Kylie Minogue Discusses New Single ‘Lights Camera Action’ and Reviving Her ’90s Experimental Flair for the ‘Tension’ World Tour
Kylie Minogue has dropped her new single ‘Lights Camera Action’ today from her forthcoming album ‘Tension II’. The pop icon chatted with NME in Singapore ahead of her headline performance at the country’s F1 Grand Prix, sharing insights about the record— including a track she referred to as the “distant cousin” of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’—and the Tension world tour.
Set to release on 18th October, Tension II serves as a sequel to Minogue’s critically acclaimed 2023 album ‘Tension’, which featured the viral hit ‘Padam Padam.’ She described the upcoming record as “kind of a hybrid” between a deluxe edition and a new album, one that “was never intended to be another volume of work.”
“You have an album and then there are songs that didn’t make it or tracks that came in afterward,” she noted, referencing her 2024 collaborations with Sia, Orville Peck, The Blessed Madonna, Tove Lo, and Bebe Rexha. Minogue eventually accumulated “more and more songs,” leading to enough material for a complete sequel.
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Leading the way on Tension II is Minogue’s latest single, “Lights Camera Action,” which she described as having “that similar kind of hypnotic quality” as “Padam Padam.” She added, “The call-to-action of ‘lights, camera, action, that’s it’ in the chorus felt a bit catchphrase-y. I just thought it was cool.”
“You have an album and then there’s songs that didn’t make it or songs that have come in afterwards,” she said, partly referring to her 2024 collaborations with Sia, Orville Peck, The Blessed Madonna, Tove Lo and Bebe Rexha. Minogue soon found herself with “more and more songs”, eventually ending up with “enough” for a fully fledged sequel.
The centerpiece of ‘Tension II’ is Minogue’s latest single, ‘Lights Camera Action,’ which she described as possessing a similar hypnotic quality to ‘Padam Padam.’
“The kind of call-to-action of ‘lights, camera, action, that’s it’ [of the chorus] just felt a bit catchphrase-y,” she explained. “I just thought it was cool.”
The songs on Tension II are, in Minogue’s words, “a fun group of friends.” When asked which tracks she wanted to highlight, she pointed to ‘Taboo,’ likening it to “a distant cousin” of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic.’
She also emphasized the track ‘Shoulda Left Ya,’ referring to it as the “counterpart” to the fan favourite from Tension, ‘Story.’
“That’s probably the most kind of oddball, like it kind of lives in its own world,” she said, calling it “a little more melancholy” than the rest of the record.
Minogue hinted that her album following ‘Tension II’ will represent a “fresh start” for her. This upcoming project may take inspiration from her often-criticized 1997 record ‘Impossible Princess,’ which experienced a commercial revival earlier this decade when it was released on vinyl for the first time in 2022.
“I feel like it’ll be time for something – maybe not as singular as [‘Impossible Princess’] – but to bring some of that back in,” Minogue told NME, revealing that she “already had a few songwriting days in the studio with my closest [collaborators] for whatever’s to come”.
“I’m not sure how much of [what I’m working on] is because [of] where my output has been of late. We’ve been pretty solid on ‘What’s the hit, what’s the hit, what’s the hit’,” she said. “So, it’s some of that slightly meatier kind of the other stuff that I’m really drawn to.”
Minogue’s renewed interest in the more experimental phase of her music from the ’90s—particularly ‘Impossible Princess’ and 1994’s ‘Kylie Minogue’—is expected to be reflected in her upcoming world tour. The pop icon will perform across the UK, her native Australia, and Asia next year, with additional dates to be announced.
“I actually feel like bringing some of that back into the ‘Tension’ tour,” she said, before recalling an older gig when she did a “stupid long version” of her 1994 hit ‘Confide in Me’. “I’ve only mentioned this today because it’s just recently I saw it, like days ago… but [that performance] was a journey and I would love to bring some of that to the tour.”
“So, you’ve got ‘smash, smash, bop, bop, bish, bop, bash’, but there’s a bit of stuff that has some of that ’90s kind of slight, experimental side to it,” Minogue teased. While the ‘Tension’ tour will be “a celebration” of the two albums it’s named after, the singer also hinted that it “might be a bit” of 2020’s ‘Disco’ as well, as she “didn’t get to tour” that record.
When asked about her perspective on the current pop landscape, Minogue praised rising star Chappell Roan, noting that she has “absolutely smashed us and wowed the world.” She also reflected on the resurgence of country music within pop. Minogue herself explored the genre with her 2018 album ‘Golden’.
“That was just my moment,” she said. “I think it’s just going to go around and around and around, and it just depends on who’s doing it.”
“I absolutely loved it,” Minogue concluded. “I loved going to Nashville. I loved being able to explore songwriting from a real storytelling perspective.”
–Silviya.Y
