Dancing

Album: Golden (2018)
Charted: 38
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Kylie Minogue trading her disco shoes for cowgirl boots as she dips her toes into the Nashville scene. The track starts off with a country sound before exploding into a huge pop chorus. She said:

    "You've got the lyrical edge, that Country feel, mixed with some sampling of the voice and electronic elements, so it does what it says on the label. And I love that it's called 'Dancing', it's immediately accessible and seemingly so obvious, but there's depth within the song."
  • The song has a double meaning - Kylie sings of having a good time making moves on the dance floor while also touching on the topic of mortality. "Lyrically, 'Dancing' is really interesting. I guess, on the surface, it is about dancing and going out and having a good fun," Minogue shared on Twitter. "And it's also about going out, at the end, and having had a good time. So living life to the fullest, trying to shine whenever you can. I know life is difficult, life presents all sorts of hurtles for us, but try to dance through that when we can."
  • The music video for the country-disco style track was shot over two days at London's Bush Hall. The Sophie Muller-directed clip imagines Kylie in collaboration with Dolly Parton on the set of The Day of the Dead coupled with a depiction of a 1970's Nashville motel room. Kylie said:

    "Life's all just moments which all join up - some of them are great, and some of them are less than sparkling - but ultimately I wanted this video to reflect the celebratory nature of the song."
  • The video features Kylie playing a £12 guitar which Sophie Muller found in a junk shop - echoing the 50p hot-pants that came to define the clip for the Aussie songstress' "Spinning Around." The instrument was customized by the production's art department with hundreds of crystals.
  • The video also throws into the mix a dance with death. Learning the choreography, which was based on an interpretation of line-dancing, presented a minor challenge to Kylie as it involved a completely different style of movement. She said:

    "I always thought I could learn routines quickly but this was different. However, by the time I had to dance with the Grim Reaper at the end I had mastered it. And if that's not a funny allegory for life I don't know what is!"
  • This climbed to #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart, giving Minogue her 14th chart-topper on the listing.

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