Kylie Minogue is a global superstar. she’s sold tens of millions of albums, acts in the occasional movie and sells out arenas in her native Australia and adopted U.K. But save for her bubblegum-pop version of “The Loco-Motion” and 2002’s Fever—which spawned the sleek, ’80s-electro hits “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and “Love at First Sight”—Minogue is little more than a gay icon and cult figure in America. Why?

Perhaps it’s because the 41-year-old has never conformed to the rules of pop-dom. She’s grown up gracefully, for starters, evolving from a fresh-faced teen queen/child actress into a sexual woman—without the usual tantrums or attention-grabbing shenanigans. No subject is taboo with her, either, whether it’s her battle with breast cancer or use of Botox. And Minogue’s musical metamorphosis has included some daring moves: Although top-40 hitmaking trio Stock Aitken Waterman penned her early singles, Minogue has been mashed up with New Order, been a femme foil to Nick Cave and Ben Lee—on macabre tune “Where the Wild Roses Grow” and a cover of Duran Duran’s “The Reflex,” respectively—and worked with members of the Manic Street Preachers. In fact, one could say she’s the most punk-rock of all pop icons ... precisely because she hasn’t tried to break in America: These U.S. shows (Vegas is one of just six cities on the eight-date schedule) constitute her first-ever stateside tour.