Heart Beats: The Summer of Kylie Minogue and “Padam Padam"
Although the official unofficial start to summer begins during the Memorial Day weekend in the latter part of May, Kylie Minogue’s summer to remember began on May 18, 2023, with the release of “Padam Padam,” the first single from her 16th studio album, Tension, out September 22. Snippets of the song teased before its release hinted at a more mysterious sound, with its electro-altered vocal and an ominous guitar riff. No one could have predicted, even Kylie and her production team, that this dark, menacing intro would kick off, what many would later consider to be, the “song of the summer,” a coveted title often associated with a lighter, more upbeat pop sound, reflective of that school’s-out, sun’s-out sense of carefree abandon. It’s the track’s (heart)beat-thumping chorus that would allow it to set itself apart from other pseudo contenders.
Just ten days later, Kylie celebrated her 55th birthday, and took to her social media to thank her followers for the messages, “the ‘Padam’ reaction and the love; it’s been an incredible week,” Kylie said. Incredible indeed, the song went viral on Instagram, and on Tik Tok, #padampadam would eventually garner 10 million hits in early June. This is the first of two significant moments, for it confirmed the speedy reach, and the immense impact, of “Padam Padam” in a relatively short amount of time.
The second moment also occurred in early June, when Kylie surprised the crowd of 80,000, who attended Capital’s Summertime Ball music festival at Wembley Stadium. The radio group posted the two-song set to its YouTube channel, which at the start of the performance featured a pre-filmed compilation of Kylie clips and some career stats. The cameras down on the stadium floor captured the reaction of some of the audience members (many presumably in their twenties) as they began to realize that the Aussie superstar was on the bill. It’s one of the most important moments in Kylie’s career: Here, a pop-music icon, some 36 years into her career, is connecting with many who weren’t even born when “The Loco-Motion” or “I Should Be So Lucky,” or perhaps even “Spinning Around” or Kylie’s signature, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” were released.
The video montage, designed to heighten the hype, met its goal; when Kylie’s name was announced and she ascended on the stage-lift, the audience erupted in excitement, easily heard in the following video:
Kylie then went from stadium to studios, appearing on NBC’s “TODAY” show, and Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen, where Cohen asked her point blank if she had any plans for a U.S. tour or a Vegas residency, to which she coyly replied: “Very possibly.” The “very possibly” turned into “very definitely” in late July when she officially announced a Las Vegas residency at the Venetian’s newly renovated, 1,000-seat venue, Voltaire. She and casino executives were riding a “Vegas High” along with fans worldwide, but fast forward to August 9 when many of those fans went from a high to a letdown, due to a chaotic ticket-purchasing experience, and a crash of Voltaire’s site. Regardless, the first set of shows for November and December 2023 and January 2024 quickly sold out, as well as a second set of shows for the early part of 2024 that were later added.
Kylie also appeared on few radio programs in the U.S., such as the “Zach Sang Show,” and on 102.7 KIISFM, to talk “Padam Padam,” the new album, the residency, and much more. Around this time in August, the single had cracked the top 40 on Billboard’s U.S. Adult Top 40 and U.S. Mainstream Top 40 charts. Also, it climbed to number 1 on the U.S. Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart.
For those not entirely familiar with Kylie, easily one of the most successful singers of the last 40 years, “Padam Padam” hopefully serves as the gateway single to discovering her previous, now-legendary, work in pop (the essential-to-own Light Years and Fever albums), dance (the dazzling 2020 album, Disco, which helped sustain many through a dark pandemic), indie-pop (1997’s experimental Impossible Princess), even torch/jazz (“Stay This Way”; “If You Don’t Love Me”; “Try Your Wings”; 2012’s The Abbey Road Sessions album), and that’s just scratching the surface as a recording artist. As a live-concert performer, they don’t call her “the Showgirl” for nothing (two tours entitled, Showgirl [2005, 2006]; XTour2008; Aphrodite Les Folies [2011] are vital viewing). Fittingly, her Vegas residency will solidify her as the consummate showgirl once again.
