A Pop Music Feature
The Pop Goddess of Love isn’t through taking the dance floor to the edge as she sets her sights on a live world tour, new music to feature on a sequel to her 2023 hit TENSION, as her pop dominance continues to radiate.
What begets a pop diva most? If you’re Kylie Minogue, you follow one of the most successful albums of your career, coupled with a stunning sold-out limited run launching a Las Vegas residency and surprising fans on Madonna’s “Celebration Tour’ stage for an “I Will Survive” duet. Yes, it’s been a banner year for the Goddess of Love, or the Princess of Pop if one prefers, with more new music already pouring up the charts, a tour set to go global, and a series of collaborations that have left us all saying: “My Oh My!” the locomotion is on track!
Minogue entered the summer of 2023 with the release of one of her biggest hits since 2001’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” cemented her place in the pop culture lexicon. The artist had long ventured to penetrate the North American market since debuting in 1988. Some hits translated to chart success, but it wasn’t until 2001 that Kylie mainstreamed her success and lauded a US fanbase. The release of “Padam Padam,” the premiere single of her 2023 full-length album Tension, was an instant hit and inspired a renaissance for the pop singer that relaunched her popularity across the planet.
Her intuitive familiarity and dedication to dance music and its various incarnations have led Minogue to this moment, fully embracing the synth sounds and electronic beats of neo-disco in her 2020 Disco Kylie refused to allow the isolation and separation of COVID lockdown to keep her from unleashing the party. Disco was a revelation, introducing Minogue to the technical side of creating music. If she were to make music in isolation, she would participate more profoundly. As the pandemic moved on and the world returned to normal, Kylie Minogue became the dance music ambassador the world needed.
Disco afforded Minogue the tools (while in lockdown, she taught herself the art of mastering audio engineering and remotely recording her vocals). Tension, released two years later, again pushed things further along, accelerating her trajectory as she collaborated more intimately with writers and producers to define a new sound. If Disco was the match, Tension was the box of fireworks. With the hit single making an international splash, the album’s title track, “Tension,” was also an inspiration, marking Minogue’s sixteenth album a success in every market and earning her accolades.
When Tension Strikes Back
While riding the success and exhilaration of Tension sharing the stage in collaborative efforts with Bebe Rexha, Tove Lo, Sia, out country performer Orville Peck, and Diplo, shaking up the hardcore club scene with The Blessed Madonna on the banger “Edge of Saturday Night,” rumors began to circulate that the record label was hinting at releasing a “special edition” of Tension. In the summer of 2024, Minogue had started to tease her social following that she was working on “new music” but wouldn’t confirm if this was for a repackaging of Tension or a new album altogether. Still, by September, the word was out!
Tension II was inevitably announced, a sequel album [the first for Minogue] featuring all-new music. Among these tracks, some didn’t make it onto the first album; others are entirely new songs and a spotlight on her recent collaborations. She also announced she would once again be touring. In an even more ambitious effort, she would bring her live show to North America, marking the first time Kylie Minogue would play arenas and larger venues in the States. Minogue immediately added a second date to her New York City appearance for two shows at the famous Madison Square Garden.
Minogue has suggested the tour setlist will hinge on tracks from both iterations of Tension, including music from Disco, and feature her greatest hits from a catalog that goes way back to her 1987 debut “Loco-Motion.” Tension II revisits the dance enthusiasm of its predecessor, leveling up the intensity with nine brand-new tracks and the four bonus collaborations released between chapters. Reuniting with several of her Tension producers, Minogue also brought in some new blood, citing that since the first album’s success, several writers and producers extended into her orbit.
The result is an opus of the pop princess’s continuing dance enthusiasm. If Tension was a return to club and dance floor theory, the sequel is about the party as it enters the after-hours of it all. The first single kicks it all into overdrive. “Lights Camera Action” is classic Minogue, who has always maintained a steady bead of the genre, even more closely than many of her pop contemporaries, including the Queen of Pop. Madonna has always ventured to chart her own bold course in her musical experimentation; Minogue has listened more closely to the sounds emerging from the culture and adapted them into her narrative.
Disco set her on a journey to pay homage to the often maligned melodies of a bygone era, pushing many of those elements into the present and reminding her audience that even in isolation, the desire to dance is ever-present. The status quo was eventually restored to normal; Tension demanded that the doors be thrown open and the thrill of dance music be celebrated from the rooftops. Minogue’s instincts proved on point, and the inevitable rise of nu-disco, electronica with an infusion of house, and the syrupy confection of pop paid in spades.
Kylie Minogue remains one of dance music’s most ardent performers. At the same time, she has explored the naturalness of country music and the sweaty depths of R&B; dance is where she has proven her most versatile prowess, moving through pop and electronica, venturing to reveal a relevance in its tapestry that is often dismissed. Minogue leaves it all on the dance floor. Her promise to keep the “Tenson era going” guarantees the Kylie effect is strong! Embarking on a new world tour that will undoubtedly prove the biggest dance party on the planet.
Here is your #FanzEyeView of Kylie Minogue’s latest video for “Lights Camera Action,” the first original track from the upcoming release Tension II:
Are you falling in love with Kylie all over again, or is this your first time on the dance floor? Feel free to share your thoughts.
TENSION II | KYLIE MINOGUE | is available wherever you purchase your music, including on iTunes.
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