I’ve developed a girl crush.
At first it wasn’t serious. The gorgeous Kylie on stage belting out all the songs which took me back to my hairbrush-in-the-mirror younger days. “It’s just nostalgia,” I told myself.
Fighting the need to head straight to the reception of her hotel, which I happened to recognise having been Twitter-stalking her earlier on [gulp] on the ‘off chance’ I may run into her, I had to accept otherwise.
I can’t be blamed. The woman’s an icon for a generation. Fine, it might be a little cheesy at times ‑ I Should Be So Lucky, Better the Devil You Know and Loco-Motion have still got it – but the first of the Yasalam after-race F1 concerts proved Kylie is just as current as ever.
A perfect mix of old and new, the oldest Minogue had the crowd going from the first song, Wow, as she strutted her stuff in a slightly questionable blue jumpsuit (but yes, annoyingly the 44-year-old even pulled that off).
An onslaught of Get Outta My Way, Confide in Me, All The Lovers, Slow, Can Get You Out of My Head, Come Into My World, In Your Eyes, On A Night Like This, effortlessly sliced through 60 minutes of the night before most had so much as had time to get a drink.
But it wasn’t just the music. The concert, a one-off show rather than a tour stop, meant a scaled down version of a typical gig allowing fans to get closer to Kylie. Less script and more fun, the pint-sized pop princess chatted with the crowd, joked with her eight backing dancers, cuddled up to her two back-up vocalists and generally had a good time.
Her bubbly and genuine personality came across as she battled through the warm temperatures. “You’ve got two Minogues for the price of one tonight,” she said, giving a shout out to her younger sister Dannii, in town for the F1 and to launch her fashion collection, Project D, in the UAE. The jumpsuit soon became a sexy little purple number before an encore worth waiting for in her ‘go-faster’ leather jacket.
And for all those cynics out there, Kylie was singing live throughout which was especially apparent during a rendition of Kids with her backing singers sporting fabulous red bubble dresses. Who needs Robbie Williams?
Spinning Around and Love At First Sight – with glitter cannons - completed the programme and the Australian made certain every member of her team was present to receive the rapturous applause as the lights went down on the du Arena, Yas Island.
All in all it was a night to remember.
