One of the great unwritten rules of show-business could be: never write off La Minogue. As she turned 55 last month, Kylie Minogue was back at the top of the charts with the single Padam Padam, inspired by Édith Piaf's 1951 song of the same name. It topped the UK Big Top 40, becoming Minogue's highest-charting single since 2014's Into the Blue.
It could be on track to bother the upper reaches of the US Billboard Hot 100, like her 2001 global smash Can't Get You Out of My Head. "Thank you, thank you," said Minogue in her birthday Instagram post: "My heart is bursting with joy."
What's more, young people are driving the Padam Padam phenomenon. On its release, the single was targeted at older audiences - it wasn't considered for airplay on BBC Radio 1 or Capital FM. Then the generation Z and TikTok crowd caught the Padam Padam bug.
They loved the infectious retro-glitterball beat. They delighted in sharing the cheeky-meets-chic video. They debated the meaning of the title. They sprayed around memes. They posted their own Padam Padam dance homages.
This story is from the June 16, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the June 16, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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