Kylie Minogue is embarking on one of her largest world tours, accompanying her new album, 'Tension II.' She discusses her creative process for 'Tension II,' her collaborations with Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo, the impact of "Padam Padam," and Kamala Harris' use of the song, and more!
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00:00Bravo Andy really you know hustled that. So talented, such a legend. And she's Aussie.
00:05Coffee machine. Let's get real. Third thing. Hi, I'm Kylie Minogue and you're watching Billboard News.
00:18Kylie, thank you so much for being here. How are you? Billboard, thank you for having me.
00:22I'm just going to start with Padam Padam because obviously
00:29Padam Demonium, you know, took the country, took TikTok by storm.
00:37The hook, the delivery is a little different from what you'd expect for a pop song.
00:42Did that like give you any freedom to kind of approach these Tension 2 songs differently?
00:48Yeah, it opened a lot of doors. It, you know, it was the one for me at this point in time,
00:54you know, it was the wave that I was able to catch. I'm still writing it, you know,
00:59not on that song solely, but everything that's around that. I say that I'm kind of, I'm in my
01:05villa now. You're killing me. You haven't heard, unless you've heard Tension 2. I have. Yes.
01:10I guess I kind of took it in my stride recording it. But now that I'm looking at it as a body of
01:15work and thinking, what are other people going to hear? And I think that would be
01:19kind of a strain throughout it in a not creepy way.
01:24Right. I definitely heard like some Padam vibes in the collab you have with Bebe and Tuvalu.
01:32Yes. That was so fun. You know,
01:34you say your name, astrological sign. What's your name? What's your sign?
01:37I'm Kylie, you're jammin' back. And what's your star sign?
01:41I'm Aquarius. Oh.
01:42So, yeah. Hi, it's me. We're meant to be friends.
01:45Yeah, exactly.
01:50What kind of inspired that, bringing the astrology into it?
01:54Actually, when we reached out to Bebe and Tuvalu, we were thinking,
01:59I hope neither of them are Gemini. It would really help this song if we were all different
02:05star signs, which thankfully we were. I've watched them over the years and the fact that they had so
02:11much excitement to come on this track was really nice.
02:14Right. And Bebe presented you with the Billboard Women in Music Icon Award.
02:19Yeah, it was such a lovely speech as well. It was very, very generous of her.
02:25Yes. I wanted to ask about another collab on the album. Dance Alone has Sia on it.
02:36The High Priestess Sia.
02:37The High Sia, who's a brilliant singer-songwriter. Is there something
02:42for you kind of different about collabing with a fellow Aussie on a track?
02:48There will always be a thing. Aussies, you never, if there's one Aussie,
02:52you're probably not far from another Aussie. We're everywhere, by the way.
02:59So, yeah, the fact that Sia's just so talented, such a legend, and she's Aussie,
03:05and I know her from like 10 years ago. We worked together. So that was a pretty easy yes when she
03:13asked if I'd jump on her track. That's modern parlance, folks. You jump on people's tracks
03:19these days. Hey, DM, hey, you want to jump on my track? Sure, I'll jump on the track.
03:27It's not the 80s anymore, is it?
03:28It's not the 80s anymore, no. Well, you're recording, you know,
03:31remotely and at home, so that's entirely different.
03:34Which, by the way, has changed my life.
03:36Yeah. Yeah.
03:37And so are you like really getting into the weeds in terms of like the programs and engineering?
03:42I generally just record raw because I'm old school and I like that. I want to know,
03:49hear what I'm singing. Like I was successful and then I had to learn everything on the go
03:56and on the job. I really wish someone would suggest it or I just actioned it sooner
04:02and sooner to learn that skill and spend time with the mic and with the kit myself.
04:08Right, yeah.
04:09Because think about it. It's the portal. That's the thing.
04:12That's it. That's what people are hearing. I mean, they're not in the room with you.
04:15And all those years, it'd be you're in the studio, you're doing a soundcheck,
04:20you're doing a show. We've hired Blah Blah Studio. It's just different.
04:25Yeah, yeah.
