The singer wore a pink-feathered headdress on top of her post-chemotherapy crop of short hair and a bejewelled pink bodice showed off her wasp-like waist as she kicked off with her hit Better the Devil You Know.

“Good evening, Sydney” were the London-based Australian’s first words as she rose on a platform from the centre of the stage. “How are you feeling tonight?” It was obvious that she was feeling just fine as she blasted back to her best in a succession of eight new costumes, including a flowing gown by designer John Galliano, a Barbarella-like space costume and sequined boots set off with monogrammed red boxing gloves.

Her Showgirl tour, abandoned in May last year when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, was revamped with extra pizzazz. She performed with 13 dancers, half a truck of feathers imported from the Lido theatre in Paris and a £4m video and laser show.

Minogue will perform another 20 concerts in Australia before returning to Britain to appear at Wembley Arena in January. The two concerts sold out within an hour and the computer system crashed under the strain of fans ordering tickets, forcing organisers to lay on four extra shows to satisfy her admirers.

Some have raised fears that she is pushing herself too hard. But Professor Gordon McVie, former head of Cancer Research UK, said: “If she can reassure people that breast cancer is not an untreatable killer, then good for her. Is she supposed to sit around and wait for a tumour to come back or what?”

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