A little over a year after the success of Tension (500,000 sales, number 1 singles with “Padam Padam”) and a residency in Las Vegas, Kylie Minogue publishes Tension II, new invitation to let go. “Kiss Bang Bang”, “Dance To Music”, “Dance Alone” (duet with Sia), “Diamonds”, “Lights Camera Action”… Between dancefloor appeal, glamorous references and carnal impulses, this album sequel also announces an ambitious world tour in 2025, the first since the Golden Tour of 2018. The day after his performance in Hyde Park, last July, the yet moderate Guardian had titled: “A glorious celebration of pop perfection“. “A glorious celebration of pop perfection“. All this promises for the concert at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp on July 1, 2025.
Tension II sounds like an invitation to dance and forget. Is this also your response to the tensions shaking our world?
“I would like that to be the case, but above all they remain pop songs, these being effectively geared towards the dance floor. But music has beautiful virtues. It can provide answers and relief. I know, for example , which songs I need to listen to to feel good and I also know the ones that will make me cry as soon as I listen to them, if this album manages to lift the mood and lighten the mood, that’s fantastic.”
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The single “Lights Camera Action” spotlights a glamor-loving star who also happens to be an ordinary woman. Where is the real Kylie?
“Probably between the two. I quote Karl Lagerfeld and Jean-Paul Gaultier in the song, because I have a passion for these designers. I like photo shoots, I like shooting videos, I like wearing clothes beautiful outfits. I love these moments, everyone knows that I’m not in a position where I can cheat. But I’m happy that people also see the person who is behind this glamorous image. discovered as a teenager in the 80s. I was then a girl like any other. Then they saw me evolve in my twenties, in my thirties, my forties and now in my fifties. They know both sides: the singer. and the everyday woman. Sometimes my image leans on the chic side, sometimes I show myself as natural, but within certain limits No one will see what I look like when I wake up in the morning I will never go out like that. work. It’s a private matter.”
Exactly 30 years ago, you recorded “Where The Wild Roses Grow” with Nick Cave, a song that allowed you both to reach a new audience. What do you remember about this duo?
“I sang ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ again this summer at a festival. It’s a song that still means a lot to me and to my audience. Our first meeting took place on the day of recording in a studio located in our hometown of Melbourne Nick had sent me the demo a few days earlier I said yes, because this ballad allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and there, Nick asked me to take it. the role of a murderer in a particularly dark song, very far from my vocal range. He showed great elegance and a lot of patience. He told me to do as little as possible, to sing very low. almost as if I was speaking, in order to better inhabit my character. We didn’t know where ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ was going to take us. We didn’t even think about it. Murder Ballads by Nick Cave on which it appears, the clip, the visuals, this cult side which now sticks to this collaboration, it’s something else. What I remember from it is this moment shared together. It was a click. This experience allowed me to be a better singer. I will be forever grateful to Nick for that.”
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Tension II is your seventeenth album. Did you feel the same sensations as when you recorded your very first single “The Loco-Motion” in 1987?
“Spontaneously, I want to answer yes, because I have always loved making music and finding myself in front of a microphone in a recording studio. But, today, I have acquired more experience, points of comparison and musical culture Both as a listener and as an artist. My approach to music is deeper, more demanding, more professional. (Kylie in 1988, Editor’s note)I was just happy to be given a chance and I took advantage of it.”
The LGBTQIA+ community and the gay community in particular have always been behind you. How do you explain this unconditional support?
“I get asked this question regularly and I don’t have a rational explanation. I could simply say that it’s love, but that’s also the case for everyone who follows me. The gay community adopted me from the start of my career without me doing anything in particular. I don’t want to know why. I have always been inclusive in my behavior and in my relationships. with me, while it was perhaps less spontaneous with others at certain times.”
Dua Lipa, who we met last May, is your #1 fan. She calls you “survivor“and of”swing“. Do you find yourself in these terms?
‘That’s lovely of him.’Beating’ ? I would rather say ‘determined’. When I set a goal, in my career or in my personal life, I follow through, I don’t give up. Even if it ends in failure, I tell myself that I at least tried. A ‘survivor’ ? Yes, to last five decades in the music industry as an artist, and even more so as a female artist who makes pop, it’s incredible. In this register, it is always the race for next big thing. There’s always a new trend, a “new” princess or a new ‘cool’ style that quickly makes you someone from the past. It amazes me that I’m still here.”
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And how did you achieve it?
“It’s a mix of different things: perseverance, good encounters, opportunities, the constant desire to reinvent myself and the chance that my audience is open to these changes.”
We call you the “Pop Princess“. That’s enough for you or you claim the title of “Queen of pop” ?
“‘Princess of popit suits me very well. It’s even flattering after all these years. I could be called much worse nicknames.
In concert on July 1 at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.
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