Showgirl: Homecoming Tour

Tour byKylie Minogue
Promotional poster for the tour
Location	Oceania Europe
Associated album	Ultimate Kylie
Start date	11 November 2006 (2006-11-11)
End date	23 January 2007 (2007-01-23)
Legs	2
No. of shows	34
Box office	US$40.34 million ($61.17 million in 2024 dollars)[1]
Kylie Minogue concert chronology
Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour (2005) Showgirl: Homecoming Tour (2006–07) KylieX2008 (2008)

Showgirl: Homecoming Tour was the ninth concert tour by Australian singerKylie Minogue, in support of her second major greatest hits compilation,Ultimate Kylie (2004). The tour began on 11 November 2006 inSydney,Australia at theSydney Entertainment Centre and concluded on 23 January 2007 inLondon,England atWembley Arena, consisting of 20 shows in Australia and 14 shows in England.

Minogue was originally scheduled to perform in Australia and Asia duringShowgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour in 2005, but the dates were postponed due to herbreast cancer diagnosis.^[2] The tour resumed the following year, with a revised set list and new costumes. To accommodate Minogue's medical condition and conserve her strength, both alterations to the choreography and longer breaks between show sections were introduced.^[3]

For the Homecoming Tour, the show was re-vamped and re-structured into a new production. The tour initially started as an Australian-only tour, to compensate those shows cancelled from the previous tour; however, fourteen shows were scheduled in the United Kingdom due to popular demand, with the Asian shows from Showgirl being indefinitely cancelled.^[4]

The show was split into seven acts:Homecoming,Everything Taboo,Samsara,Athletica,Dreams,Pop Paradiso,Dance of the Cybermen, with the addition of an encore and an interval. The show opens with an instrumental introduction, before Minogue rises out of the stage on a platform dressed in a pink showgirl outfit. She opens the show with "Better the Devil You Know", which is quickly followed by a performance of "In Your Eyes". After addressing the audience, Minogue performed "White Diamond", and closed the section with "On a Night Like This", which begins as a ballad.

The second section begins with a dance interlude, using excerpts of "Do You Dare?", before Minogue rises out of the centre of the stage to perform a medley of "Shocked" "What Do I Have to Do" and "Spinning Around". Several songs were sampled and interpolated during the medley, including:"It's No Secret", "Keep on Pumpin' It", "Give Me Just a Little More Time", "What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)", "I'm Over Dreaming (Over You)", "Finally", "Step Back in Time" and "Such a Good Feeling".

The third section begins with a dance interlude, followed by a performance of "Confide in Me", where the dancers treat Minogue as if she were a puppet. This is followed by performances of "Cowboy Style" and "Finer Feelings", the latter of which is sung by the backing vocalists as Minogue dances.Samsara ends with a performance of "Too Far".

The fourth act begins with a dance interlude of the Sandstorm Dub of "Butterfly", featuring acrobat Terry Kvasnik. Minogue then performed "Red Blooded Woman", featuring an excerpt of "Where the Wild Roses Grow". This was followed with performances of "Slow" and "Kids" before a short interval.

The fifth section begins with a cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" where Minogue rises from behind the stage on a sequined moon. This is then followed by a torch version of "Come into My World" and a shortened version "Chocolate". The stage then morphs at the end of the catwalk to form a "cake", from which she sings "I Believe in You". The act closes with a performance of "Dreams".

Pop Paradiso opens with an interlude of Minogue's song "Burning Up", mashed up withMadonna's "Vogue". She then goes on to perform a jazz version of "The Locomotion" which is followed by a performance of "I Should Be So Lucky", featuring an excerpt of "The Only Way Is Up". Minogue closed the section with a remix of "Hand on Your Heart".

The penultimate section opens with a remix of "Can't Get You Out of My Head", leading into the countdown of "Light Years"; this version of the song is mashed up with song "Turn It into Love". For the encore, Minogue performed a sing-a-long version of "Especially for You", before closing the show with a performance of "Love at First Sight", as a video montage of her career shown on the video screens behind her.

Showgirl: Homecoming Tour received critical acclaim.The Age's Patrick Donovan wrote that Minogue "looked fit and healthy and was in good voice". He also wrote that she was "at her best prowling the stage in acatsuit, playing up to the crowd".^[5] Kathy McCabe ofThe Daily Telegraph newspaper also wrote a positive review, stating it was Minogue's imagination and professionalism which established the "Showgirl Homecoming" concept as a new benchmark for the pop concert. "Simply, Minogue is the best act in town when it comes to pop", she said, complementing that she had exceeded the public's expectations with "dazzling couture costumes, state-of-the-art lighting and staging, and special effects which almost stunned the delirious crowd into silence".^[6] Christine Sams in a review forThe Sydney Morning Herald described the show as an "extravaganza" and wrote that it was "nothing less than a triumph".^[3] Similarly, a writer ofThe Observer,Kitty Empire said her "bold, brash comeback show is a triumph", and as a whole, "the stagecraft, the lasers, the costumes, the feathers: they all conspire to make Showgirl mesmerising", making it "easy to ignore the songs you don't care for".^[7]

CBBC Newsround described the tour as the "perfect comeback" due to its "range of songs, excellent dancers, stage lighting and Kylie's love of performing".^[8] Ludovic Hunter-Tilney from theFinancial Times noted how "the outfits were as camp as the Rio carnival, the songs were irrepressibly bubbly and Kylie was as much the stage trouper as ever, beaming those huge white teeth at us and making no mention of recent ill-health", and felt her voice had improved since her previous tour.^[9] A reviewer from theManchester Evening News newspaper commented that "Showgirl remains a spectacle filled with genuine moments - not just because Kylie has been ill", attributing it to the "self deprecating and fun as well as emotional" nature of the concert.^[10] For Priya Elan ofNME magazine, the concert was "nothing less than a ‘Show!’", also commenting how the audience was "just happy to see their heroine healthy again", and "They are overjoyed to see her of course, but a long time ago Kylie Minogue realised that being a national treasure involved being entertaining for entertainment’s sake, and tonight, she is gloriously that".^[11]

Minogue's performance inMelbourne, Australia on 11 December 2006 was filmed for television and commercial release.^[12] The concert premiered on 13 January 2007 in the United Kingdom onChannel 4.^[13] On 4 March 2007, theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast the performance without commercial interruptions in Australia.^[14] The concert was released to DVD on 10 December 2007 as a double disc set with Minogue'sdocumentary filmWhite Diamond: A Personal Portrait of Kylie Minogue.^[12] Additionally, the second concert inSydney on 12 November 2006 was recorded and released as alive album titledShowgirl: Homecoming Live in January 2007.^[15] It featured a guest appearance byU2 lead singerBono on the song "Kids". The album reached number seven on theUK Albums Chart and was certifiedsilver by theBritish Phonographic Industry (BPI).^[16][17]

A documentary titledWhite Diamond: A Personal Portrait of Kylie Minogue was filmed containing behind-the-scenes footage of Minogue's life during the tour. Directed by her stylist and close friendWilliam Baker, it premiered on 16 October 2007 in Australia and three days later in the United Kingdom, before being released commercially on 10 December 2007.^[18] The project received mixed reviews from critics.^[19]

Act 1: Homecoming

1. "Showgirl Theme"(Instrumental Introduction)
2. "Better the Devil You Know"
3. "In Your Eyes"
4. "White Diamond"
5. "On a Night Like This"

Act 2: Everything Taboo

6. "Shocked"(contains excerpts from "Do You Dare?", "It's No Secret", "Give Me Just A Little More Time", "Keep on Pumpin' It" and "What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)")
7. "What Do I Have to Do?"(contains excerpt from "I'm Over Dreaming (Over You)")
8. "Spinning Around"(contains excerpts from "Step Back in Time" along with elements of "Finally" and "Such a Good Feeling")

Act 3: Samsara

9. "Temple Prequel"(Interlude)
10. "Confide in Me"
11. "Cowboy Style"
12. "Finer Feelings"(Performed by backing vocalists)
13. "Too Far"

Act 4: Athletica

14. "Butterfly" (Sandstorm Dub)(Dance Interlude)
15. "Red Blooded Woman"(contains excerpts from "Where the Wild Roses Grow")
16. "Slow"
17. "Kids"

Act 5: Dreams

18. "Rainbow Prequel"(Interlude)
19. "Over the Rainbow"
20. "Come into My World"
21. "Chocolate"
22. "I Believe in You"
23. "Dreams"(contains excerpts from "When You Wish upon a Star")

Act 6: Pop Paradiso

24. "Burning Up" / "Vogue"
25. "The Locomotion"
26. "I Should Be So Lucky"(contains excerpts from "The Only Way Is Up")
27. "Hand on Your Heart"

Act 7: Dance of the Cybermen

28. "Space Prequel"(Interlude)
29. "Can't Get You Out of My Head"(contains excerpts from "Rise of the Cybermen" along with elements of the "Doctor Who Theme")
30. "Light Years" / "Turn It into Love"(contains elements of theTARDIS dematerializing)

Encore

31. "Especially for You"(Intro contains an excerpt of "Love's in Need of Love Today")
32. "Love at First Sight"

• Kylie's Official Site
• "2006/2007 Showgirl – Homecoming Tour"

• 2006 concert tours
• 2006 in Australian music
• 2007 concert tours
• 2007 in Australian music
• December 2006 in Australia
• December 2006 in the United Kingdom
• January 2007 in the United Kingdom
• Kylie Minogue concert tours
• November 2006 in Australia
• Concert tours of Australia
• Concert tours of the United Kingdom

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