ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Australian pop star Kylie Minogue is back with a new album today. "Tension II" is a follow-up to last year's "Tension." It's another collection of dance pop in a year with a lot of bangers already. What sets Kylie Minogue apart is that she's been doing this since the late 1980s. She's in her 50s now, and she says she feels liberated, which she explained to Brittany Luse on NPR's It's Been A Minute.
BRITTANY LUSE, BYLINE: Kylie, you know, people love you. The people love you and have for decades. What do you think it is that people adore about you?
KYLIE MINOGUE: I don't know the answer to that, but if I was to take a guess, I think that a lot of people have known me for a long time. I feel a bit like a family member but, you know, one that's pretty extra sometimes.
LUSE: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAN'T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD")
MINOGUE: (Singing) I just can't get you out of my head. Boy, your loving is all I think about.
LUSE: So for people who don't know, right now you are in the middle of another peak in a career full of peaks. Last year, you had one of the songs of the summer, "Padam Padam."
MINOGUE: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PADAM PADAM")
MINOGUE: (Singing) Padam, padam. I hear it, and I know. Padam, padam. I know you want to take me home.
LUSE: I mean, you sold out a Vegas residency, and you're about to embark on this huge world tour. And by my count, this is, like, your - what? - your 20th world tour or something like that.
MINOGUE: Is it?
LUSE: I think...
MINOGUE: Brittany, I haven't even done the calculation.
LUSE: (Laughter) No.
MINOGUE: What?
LUSE: By our research...
MINOGUE: I'm exhausted.
LUSE: Yeah. It's 20 or at least there, at least there.
MINOGUE: Is it?
LUSE: You know, your first tour was Disco In Dream in 1989. And you were - what? - in your early 20s? Maybe just 21 or 22 years old - I mean...
MINOGUE: I was just 21. Yeah.
LUSE: Yeah. I mean, how has the feeling of walking out onto the stage changed for you since then? Like, what do you see and feel now when you go on stage versus that first tour?
MINOGUE: I mean, where do we start? There wasn't a guidebook on how to be a pop star. So I would have been really nervous, but as with everything, I feel the fear and do it anyway. My first demo, when I was 17 - I did three songs. What did I know? I was 17.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE LOCO-MOTION")
MINOGUE: (Singing) Everybody's doing a brand-new dance now. Come on, baby. Do the locomotion. I know you'll get to like it if you...
All these years later, I've spent time with the mic. Like, I have taken ownership of record. I know what I'm doing. It's not a mystery. I don't do anything special. I just get to spend time with it myself.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION")
MINOGUE: (Singing) 'Cause this place is the space where I let it go. If you can't keep the pace, walk out of the door.
LUSE: So you were, like, opening GarageBand.
MINOGUE: Yes.
LUSE: Really?
MINOGUE: I started with GarageBand. Where do all these cables go? What do I do? And anyway, I learned how to do it. And if I had one bit of advice for someone starting out, I'd say...
LUSE: Oh, yes.
MINOGUE: ...Get on it.
LUSE: Get on it. Just, like, jump in.
MINOGUE: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION")
MINOGUE: (Singing) Lights, camera, action. That's it. Lights, camera, action. That's it.
LUSE: Bringing it to today, I've heard you say that this moment right now is your most liberated era. I wonder, how does that relate to what's happening in your life right now?
MINOGUE: Well, I'm 56, and it's - like, you read about in articles of - like, you hear people say something happens. The younger self is like, whatever, I don't know what you're talking about. Cut to now - I mean, why wouldn't I feel liberated? It's a beautiful, crazy time for me. To know that I can still do that is really amazing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANCE TO THE MUSIC")
MINOGUE: (Signing) Living for the moment, we can go again. I know a place where we can dance to the music, make it never end. Dance to the music, get you out of bed. Dance to the music...
LUSE: Well, Kylie, thank you so much. It was so fantastic.
MINOGUE: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANCE TO THE MUSIC")
MINOGUE: (Singing) Dance to the music. I know a place...
SHAPIRO: That's Kylie Minogue speaking with NPR's Brittany Luse, and you can hear more on the show It's Been A Minute.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANCE TO THE MUSIC")
MINOGUE: (Singing) I know a place where we can dance to the music, dance... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
