Kylie does Canada

It took her 20 years, but Kylie Minogue finally arrived in North America.

She paraded her hits to an almost full Air Canada Centre Friday night, with an uneven but highly entertaining show that marked her first performance ever in a Canadian venue. Kylie was very personable and made a point to connect with the audience. After all, all she wants is to be loved by Canada -- and the US, naturally -- and she worked very hard for it.

Our Lady of America

At its best, Kylie’s concert was a high-energy spectacle of lasers beams and dance beats that got us on our feet for almost the entire time. Even thought there were some cheesy Euro-trash moments and an awkward beginning, Kylie shone through with flawless make-up, toothy smiles, some well-rehearsed moves and lots of costumes changes -- not all of them very wise, alas…

Some costumes seemed a little dated. Is it still the 90s in Australia?

Does this outfit make my hips look huge?

But songs like Spinning Around, Love At First Sight, Wow, The One, Slow and of course Can't Get You Out of My Head exempted Kylie from any wardrobe faux-pas and kept us burning up and dancing. Unfortunately, she didn't sing I Should Be So Lucky, but she salvaged Locomotion from being an embarrassing moment with a sexy burlesque version of it.

Kylie was also happy to indulge her sizeable gay audience with plenty of male-on-male action throughout the show.

Apart from the outfits, the tackiest parts of the show were when Kylie tried to openly emulate Madonna, like when she comes down from the ceiling in a cheesy disco skull or when she pretty much re-enacts Justify My Love and sings Vogue. Kylie doesn’t need to bow to Madonna -- she’s a pop music force in her own right, and this concert certainly reminds us of why. Feel-good music at its best!

I'm the one. Love me, love me, love me, love me.