Kylie returned to the M.E.N Arena from Fri 12 to Tue 23 Jan to celebrate the end of her amazing Showgirl World Tour.

Check out the reviews of the recordbreaking Showgirl with your M.E.N's top Kylie posts:

Manchesteronline > Posted Mon 15 Jan

"EVERYWHERE you looked there were adoring men, from the elegant duo with slicked back black hair and matching white shirts, to the stubble-headed gang whooping and waving their arms around, to the balding dad with his two daughters.

Seldom do gay icons have such appeal for Mr 2.4 children. All gazing with delight upon the return of the ultimate soapstar superstar, Kylie Minogue.

Coquettish and gorgeous as ever, her tiny body shows no signs of the ravages of breast cancer. Although the illness is never mentioned, it hangs heavy in the air, some two years after the diagnosis shocked the world.

When she first appears through a trap-door in full feathery pink Las Vegas showgirl regalia the applause is thunderous, dewy eyes gazing at this survivor - the "ah, bless hers" drowned out by the stamping of feet.

But Kylie doesn't need our sympathy. She'd have had a sell-out audience with or without cancer, it's just that her triumph over tragedy has added an emotional appeal to her lavish camptastic show, given an edginess to the woman that her music sometimes lacks.

As soon as she starts singing Better the Devil You Know, the first in a string of hits that transport us back to the days when Kylie had a poodle perm and her Neighbours beau Jason Donovan was more famous than her, you know you're in for a heady night of nostalgia, glamour and feel-good tunes.

Although she has a cold, Kylie holds her own for more than two hours and there are no dodgy notes right up to her final songs: Especially for You (come on Jason, join your old mucker on stage!) and Love at First Sight.

The Aussie's pint-sized proportions and girlie grin bely a steely determination to out-show Madonna - she even steals a Madge number, reprising Vogue in thigh high patent boots. She might not have the Queen of Pop's moves but anyone who can totter around so nimbly in a succession of staggering glittery stilettos deserves our unreserved admiration.

She's aided and abetted by her Mancunian style guru, William Baker who directed and designed the spectacular sets (and watch out for the amazingly bendy acrobat Terry Kvasnik as he's also a Manc).

Baker deserves much credit, taking us from a Hollywood gym in the late 50s one minute to a futuristic dance of the Cybermen the next, with a dash through the desert, a1980s London nightclub and 1920s Cabaret in between.

He'd earn millions if he could take this to Caesar's Palace, but he'd need perfect pop of tunes like Can't get you out of My Head and I should be so Lucky to complement his creativity.

And he dresses Kylie in eight different outfits which all (apart from the encore number - even Kylie can't make shapeless culottes look sexy) flatter his delightful muse, the pop artiste-supreme."