Tension Tour

The Tension Tour was the sixteenth headlining concert tour by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. It commenced on 15 February 2025 in Perth, Australia, and concluded on 26 August 2025 in Monterrey, Mexico, consisting of 66 shows. Minogue announced the tour in September 2024, following the release of her sixteenth studio album, Tension, and preceding the release of her seventeenth studio album, Tension II. As of year-end reports for 2025, it earned million within 62 of its 66 shows.
Critics praised the show's energy and production, as well as its set list, which encompasses Minogue's career, ranging from her debut, "The Loco-Motion", to the critically acclaimed "Padam Padam". The tour also achieved several [|venue records] for Minogue, including being the female with the most performances at Manchester's AO Arena and becoming the first female solo artist to perform a total of 21 times at the O₂ Arena in London, England.

Background

embarked on the Golden Tour, her fifteenth concert tour from 2018 to 2019, in support of her fourteenth studio album Golden. The tour was a commercial success, with both Billboard and Pollstar reporting the tour's three concerts in London, England, at the O₂ Arena grossed $3,368,900 USD with 30,100 tickets sold, placing her at eighth spot for the biggest concerts of September 2018. In 2020, Minogue released Disco. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, she livestreamed a special concert, Infinite Disco, featuring songs from the album as well as previous songs from her discography. In September 2023, Minogue released her sixteenth studio album Tension.
During promotion of Tension, Minogue first teased the possibility of a tour in the United States. During a 12 July 2023 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, she teased a tour or Las Vegas residency were "very possible" at the time. Fifteen days later, More Than Just a Residency was announced. Serving as the inaugural residency at the Voltaire at the Venetian Las Vegas, the show ran from November 2023 to May 2024. Following the initially planned November 2023 shows selling out and continued high demand, additional dates spanning from December of the same year to May 2024 were announced in August 2023. The residency was both critically and commercially successful.
During a February 2024 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Minogue announced plans for a tour in the United States was in-the-works, revealing: "I haven't got the dates yet but we're working on it." On 19 September 2024, Minogue announced the Tension Tour dates in Asia, Australia and Europe. In connection to the tour announcement, she revealed Tension II, a sequel to 2023's Tension, would release on 18 October of the same year. In a statement concerning the tour's announcement, Minogue stated: "I am beyond excited to announce the 'Tension Tour 2025'. I can't wait to share beautiful and wild moments with fans all over the world, celebrating the Tension era and more! It's been an exhilarating ride so far and now, get ready for your close up because I will be calling Lights, Camera, Action... and there will be a whole lot of Padaming!" Additional Australian shows were announced on 25 September. The following day, two additional concerts in Manchester and London were announced, respectively.
On 30 September, during an appearance on Capital FM's Capital Breakfast, additional dates in London, Birmingham and Glasgow were announced, billed as the final shows to be held in the United Kingdom. On 3 October 2024, concerts in North America were announced, marking her first tour to visit the region since 2011's Aphrodite: Les Folies Tour. On 7 October, Minogue announced two concerts in France during an appearance on Quotidien, with more dates in Europe added the following day. An additional concert at Madison Square Garden was announced on 9 October, due to demand. Two days later, Minogue announced Rita Ora and Romy would serve as supporting acts on during the North American concerts. Venues for the Asian dates were announced on 22 October. Two days later, Minogue announced eight concerts in Latin America. On 23 December 2024, the 17 March 2025 concert in the Philippines was cancelled. On 5 February 2025, it was announced Mallrat would serve as a supporting act for the Australian concerts. On 23 April, it was announced Minogue's concert on 29 April at Ball Arena was cancelled, due to a scheduling conflict with the 2025 NBA playoffs; initial reports claimed the concert was postponed. On 1 May, AXS announced Jodie Harsh would serve as a supporting act for the United Kingdom concerts. The following month, Harsh announced she had signed on for select European concerts.
As part of the tour, Minogue will perform at several European festivals. They include: the Jazzopen Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, the Tinderbox Festival in Odense, Denmark, Bilbao BBK Live and Icónica Santalucía in Bilbao and Seville, Spain, respectively, and the Release Athens Festival in Athens, Greece. In June 2025, Tickantel revealed the 9 August concert in Montevideo, Uruguay, had been cancelled; the venue cited "logical reasons" for the cancellation. That same month, a concert in Mostazal, Chile, was announced for the same date as the cancelled Montevideo concert. On 13 June, Minogue announced the postponement of four concerts, citing laryngitis. Eleven days later, she announced only one of the shows had been rescheduled, with the three others cancelled due to being unable to reschedule.