As summer 2023 comes to a close, it was one full of bright, sunny moments for Kylie Minogue, with “Padam Padam” representing the start to yet another era in her phenomenal career, one that shows no signs of going dim or, to keep with the heart theme, flatlining. The track also signifies a renewed faith in the power of music to bring people together for a very catchy common good. (Note: As this article is being finalized, Kylie has announced the second single, “Tension” will be released on August 31, 2023.)
Impossibly Indie: Three HD Videos from Kylie in the ‘90s
Kylie Minogue’s sixth studio album, 1997’s Impossible Princess, marked another major shift in Minogue's career. Gone was the late-‘80s bubble-gum pop singer; g’day to ‘90s singer/songwriter, ready, willing and able to delve deeper into experimental territory. Surrounding the material, some of which explored topics such as personal happiness, and inner peace in spite of chaos, was a new sound, one significantly different from 1987’s “The Loco-Motion,” even from the dance-pop direction of 1990’s “Better The Devil You Know.”
This late-‘90s shift actually originated in the early part of the decade. In 1992, Minogue parted ways with her record company, PWL, and signed with the independent dance-music label, Deconstruction Records, who afforded Minogue more creative direction and input. The first result: the 1994 self-titled album, Kylie Minogue, with the eerily effective, “Confide In Me” representing the first effort in an era that would be coined, “Indie Kylie.” A year later, a musical collaboration with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on “Where the Wild Roses Grow” was another confirmation that trying new things came with commercial and critical accolades. On the personal front, she was in a relationship with the French photographer, Stéphane Sednaoui, who inspired her to push the professional envelope. However, when Impossible Princess was released, it became her most polarizing album to date, due to its sharp departure from what many were accustomed. Yet over the years, the artistic endeavor has garnered acclaim as one of Minogue’s most respected works, and a fan favorite, for its unexpectedly bold foray into rock, electronica, drum and bass, even Celtic-folk influence on the fourth and final single, “Cowboy Style.”
On October 22, 2022, the enduring album celebrates its 25th anniversary. To help celebrate, Minogue recently released HD versions of the music videos for the first three singles: “Some Kind of Bliss,” “Did It Again” and “Breathe.” Much like how the musical direction for each single served as a departure for Minogue, the visual companions followed suit:
I’m With the Bandits
The David Mould-directed video for “Some Kind of Bliss” features Minogue and the actor, Dexter Fletcher, playing a devilish duo on the run (or more like on a ride, in a classic Pontiac). The Bonnie and Clyde-inspired tale is edited in a non-linear format, so it’s left up to the viewer to determine the actual order of the crime-spree events. Here’s a theory as to what the storyline would be if it was edited in linear sequence:
Minogue’s character, in a black dress, picks up Fletcher’s from jail. He’s wearing a black shirt, tan pants, and carries a black-and-red bag as he leaves the jail. After spending some time at a motel, Fletcher’s character has changed into a white suit; Minogue’s into a blue mini-dress. They’re seen fleeing to the Pontiac, while he carries the same black-and-red bag.
The couple descends upon a gas station in the middle of the desert, still wearing the white suit, still wearing the blue mini-dress. As Minogue flirtatiously distracts the attendant, she heads to the restroom, while Fletcher robs the station. When she leaves the restroom, we see she’s changed into a white tank top and blue hot pants that we can presume were under the mini-dress. (Three years later, Minogue would wear a pair of gold hot pants in the video for “Spinning Around”; the article of clothing would later become synonymous with the singer.)
Post-robbery, the two once again change outfits: He adds a green shirt to the white suit; she into a white top and pink pants, her ginger-red hair now in a ponytail. Back in town, he robs a business, while she remains outside near the Pontiac, only to observe a police car pulling up to the building, just as he runs out and right into the cops. He yells at her to make a break for it, as he’s put into the back of the squad car. She drives away, crying, her Bonnie separated once again from her Clyde. In summary, based on this theory, this would mean that Fletcher’s character returns to jail mere hours after initially being released, carrying the black-and-red bag. Not watching the video below would be criminal.
