loads of it, too. And, really, isn't that the whole point of going to a concert?

By Christopher Toh