Kylie Minogue Kylie Minogue: A huge international star, she gave up on the U.S. a long time ago — until now. Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images
 

by Marc Hirsh

Not long ago, it was announced that Kylie Minogue will be embarking on a North American tour — the Australian pop singer's first in a career that stretches back to 1988, when her remake of "The Loco-Motion" hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In the 21 years since then, she's had a small handful of American hits and become a major gay icon. She'll play the United States and Canada for six scheduled shows starting Sept. 30.

So: Is this significant?

Why it is: Kylie is one of the biggest pop stars in the world. You know the world, right? Big place, located inconveniently outside U.S. borders? Yeah, Kylie's massive there. Like, Madonna huge. (Specifically, Madonna-10-years-ago huge.)

Plus, she more or less gave up on trying to break into the U.S. years ago, so an undertaking on this scale is something of a substantial policy shift for her. Not to mention a gift to Stateside fans who don't wish to shell out a thousand bucks or more to catch one of her legendarily lavish concerts overseas.

Why it isn't: Six dates doesn't sound like much of a tour. It sounds like six dates. And while her bookings at the Hollywood Bowl and Air Canada Centre stand to place her in front of nearly 20,000 fans at each, some of the other venues have a maximum capacity closer to 3,000. It's a safe bet that if Kylie were confident that she could pull it off on our shores, she'd aim for much larger venues all around.

As it is, it hardly looks like she can command the audiences she would if she were a Madonna-sized star in the U.S. Which, it bears repeating, she isn't.

The verdict? After the jump ...

The final verdict: Not significant (but not for the reason you might think). Half a dozen concerts seems more like a token gesture at this point, and we'd have to be talking about a full-scale tour for this news to be significant.

But the fact that this is happening at all suggests that Kylie is testing the waters for something larger in the future. If ticket sales are strong, with a sellout or two, it could embolden her to think of the U.S. as being in play once more.

That would be news. Until then, it's just a tentative, if long overdue, beachhead in a land that Kylie just hasn't been able to crack.

categories: Music

2:22 - May 22, 2009

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