Kylie Chameleon
Many of Minogue’s previous videos, particularly the ones from the ‘80s, showed her as a happy-go-lucky (“lucky, lucky, lucky”) late-teen. “Better the Devil You Know” (1990) showed her as a girl all grown up, with “Some Kind of Bliss” showing Kylie as that good girl gone bad. What makes the video for Impossible Princess’ second single, “Did It Again” compelling—and comedic—is that it’s a tongue-in-cheek look at Kylie’s various professional personas in direct opposition with each other. The Pedro Romhanyi-directed video features four characters: Sex Kylie; Cute Kylie; Indie Kylie; Dance Kylie, in a police lineup, battling it out for the camera’s attention.
These monikers doubled as references to, and commentary on, the media coverage Minogue had endured up to this point, often pigeonholed by the press into a confined category, a current incarnation put “in quotes,” a creative pursuit reduced to an easily digestible soundbite. It’s no wonder the four figures are set against a mugshot backdrop; it’s as if Minogue daring to change direction, musically and visually, was a criminal act. Lyrically, Minogue co-wrote the track as self-commentary, reportedly frustrated at not learning valuable lessons when it came it to her personal relationships. (“Clever girl, think you know, but you don’t know much.”) “Did It Again” is all about conflict, both external and internal.
“It Won’t Be Long Now”
If “Some Kind of Bliss” is Impossible Princess’ most cinematic video, and “Did It Again” its most technically creative, the video for the third single, “Breathe,” directed by Kieran Evans, is its most beautiful, thanks, in part, to its artistic simplicity. Most of the video has Minogue, floating in a vast openness, in a nude-colored dress. Blurred, fragmented shots of her hands, fingers and feet are almost embryonic in nature.
At video’s end, the visual concept connects to the central theme of the track, which revolves around living inside one’s own head. (“I’m sorting everything inside/I’m looking in the space.”) “Breathe” was a fitting follow-up single, and antidote, to “Did It Again.” Just as Minogue expressed feelings of frustration towards herself, the introspective, meditative “Breathe” is her seeking inner peace. (“It won’t be long now, breathe, breathe.”) A new Kylie is born.
And it won’t be long now until fans are putting Impossible Princess on repeat, and these three videos on replay, revisiting one of the most intriguing chapters in Minogue’s now legendary career. It’s a chapter that’s impossibly indie, yet still consistently Kylie.
The Pop Zeal Project (Track 77): Kylie Minogue: Bittersweet Goodbye
It’s no wonder the word, lullaby appears in Kylie Minogue’s “Bittersweet Goodbye” from her 2000 album, Light Years. The song itself sounds as if it is one, with its tender piano and sweet, comforting vocals. However, it’s not the traditional kind of tale from parent to child, but this time from one lover to another, during the night into the dawn, before the couple parts. The song is written ambiguously to allow for interpretation; the story doesn’t automatically deduce that a breakup per se is about to happen. Yet this still doesn’t lessen the curiosity as to what makes the goodbye bittersweet, eluding, in part, that there is some benefit or joy that comes as a result. Perhaps it’s the future reunion that can only happen after one leaves in the morning light.
Hold this Note: Kylie hardly performs this track live in concert, but did so during her 2012 Anti-Tour, a scaled-down outing, which stopped only in select cities in Australia (Melbourne; Sydney) and England (Manchester; London), where b-sides, demos and rarities were performed in smaller venues.
Oh Boy!: Kylie Minogue’s “Better the Devil You Know” Turns 30
April 30, 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of one of Kylie Minogue’s signature songs, “Better the Devil You Know.” The lead single from her third studio album, Rhythm of Love, it goes down as one of her biggest career-defining moments, marking her transition from bubble-gum pop (and soap opera) star to slightly more brazen pop siren. (Kylie was no longer with fellow soap star, Jason Donovan, and had started dating Michael Hutchence at this time, representing a shift in her personal life as well.)
