A beaming Minogue, who recently overcame breast cancer, belted out a series of her biggest hits, including "Can't get you out of my head," "Better the devil you know" and "I should be so lucky."

"It's my first time ever here in Beijing and you've made me feel so welcome," she told the crowd of some 6,000 who had gathered to see her at the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium.

"I'm very happy today," Minogue said in broken Chinese, to roars of approval from the crowd. "Well, it's true!"

Her Beijing date was part of the KylieX2008 tour, a $­16 million production that has already been to more than 21 countries, and included a Shanghai date last weekend.

Nicknamed by local media the "pea princess" in reference to her diminutive size, "Kaili Minuo" as she is known in Chinese barely rested during the two-hour show, dressed to the nines in a dazzling and constantly changing Jean Paul Gaultier wardrobe.

While not as well known in China as Madonna or Celine Dion, Minogue packed in the crowds with the most expensive ticket going for 2,580 yuan ($­376.5), well out of the price range of the average Chinese.

"I asked some of my colleagues and they all said they didn't know much about Kylie because not many people know her, but most of them know Madonna," said Chinese fan Hao Chenguang.

The Australian became a household name in Britain in the 1980s after starring as Charlene in the TV soap "Neighbours."

She turned to music after leaving the popular show, releasing her first single "Locomotion" in 1987 and has continued to enjoy huge chart success with songs such as "Love at first sight" and "Spinning around."

In 2005 she was diagnosed with breast cancer but returned to performing after recovering from surgery and chemotherapy.

Visits by Western singers and bands to China are still fairly rare, though increasing, with the likes of the Rolling Stones and the late James Brown performing in the world's most populous country in recent years.

Their shows don't always go off smoothly.

Earlier this year, Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at a Shanghai concert after performing her song "Declare Independence," angering the government and local fans alike.

Artists are forbidden to perform content that would harm "national unity" or "stir up resentment" and promoters are asked to submit set-lists and lyric sheets for approval,Cheap Toms.

Performers deemed to have hurt national sentiments are put in the freezer indefinitely, or until seen to have made due penance.

Last year, a Beijing concert for U.S. rock act Sonic Youth was nearly scuppered at the last minute after local authorities were tipped off that it had played at "free Tibet" concerts.

But Minogue avoided any hint of politics with her bouncy pop.

"Oh Beijing, you're so wow!" she told the appreciative audience.

($­1=6.853 Yuan)

(Additional reporting by Hanna Rantala, editing by Paul Casciato)

"Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)," which opens on April 27, aims to reveal hidden details about his works.

The show will present 300 of the prolific Spanish artist's paintings, sculptures, drawings and ceramics. Organized chronologically, it is an overview of Picasso's entire career, from the harlequins of his Blue and Rose periods, to later Cubist paintings and colorful linoleum cuts.

"Why Picasso, why now?" asked the show's curator and Picasso expert Gary Tinterow at a preview of the exhibit.

Partly, he said, it was to showcase the museum's collection, composed mostly of works given by donors over the years.

But researchers quintupled their efforts and exposed the works to an almost unprecedented level of scrutiny, he added.

Several paintings revealed hidden and until now unknown pasts by use of infrared reflectography and radiography which allow researchers to peel back the layers of a canvas' history.

The 1906 painting "La Coiffure" revealed three full, completed paintings beneath the current image of a woman staring into a hand mirror while her hair is braided.

Analyzing "The Blind Man's Meal," a key canvas from Picasso's Blue Period, researchers found a painting that was thought missing.

"It's just fascinating that an artist that has been so studied, mined so extensively, nevertheless can continue to bring forth new revelations," Tinterow said.

Each of the show's 34 paintings was cleaned and reframed according to Picasso's own wishes, said Tinterow, giving the show a unique coherence.

"A MEASURE OF IMMORTALITY"

While staging a Picasso show is usually considered a museum safe bet, bringing in easy acclaim and hordes of visitors, curators from The Met went to great lengths to distinguish this show from others.

"It's really remarkable that we can, out of our own collections, draw from holdings some 500 works of Picasso to show the full range of his career," The Met's director Thomas Campbell said.

He added that the museum provides a special forum to show Picasso because of the resonance his works have with the museum's permanent collection of classical art.

The Met, Campbell said, was a museum for timeless works, not just modern art. He cited the words of expatriate writer Gertrude Stein, who was a friend of Picasso and donated a linchpin painting. She said the museum lends to art "a measure of immortality."

And in a quick jab to critics who might call the show a "cynical move that we would exploit our own collections in order to have a cheap exhibition," Tinterow pointed to the depth of new research this show demanded.

Picasso, Tinterow said, was a "subject here in house that could be profitably exploited -- exploited, that is, for scholarly reasons."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney)