Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue returned to the stage Saturday in Sydney for the first time since a bout with breast cancer.

Resplendent in a feathered costume complete with an Australian cockatoo's plume on her head, the diminutive singer gave an energetic performance featuring several of her hits in front of a sellout crowd of 10,000 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

Australia's Kylie Minogue returned after a bout with breast cancer to perform a concert Saturday in Sydney.
(Rick Rycroft/Associated Press)

"I'm thrilled to be back. I've been looking forward to this for such a long time," Minogue said prior to the show.

The 38-year-old singer was reopening her Showgirl world tour — which she has renamed the Showgirl Homecoming Tour — after being forced to postpone it in the wake of her diagnosis in May 2005.

After successful surgery in Melbourne two days after the diagnosis, the 2004 Grammy award winner underwent chemotherapy in Paris, where her boyfriend, French actor Olivier Martinez, has a home. Minogue's chemotherapy wrapped up in December, but she continues to receive treatment to prevent a recurrence of cancer.

During her time off from performing, Minogue wrote a children's book, The Showgirl Princess, and made occasional public appearances, including a book signing, a television interview and a fashion show in Milan.

Sporting a new short hairstyle, she also appeared on the cover of the Australian version of the fashion magazine Vogue.

Scaled-back show

Following her battle with cancer, Minogue was forced to trim her trademark high-octane act.

"I actually can't do the same things," Minogue told reporters in Sydney this week when she launched her own perfume.

"I can't wear the same costumes. How can I do that a year and a half later and feel that I'm meant to be replicating what that was, when I'm not the same person?"

Still, Saturday's show featured such accoutrements as an enormous art deco stage with 13 dancers, half a truck of feathers imported from France, a spectacular video and laser show and costumes designed by fashion icons such as Karl Lagerfeld, Emilio Pucci and John Galliano.

Minogue performed songs from her 20-year pop career, including In Your Eyes, Shocked and Better The Devil You Know, which opened the show. She also broke out a new song, White Diamond, co-written with U.S. dance act Scissor Sisters.

Minogue plans to perform 20 shows in Australia, including six in her hometown of Melbourne, before taking her tour overseas.

With files from Australian Broadcasting Corporation