With its stuttering synthesizer sounds, rattling tambourine and thumping beat, never before has a song about repeatedly forgiving an unfaithful partner sounded so good. “Devil” has become a staple in many of Kylie’s concerts throughout the decades, as seen in the brilliant compilation below, created by “Kylie Minogue Video.” As one comment states, rightly so: “This made me emotional.”
The compilation captures Kylie:
Devil horns and all from Intimate and Live (1998);
Donning top hat and tails from Live in Sydney (2001);
As the braided beauty from KylieFever2002: Live in Manchester;
Decked out in blue feathers from Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour (2005);
Presenting a pink plume in Showgirl Homecoming (2006);
Rocking the cutoff shorts in Aphrodite Les Folies (2011);
As a cowgirl in pink from Golden - Live in Concert (2019);
In the legends slot at the Glastonbury Festival 2019.
Some favorite moments: 0:21 captures the blast of brilliance at the start of Showgirl Homecoming; that million-dollar smile at 2:15 in the blue Showgirl outfit; 2:57 as she bows to the fans that made this song a Kylie classic.
Pop Playlist: Kylie Minogue: In Your Eyes (Live in New York)
As some of you may already know, Kylie Minogue brings a smile to my face, and if my ears could smile, they'd beam too. One of the best songs from the iconic Fever album is “In Your Eyes.” She’s performed this signature track on many tours, but the one recorded in 2009 at the Hammerstein Ballroom during her For You, For Me tour, and for the subsequent audio release, Kylie: Live in New York, is a fave. Let’s take a look (and listen) back to this live track:
Pop royalty in most other parts of the globe, the legendary Australian performer never before launched a tour specifically through North America. After her Kylie X 2008 tour, she felt it was (finally) time to alleviate the longing that filled millions of fans (including her devoted gay following) who, up until that point, were only able to see the dynamic dynamo on DVD.
In a thoughtful gesture, Kylie and her team, led by her creative director William Baker, launched For You, For Me with the “mashup” in mind—part X tour (complete with X-tour musicians, backing vocalists and most of the dancers), part Showgirl 2005 and 2006 tours. This provided the chance to see a version, albeit a smaller-scale version, of the large concert spectacle, for which she is known. I had the pleasure of seeing Kylie for the first time on this tour, during a stop at the Fox Theater in Oakland, CA in Sept. 2009.*
This X-tour arrangement of “In Your Eyes” is heavy on bass-synth and bass guitar, and it sounds amazing. The New-York recording captures the crowd’s command of the lyrics (which was also displayed opening night in Oakland and probably every stop thereafter), proving her visit to the U.S. was not a waste, and that for the previous 8 years, copies of Fever were definitely being played in America. Kylie finishes big by confidently holding a high note at the end of the lyric, “I don’t feel like coming down.” As you can hear in the clip below, everyone in the audience seems to concur.
*Both photos courtesy of Rob Miller.
Pop Playlist: Kylie Minogue: “Aphrodite”
The title track to Kylie Minogue’s 2010 album, Aphrodite finds Kylie confidently stating her case to another as a goddess incarnate. The track could be considered the stronger, more-direct sister to the sweeter “The One” from X, for the chorus in “Aphrodite” features a fabulous list of powerful statements: “I’m fierce and I’m feeling mighty/I’m a golden girl/I’m an Aphrodite, alright.” And by the bridge: “You know that I’m magical/I am the original/I am the only one…”
Even musically, the song embraces harder-sounding beats as if pounded out by a marching band. If one listens to her KylieX2008 show, Act Two’s cheerleading theme starts with a drumbeat that sounds remarkably similar to the one in “Aphrodite.” Perhaps at that time a preview of things to come.
