Serene and exalted, Kylie sailed through the first of seven nights at the O2 Arena with a firm, but slightly distanced poise. Although her 10th album, X, got off to a shaky start, it has now achieved platinum status in Britain and has sold a respectable million copies worldwide. Meanwhile, the KYLIEX2008 tour, which opened almost three months ago in Paris, has journeyed through 21 countries to general acclaim and buoyant ticket sales. With health scares well behind her, not even the recent trauma of turning 40 has made the slightest dent in her progress.

As a production, this show certainly takes some beating. From the moment that Kylie first appeared, singing Speakerphone while floating high above the stage like a spiderwoman in a giant circular web of blue strings, to the final flourish of I Should Be so Lucky, delivered to an audience engulfed in golden confetti and gaily coloured balloons, the cast of acrobat/dancers, musicians and behind the scenes technicians never missed a trick.

The many remarkable set pieces ranged from Kylie floating in from the heights perched on a giant golden skull, singing Like a Drug, to a choreographed fight scene in a cruise ship cocktail bar, full of sailors and showgirls, which unfolded as Kylie sang a cover of Barry Manilow’s evergreen cabaret turn Copacabana. Her gay constituency were well catered for throughout the show, especially during Nudity, when the male dancers performed an implausibly energetic routine in just their underpants and leg-warmers.

However, the pacing of the show was a little suspect at times. Can’t Get You out of My Head, her biggest hit, was rather thrown away early on in the set. And the overall momentum tended to ebb during the regular lulls in activity that were necessary to facilitate so many complex scene and costume changes.

While she has honed her skills as a performer over so many years at the top, Kylie’s voice has remained an instrument of limited technical and emotional range. Although perfectly suited to the pneumatic, disco swirl of songs such as On a Night Like This and Step Back in Time, her singing was less commanding when it came to the big ballads Flower (a new song) and I Believe in You. Céline Dion she is not. But any cracks in the musical paintwork were comprehensively papered over by a surfeit of jolly visual distractions and a plentiful supply of hits - most of them from this decade - including Kids, Slow, Spinning Around, In Your Eyes, 2 Hearts and others.

There was a rare moment of spontaneity when Kylie spotted a young girl up in the gods wearing a cheerleader outfit, and broke off from the script to call out and wave to her. Then it was back to the helm as this most colourful of juggernauts rolled on.

Kylie Minogue continues at the O2 Arena tomorrow, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Monday

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