Money Can't Buy was a one-off, 75-minute concert show held on 15 November 2003 at the Carling Apollo in London to promote Australian singer Kylie Minogue's ninth studio album Body Language (2003).
William Baker and Alan MacDonald served as creative and art directors, respectively, while Michael Rooney and Steve Anderson worked on the choreography and musical arrangements.
[1] Aiming to create a dance-pop album inspired by electronic music from the 1980s,[2] Minogue enlisted collaborators such as Cathy Dennis, Dan Carey, Emiliana Torrini, Johnny Douglas and Mantronix.
[3] To promote Body Language, a one-off concert show was organised to be held at entertainment venue Carling Apollo, London, on 15 November 2003 – two days before the release of the album.
[4][6] The concert was entitled "Money Can't Buy" as no tickets were made available for purchase publicly; only competition winners and guests with invitations were allowed to attend the show.
[8] The Sydney Morning Herald found it surprising that Minogue chose to perform in an "intimate" setting as she had chiefly embarked on large arena tours in the past.
"[9] "Paris By Night" opened with the Body Language-track "Still Standing", which Minogue sang from atop an eight-metre long black beam suspended in the air.
The latter's performance was inspired by the 1952 musical Singin' in the Rain and featured "dancers spinning iridescent red umbrellas against LCD displays of digital drizzle.
[10][11] The "Bardello" act commenced with a mashup of Minogue's 1998 single "Breathe" and "Je t'aime... moi non-plus", a 1969 French duet between Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin.
[5] Craig MacLean from the Daily Telegraph described the backup dancers during this segment as "Tour de France cyclists moonlighting as Moulin Rouge hostesses.
[13] Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Hassall gave a favourable review of Money Can't Buy and summarised it as "lots of '80s-influenced electro-pop, with a few oldies thrown in for good measure.
"[15] Craig MacLean from the Daily Telegraph called Money Can't Buy a "real tour de force" and noticed that the tracks from Body Language were more low-key than songs from her previous albums, describing them as "sedate and immaculate dancefloor rhythm" and "All very stylish and considerably more affecting than the similarly nostalgic Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
"[11] Mclean praised the incorporation of the past songs as they provided "the huge choruses for which the nation loves her so", and concluded of the show: "No slinky back-arching or pristine choreography here: just the giddy joy of pop music at play.