The Aphrodite period holds major significance in Kylie’s career, as it created another moniker still associated with her, one that catapulted her from “the Princess of Pop” to “the Goddess of Pop.” Simply put: from royalty to deity.
Pop Playlist: Kylie Minogue: “The One”
The final single from Kylie’s 10th album, the aptly titled, X, “The One” is unique in that it’s part ballad, part dance. There have been various versions: The album appearance leans toward hypnotic ballad, while the Freemasons Vocal Club Mix picks up the pace and turns up the bass. The latter was adopted on her X2008 tour and in part on her 2009 North-American For You, For Me tour; Kylie Live in New York audio release. In 2011, she opted for a blend for the Aphrodite live performances. A video for the song was also released, with old Hollywood glamour (Kylie’s long-haired Veronica Lake look; kaleidoscopic visuals as homage to movie musicals) and bright art-deco arch references, serving as inspiration. The video also features one of Kylie’s dancers at the time, Jason Beitel. Ten years later, “The One” still resonates with Kylie, as it now resides on her 2018 Golden Tour set list.
Kylie Minogue Shares Golden Moments
Kylie Minogue’s Golden Tour is full of golden moments indeed, like the opening reveal. “Don’t you feel that sun on your face?”:
There’s also an homage to disco and Studio 54, featuring a medley of her songs, including “New York City,” which Kylie couldn’t find a home for on Golden, and this version of “The Loco-Motion,” which samples a recognizable lyric from Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls.”
Label-Mate Legends Step Back in Time
BBC Radio 2’s festival in Hyde Park last weekend featured headliner, Kylie Minogue singing some selections from Golden, and some Kylie classics of course, to a massive crowd of (reportedly) 60,000. Jason Donovan joined Kylie on stage during “Especially for You,” and in another feel-good musical moment, Rick Astley and his still-phenomenal voice stepped out in front of a welcoming audience to sing “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and Kylie’s “I Should Be So Lucky,” with his former PWL label mate. Their harmony at “… gonna play/And if you ask me how I’m feeling” delivers all the feels. It’s a fun return to 1987 and the “hit factory” days, plus a reminder that true talent stands the test of time.
Kylie Minogue: “Raining Glitter”: Delightfully Familiar Track
On Kylie Minogue’s Golden, the song, “Raining Glitter” is an immediate standout, thanks in part to the bass line that comes in after the first 10 seconds. It’s classic Kylie, with several elements reminiscent of previous Kylie material: Acoustic guitar (country meets flamenco) evokes “Please Stay”; in the chorus a “Whoop” takes you back to “Timebomb”; lyrics such as “put your hands up to the sky” (“Put Your Hands Up” from Aphrodite); and she’s even referenced glitter before as in “…glitter drop fall and I’m on my knees” in “No More Rain” from X. “Raining Glitter” embraces quiet verses, an inspiring, celebratory chorus and gorgeous harmonies, with lyrics that are true and tender: “We all want the same, yeah, we’re looking for that hand to hold.” This sparkles from start to finish.
Pop Playlist: Kylie Minogue: “I Should Be So Lucky” (Live in New York)
In 2009, Kylie Minogue launched her For You, For Me tour, exclusively visiting parts of North America as a labor of love and appreciation for loyal fans. An audio recording of the Hammerstein Ballroom stop in New York was released, and featured the torch-inspired version of 1987’s “I Should Be So Lucky.” This ballad incarnation first appeared during her Intimate and Live tour in 1998, and allows the Stock, Aitken and Waterman-penned hit to showcase the heartbreak of unrequited love, and the versatility of Minogue as pop star and jazz chanteuse.
Golden Girl: Kylie Wants to Go Out “Dancing”
Kylie Minogue just released “Dancing,” the first single from Golden. It’s easy-breezy pop that quickly triggers the feel-good goosebumps. It’s a smart, mature sound for the 49-year-old, blending country-inspired acoustic (think the gentle work of Sheryl Crow on Detours) with a thread of friendly hand-clap dance-pop. In a BBC 2 Radio interview, Kylie talked about how working in Nashville allowed her to approach the creative process in a different manner: “[Nashville is] so focused on the song and then you can take the song and produce that any way you want. But it’s just about the nuts and bolts of the song… at the alter of the song.”