04:25So yeah, now I feel like I have ownership over that.
04:29One of the songs I really enjoyed on the album,
04:30Good Is Gone, gave me a little like kind of moody Impossible Princess vibes.
04:39Which is cool.
04:41It is cool. I love Impossible Princess. Shout out.
04:45Shout out Impossible Princess.
04:48But it did kind of make me wonder. So this tour coming up, you know,
04:50you have a big global tour. Are you going to dive back into some of those?
04:55It was a very big internal GULP then. You're like,
04:58world tour, I'm like, look casual. I'm going, yeah.
05:03Right.
05:05Yeah, it's your biggest global tour, I believe.
05:08In a long time.
05:09In a long time. Yes, I should say. And first in the US big tour since 2011.
05:14But are we going to hear some unexpected choices, you know,
05:17from the back catalogue, some surprises?
05:20Maybe.
05:21Maybe.
05:23I think so. Yeah.
05:24All right.
05:25It's Tension Tours, obviously Tension, Tension Tours.
05:28Within this kind of that sonic landscape, you know, you have a taste of each decade.
05:33A real joy for me at the moment is the song that
05:35one of the songs that kicks off with live shows is Like Emotion.
05:44It was the song that started my career.
05:45What put you on the map?
05:46Yeah. Yeah.
05:47And then over time, there was a period where it was like,
05:49I don't know how to do it. It's like, so uncool.
05:52How do I do it? And now everything's come full circle.
05:56I can really, with all my heart and enthusiasm, do every song from the catalogue because
06:03time's fast and we, you know, cream rises to the top and Like Emotion has its place.
06:09I love that.
06:11You know, this tour obviously follows a very successful and very amazing Las Vegas residency.
06:17Is any of that going to work its way into it?
06:18Or is this a totally fresh start, different thing?
06:22The Vegas residency was super fun.
06:28Really successful.
06:29I could confidently say to any of my friends or any, you know,
06:33someone who said, I would come to Vegas, like to my show.
06:36And you say, you can have a blast.
06:38Like it's, it was super fun.
06:40I actually did go deep into the audience.
06:42I ended up on people's tables.
06:45A world tour, arena tour.
06:48Obviously, I can't do that same thing, but I definitely want to take some of that spirit with me.
06:55I also, one of the things that struck me about this is you're playing at Madison Square Garden.
07:00And I know you've been there before, I believe.
07:02And I could be wrong, but I think it was a Jingle Ball.
07:04It was a Jingle Ball.
07:05Yeah.
07:05Like in 20, you know, right after.
07:072001, must have been.
07:09One or two.
07:10Yeah.
07:10So I think, correct me if I'm wrong, this is your first headliner at the Garden.
07:15Yes.
07:16What is that like at this point in your career to be like, I am headlining the Garden?
07:20It's wild.
07:21Yeah.
07:21It's wild.
07:22I'm so, I know it's, it feels slightly like an out of body experience.
07:28I'm not even there yet.
07:29This is next year.
07:30But, well done tour team.
07:32Seriously.
07:33Yes.
07:34Well done you.
07:36This is you.
07:37What are your like, touring essentials?
07:39Like when you hit the road, like what are, you know, three things that you just cannot live without?
07:44Coffee machine.
07:45Let's get real.
07:47Yeah.
07:48A vocal tube.
07:49I've mentioned recently, you know, like a warmup tube.
07:53Um, a third thing, my, my, my phone.
07:57What are you looking at in your phone?
07:59What are you looking at in your phone when you're getting made up?
08:02You texting people?
08:03Are you on social media?
08:04I might, uh, less social media, more just hitting a playlist or something.
08:10Recently, uh, you got your second Grammy, which congratulations.
08:14Well deserved, you know, I know you don't do it for the awards,
08:18but when you, what does a Grammy mean to you though?
08:20Still, when, when you get that recognition.
08:23It was super sweet.
08:25It was 20 years after the first Grammy and there's a lot of layers to it.
08:31I was super proud.
08:33I was blown away.
08:34I was really nervous beforehand, thinking the self-talk that everyone has, like, it's okay.
