Culture / Music

The unexpected promise of ‘Padam Padam’

WORDS Jasmine Pirovic    PHOTOGRAPHY Freepik    PUBLISHED Thu, 15 Jun 2023 - 11:26 am

padam padam kylie minogue

We're halfway through Pride Month, and if you're of a certain demographic (read: gay, old enough to remember Kylie Minogue's gold hot pants in Spinning Around) the pop star's latest release is undoubtedly soundtracking your world on the bus, in the shower, folding laundry and if you're lucky, dancing in the club.

@brookieandjessiepadam♬ Padam Padam - Kylie Minogue

Released almost a month ago now on May 18, Padam Padam borrows its name from an Edith Piaf song and is an onomatopoeic description for the sound of a heartbeat. Hence all her blood-red outfits in both the music video and during her recent appearance at Capital’s Summertime Ball in London on June 11. Is it particularly deep? As far as electro pop goes, it's no Renaissance, but it is textbook Kylie: deceptively simple, catchy and deliriously camp. It could easily slip into one of those Spotify playlists engineered to create euphoria that get rinsed during Mardi Gras – in fact, it's already headlining one titled 'Gay Pride Anthems 2023', so there's that.

The single heralds her forthcoming album Tension and is quickly becoming a viral hit, with those up north dubbing it the "song of the summer". While that theory is yet to be tested in Australia, TikTok is awash with the sound of Padam Padam and Twitter is saturated with a host of accompanying memes. Once again, Kylie Minogue has wedged her way back into the zeitgeist, a phenomenon that occurs around once a decade. Look it up. While Fever might be my personal favourite Kylie era, it looks like Tension is angling for first place among older millennials – and hopefully a new generation with Gen Z.

@itsadoredelano #fyp #kylieminogue #padampadam ♬ Padam Padam - Kylie Minogue

Below, we've brought together a little something-something (memes) to quicken your heartbeat and complement this new dawn of Kylie Minogue.

 

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Background image by stephanie2122 on Freepik

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