And it shows in “Dancing,” as its layered meaning in the chorus resonates beautifully: “When I go out/I wanna go out dancing.” A literal reference to a joyful nighttime outing, yet there’s a deeper sentiment, in a non-morose manner, toward fearless freedom, mortality, and eternity: “Everybody’s got a story/Let it be a blaze of glory/Burning bright/Never fade away/When the final curtain falls/We can say we did it all/A never-ending of a perfect day.”
Kylie Minogue Has the Best Attitude
Class Act: A short video showing Kylie accepting the Legend honor at the Attitude (Magazine) Awards, where she expresses her gratitude for (and beautifully sums up her relationship with) her (gay) fanbase.
Zoot Suits: Kylie Minogue Fits Well on Zoot Woman Track
“Still Feels Like the First Time” from the band, Zoot Woman is another prime example of meditative pop. The band, consisting of Johnny Blake, Adam Blake, and Stuart Price (mega-producer of Madonna’s near-perfect Confessions on a Dance Floor and Kylie Minogue’s fierce and mighty Aphrodite), has been known to embrace a synthpop sound, and “Still Feels Like…” is a three-minute escape to the sci-fi future. With Kylie on guest vocals, with some affected intentionally to create a robotic distortion, the duet is gorgeous and gentle; lovely, light and airy, full of heavenly harmonies.
An Australian in Paris: “…That Sweet City Woman”
Kylie Minogue’s cover of the Bee Gee’s classic, “Night Fever” (from Saturday Night Fever) utilizes her upper upper-register, in order to capture Barry Gibb’s distinctive vocal style. In the live performances below, Kylie showcases her authentic, live-vocal capacity, even amid a backing track for (background-vocal) effect. When Kylie sings, “Makin’ it mine,” she’s makin’ it hers.
The staging, styling and choreography is nothing short of chic, paying homage to Parisian glam-pop-disco in the ‘70s, while the two female dancers sport voluminous hair and seductive moves of the period. Kylie joins the dance party at “I got fire in my mind/I get higher in my walking,” and can’t help near the end to do a funky four-step.
Candy Sample: Kylie Minogue: “Always Find The Time”
Kylie’s 1990 album, Rhythm of Love featured the now classics: “Better the Devil You Know”; “What Do I Have To Do”; “Step Back In Time”; “Shocked,” yet the track, “Always Find the Time” could’ve been a worthy addition to this list as well, if officially released as a single. This rarity has garnered fan-favorite status, as exemplified during one of Kylie’s dates on her 2012 Anti-Tour, when the singing crowd nearly drowned her out, leaving her to ask: “Do I need to sing this one?” With its ‘90s-era drum skips and predominant keys, the song, written by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and the singer, Rick James (“Superfreak”), also features an instrumental sample from the 1983 track, “Candy Man” by James’ early-‘80s girl group, Mary Jane Girls. “Candy Man” also includes the lyric in the second verse: “You just call me up now, baby/And I’ll always find the time.”
Mary Jane Girls’ “Candy Man” on “American Bandstand”:
Kylie + Garibay Release Three-Song EP
Kylie Minogue and the producer, Fernando Garibay (Lady Gaga’s Born This Way) continue their collaboration post-Kiss Me Once tour, with a three-song offering that evokes ‘90s dancehall on “Black and White,” featuring Shaggy; presents another pairing with Giorgio Moroder on “Your Body”; showcases the standout electro-duet, “If I Can’t Have You,” with fellow Australian singer, Sam Sparro.
With an openness to artistic exploration, Kylie’s current work is reminiscent of her time with the Deconstruction record label, circa ‘94, when the sound kept Kylie at the center, but the surrounding spirit was indie and unconventional (for Kylie as pop star that is).
