Kylie Minogue is an Australian-born singer and actress who first came to global attention with her role as Charlene Mitchell in the soap opera Neighbours. She began her music career in 1987 when she signed to Mushroom Records and released a cover-version of Little Eva's "Locomotion", which spent seven weeks as the Australian number one. The success of "Locomotion" lead to Minogue travelling to the UK to record with pop producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman, with whom she worked until 1992. In 1993, she signed with dance label Deconstruction, a move that was marketed as the start of a new phase in her career. The distance from her SAW-managed sugary past was highlighted, and her credibility boosted, in 1995, when she collaborated with Nick Cave on the murder ballad "Where the Wild Roses Grow".

After leaving Deconstruction, Minogue signed with Parlophone in April 1999, with whom she released the albums Light Years (2000) and Fever (2001), both of which proved enormous commercial and critical successes. In 2005, Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer, putting her career on hiatus for 18 months. Following treatment and surgery, she resumed her Showgirl Tour in Sydney on 11 November 2006.