08:39It's okay if you don't like it.
08:40It's great to have a nomination.
08:41And my manager came in and said, congrats, you're a titan.
08:45I, I don't know if you've seen the video.
08:47I was in my robe.
08:50The first call I made was to my A&R in London, who mustn't have been live streaming.
08:56So I was like, Jamie, actually I FaceTimed him.
08:59Jamie, he's like, you're all right, man.
09:01How's it going?
09:02I went, we did it.
09:02He's like, what?
09:06We, cause I really feel like it's such a group effort.
09:08Um, because of Grammy.
09:11Yes, I was super emotional and proud.
09:14And again, slightly out of body experience.
09:17Well, it was insanely well-deserved.
09:19Thanks.
09:20Oh, and the other little sweet, sweetness in that is it was the inaugural dance pop.
09:25Right.
09:26Yeah.
09:26You'll be the first ever.
09:27I mean, I almost feel like they created it for you, really.
09:32I mean, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't even matter.
09:36It's probably been a while coming to have that specific category.
09:41Yeah, for sure.
09:42For sure.
09:43You know, depending on how the election goes, we could end up with a president who's on
09:48camera saying padam padam, which is wild.
09:53Yes.
09:53What is the craziest, like pinch me moment you've seen of other folks, you know, kind
09:58of.
09:58Well, that was definitely one.
10:06Bravo, Andy, really, you know.
10:08Yeah.
10:09Yeah.
10:09Hustled that, um, I'm going to go super random ones literally just fallen from the sky into
10:15my brain.
10:16So it was the BAFTA Awards in London and it was at this cool little hotel in London and
10:22Frances came in and she just went Kylie Minogue.
10:25And I'm just like, Frances McDormand is not going to know who I am.
10:29So that was good.
10:30Random, random access.
10:31I love that.
10:32Yeah, that is very unexpected.
10:34But why wouldn't you know who Kylie Minogue is?
10:36Well, many reasons like, I don't know.
10:38I wanted to ask about one of the songs from the album that is out right now, Lights, Camera,
10:43Action.
10:43That's it.
10:44Yeah, that's it.
10:45And so, you know, you have a lot of experience in front of the camera, whether it's photo
10:50shoot, fashion shows, TV, film.
10:53Did that kind of play into the song as you were like preparing to, you know, to perform
10:57it?
10:58Not, not recording the song, but once we knew the song was, had made it on the album and
11:03decided this feels like a good single to, like a call to arms, like this is it.
11:09It's happening.
11:10And the tour is happening.
11:12So when I was speaking with my video director, the one and only Sophie Merlot is just awesome
11:19and felt obvious.
11:22Let's, we've got to be on a film set.
11:24A lot more to do than that.
11:26But I have also been looking through a lot of archive material, photos, videos, all sorts
11:36of things.
11:36And because I was in this frame of mind of what's this video going to be on stage, backstage,
11:42and I guess because I was tuned into that, I saw so many behind the scenes photographs
11:48or videos of me on sets forever.
11:53Like back to my first videos in the late eighties.
11:57And I just thought, I really have been doing this my entire adult life.
12:04So that, I don't know, gave it a little bit more gravitas for me.
12:09And I just thought, yep, been doing this for a while.
12:11And I love it.
12:12I mean, with all the challenges and everything, but it speaks to me and it always has.
12:17Stepping on set as a kid, my first job was acting on a set.
12:22The tour coming up.
12:23What are you most excited for people to see?
12:26I'm just excited for us to be together, to share this moment in time, and especially
12:33this moment in my life and career.
12:36And, you know, for fans, I think for the, I started calling them the OG fans, that are
12:44so thrilled.
12:47I feel like it's not just my success.
12:48It's lots of people's success because this is commitment and love and passion and possibility
12:56and kind of breaking rules that, I don't know who invented the rules, but here I am
13:01having this reach.
13:03So it's kind of less about what I want them to see, but what I want them to feel and experience
13:10and just be, just live your best life.
13:12Be your best self.
13:16I love that.
13:16Come on, let's go.
13:18Let's go.