Staging and production

Rob Sinclair served as the stage creative and lighting designer. He stated, "We tried to present her at the centre of everything without distraction. It's a chance for her and her audience to spend time together." The production incorporates screen-based elements, featuring three upstage video surfaces, two lateral display screens, video cubes integrated with the band’s setup, and a suspended square screen component. According to Sinclair, "It's a clean, modern world that sits well with the music of her two Tension albums." The lighting design incorporates MAC Viper XIP fixtures positioned across the stage, overhead, and at floor level, integrated with 114 Chauvet Color Strike M units that contribute to outlining the stage’s structure. The production manager of the tour, Kevin Hopgood, noted that in contrast to Minogue's previous tours, which were known for their theatricality, elaborate staging, and narrative-driven performances, this production adopts a more digital-centric approach, placing greater emphasis on screen-based visuals rather than traditional storytelling."
British director Sophie Muller, alongside Luke Hall Studios, created the original films for the tour, while English producer Steve Anderson served as a musical director. During an appearance on Nova FM's Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel podcast, Minogue revealed the set list would chronicle the releases of Disco, Tension and Tension II, as well as "some of the old hits" and what she described as a 1990's "trip house" experimental-sounding concept, citing projects she'd done before and had "veered away from". She cited the Brothers in Rhythm remix of her "Confide in Me" as inspiration. In interviews with Audacy and Papelpop, she cited her desired intent to perform songs, such as "Locomotion", "Can't Get You Out of My Head", "Slow" and "All the Lovers", as well as teased "In My Arms" would be performed "for sure" in Brazil.
Keyboard player and musician Hazel Mills played the synths during the live shows. Mills has previously collaborated with music acts such as Florence and the Machine, Goldfrapp, Birdy, and Fraser T. Smith during their performances. UDO Super 6, alongside the Eventide H90 Harmonizer and Boss RE-202 Space Echo pedals, served as the primary equipment for Mills' work on the tour. She employed an expression pedal to modulate the filter to achieve the desired sounds. At the same time, the UDO synthesizer is connected via MIDI to facilitate program changes and control change messages. These functions are used to automate parameters when manual operation is not possible. A MIDI clock is also implemented to synchronize delays and low-frequency oscillators. The Super 6’s audio output is routed through Apple’s MainStage software, which provides side-chain compression to produce the characteristic pulsing pad effect.

Critical reception

Australia and North America

In January 2025, Consequence listed the tour on their list of the 34 Most Anticipated Tours of 2025. Paolo Ragusa remarked the North American leg would be "a golden opportunity to witness Kylie during the triumphant second wind of her career." Fiona Shepherd of The Scotsman also named the tour as one of her top ten "must-see gigs" for the year. In their review of opening night, The West Australian called the concert "jaw-dropping," while complimenting Minogue as "timeless". The Guardian rated the show five out of five stars, while complimenting that the tour "reminds us that Australia's queen of pop has always been a genius at reinvention." They further remarked the concert is "stuffed with preposterously catchy hit after preposterously catchy hit" and that the tour "is an excursion through every Kylie era". Rolling Stone Australia described the tour as an "electrifying performance," while noting the set list was "hit-packed" and "blended fresh material with beloved classics". In a review for The Note, Tobias Handke described Minogue as a "rare breed of performer who’s able to reinvent themselves throughout the decades without losing fans."
In a review for The Boston Globe, correspondent Marc Hirsh described Minogue as a "monarch holding court" and complimented her for "putting exclusively positive energy into the world for two hours". He further commented on the concert's set list, referring to it as "above sex, love, dancing" and "embracing the world with an open heart". Maya Shavit of Boston.com remarked that "ostaglia was in full-force" during the concert. Collin Kelley of Rough Draft Atlanta described the show as "high-energy", while noting seeing her perform was "quite a thrill". Orlando Sentinel Matthew J. Palm described Minogue as bringing her "upbeat brand of dancefloor pop" that brought "radiant joy that only a perfect pop moment, in the hands of an expert performer, can deliver". Austin American-Statesman Eric Webb described Minogue as a "seasoned performer", an "international fashion icon", and described the concert's staging as "high-caliber". In their review, the Vancouver Sun called Minogue "pop perfection", while concluding that the evening was full of "shiny, happy people and music".