Songfacts®:

• "Padam Padam" is a racy song where Kylie Minogue finds herself smitten with a man. Kylie euphorically describes the "shivers" she gets whenever she looks into his eyes or says her name. The song's title, "Padam Padam," mimics the rhythmic beat of a pulsating heart, amplifying the intensity of their connection.
• The French singer Edith Piaf recorded a song titled "Padam, padam..." In her 1951 recording, Piaf sings of the way a particular melody triggers memories of a former lover, evoking a whirlwind of emotions and nostalgia.
• English producer Peter "Lostboy" Rycroft and Norwegian singer-songwriter Ina Wroldsen wrote "Padam Padam."
  
  Lostboy's other credits include Griff's "Black Hole," Tom Grennan's "Remind Me," and Tiesto's "The Motto."
  
  Ina Wroldsen has written hit songs for a variety of artists, including Jess Glynne ("Hold My Hand"), Clean Bandit ("Rockabye") and Jax Jones' ("Breathe"). Wroldsen also performed backing vocals for the track.
• Lostboy produced the track. He crafted the hypnotic dance-pop banger with an electric guitar riff and a vibrant techno-pop backdrop. The euphoric electronic dance tune embodies the very essence of 2023, yet retains the iconic Kylie Minogue touch.
• Kylie Minogue released "Padam Padam" on May 18, 2023, as the lead single from her 16th studio album, Tension. She performed the song for the first time three days later during the season 21 finale of American Idol in a medley with "Can't Get You Out Of My Head." Both tunes share the same theme of being crazy in love.
• Filmed in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, the video shows Minogue dressed head to toe in red. Her main outfit is a red custom Mugler catsuit with a cape. Other dancers also dressed in red flank the Australian pop star.
  
  Sophie Muller directed the video. Muller has worked with Minogue on several previous occasions, including her visuals for "Dancing," "Say Something" and "Magic."
• When "Padam Padam" reached #9 on the UK Singles Chart, it became Kylie's first UK Top 10 hit since 2011's "Higher" with Taio Cruz (#8), and her first solo Top 10 hit since 2010's "All the Lovers" (#3). This made Kylie the fourth female solo artist with UK Top 10 singles across five consecutive decades, following Cher, Lulu, and Diana Ross.
• Initially, there were doubts whether the synth-pop song would be the right fit for Kylie.
  
  "We wrote Padam in February 2022 and there were maybe four or five months of us sitting on it, then I sent it to their label, and someone suggested to me, 'Kylie would kill this,'" Lostboy told The Sun.
  
  It was nearly passed to Rita Ora instead. "They were unsure and there was a moment when Rita was going to cut it and it was worming around a few artists on that label," the producer added. "They were trying to make it work but they didn't think it was for Kylie."
  
  The studio whiz was impressed by how the Australian pop star put her own imprint on the tune.
  
  "I was surprised at how confident she was that she could make it, that it would fit for her," Lostboy admitted. "But I think of her as someone who is so good at reinventing. It feels modern, but it also feels like Kylie."
• "Padam Padam" won the Best Pop Dance Recording Grammy at the 2024 ceremony.
• Kylie Minogue recorded the vocals for "Padam Padam" in a hotel room. She has previously mentioned being a perfectionist when it comes to recording, spending hours meticulously replicating demos. Recording at home or on the go rather than in the studio, as she learned to do during lockdown, has become preferable to the star.
  
  "I will drive myself crazy mimicking [demos]," Minogue admitted to Rolling Stone. "What's so helpful with self-recording is I can spend hours doing that to the point where I go 'Shut it down now.'"
• "Padam Padam" came to life on a writing retreat that started out as a bit of a dud.
  
  "It was just me and Ina Wroldsen," Lostboy told Classic Pop magazine, "who's an amazing songwriter, a bit of a hero of mine - I grew up looking up to her."
  
  Despite the mutual admiration, their first day in the studio didn't exactly produce fireworks. "It was kind of s--t, honestly. We both left going, 'Let's hope something happens tomorrow.'"
  
  Fortunately, something did. On day two, Lostboy arrived at the studio ahead of Wroldsen and started playing around with a few chords - "that major/minor thing at the beginning, a kind of rolling synth" - looping it over and over without knowing whether she'd even like it. But she did. "We just started writing over it, building as we went," he explained.
  
  What emerged was "Padam Padam," pretty much fully formed by the end of the day. "The demo we made that day is basically what you hear now," Lostboy said, "with Ina singing the part Kylie would go on to make iconic."