Below is “If I Can’t Have You,” featuring soulful, mellow verses offset by a chorus with a thumping bass line and what sounds like a pair of bongos electrified. This EP is evolutionary and certainly eclectic.
“What Kind of Fool” a.k.a. Life After “Better The Devil You Know”
The catchy 1992 song by Kylie Minogue could be theorized as having its origins in 1990. Think “Better The Devil You Know” (“BTDYK”), a song whose lyrics reluctantly embrace blind forgiveness of a (devilish) partner. Yet “What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)” could be seen as a sequel. In “BTDYK”: “I’ll forgive and forget/If you say you’ll never go.” In “Fool”: “You can say you’ll be true/I can trust in you/But I heard all that before.” Kylie is done forgiving, and ready to forget, the devil she knows.
The video for “Fool” features scenes inspired by the film, And God Created Woman, starring Brigitte Bardot, a woman to which Kylie has long paid homage, most notably the artwork for her 2003 CD, Body Language and the styling for the subsequent one-off concert at the London Apollo. The And God references include: the silhouette of Kylie lounging behind a sheet hanging on the line; Kylie dancing in a red skirt on a kitchen table. And for another film reference: the heart-shaped glasses, unmistakably from the poster for the 1962 Stanley Kubrick film, Lolita. Kylie as Lolita-type girl at the beginning of “Fool” is not the same person at the end; in the dark no longer, she’s a stronger woman slamming the kitchen door, committing to the lyric: “Don’t wanna see your face no more.”
Yes, Dearie! Kylie Blossoms at Finland Jazz Festival
Kylie Minogue’s musical versatility was once again on display at the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland. She has never shied away from straight-up jazz, such as on “Stay This Way” or when she appeared on an episode of “Later… with Jools Holland,” where she performed an impressive cover of (Lena Horne’s) “Come On Strong.”
Yet seemingly her jazz inspiration comes from a woman named Blossom Dearie, an American singer and pianist in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Dearie had a wonderfully unique vocal style: light; airy; with a childlike quality. (In the ‘70s, Dearie lent her voice to the “Schoolhouse Rock!” series of animated educational shorts that appeared as interludes during Saturday-morning cartoons. Her sweet voice can be heard on “Unpack your Adjectives,” for example.)
Over the last 10 years, Kylie has covered some of Dearie’s jazz tracks, two of which were in Kylie’s 2007 documentary-concert film, White Diamond: “I’m Hip” and “Try Your Wings.” Her vocal on “Wings” is comforting, like a hug when it’s needed, a fuzzy blanket when it’s cold, a whiskey in winter.
And finally, to Finland, where Kylie took a break to honor Dearie, with “Peel Me A Grape,” a delightfully bratty song, similar to “Santa Baby,” about a woman’s relationship demands: “Pop me a cork/French me a fry” and the playfully entitled list goes on. It’s a confident, inspiring display of this pop singer’s talent, ear and love for a music format, different from the one she’s most known for, as well as yet another lovely homage to an artist with whom many may not be familiar.
Dearie performs the track live at the piano:
Hearing Red: Kylie Minogue Covers Nena Classic
“Panic bells/It’s red alert,” ‘80s-pop extravaganza about to be enjoyed. While performing at the “Melt! Festival” in Germany, an artist many thought would be a “one-hit wonder” covered another artist’s “one-hit wonder” from the new-wave ‘80s. Kylie Minogue (the former) and her fantastic band did a red-hot cover of Nena’s synth-bass-drenched “99 Red Balloons” (the latter). Leave it to Kylie, sporting a little red number and, yes, a red balloon, to dazzle during a song about nuclear war. Yet with that said, she delivers tender vocals during the first verse, as she begins the story of “You and I in a little toy shop,” only later in the last verse to convey how innocence and hope (a single red souvenir found by the now solo protagonist) manage to survive “in this dust that was a city.”