Talk about “being in your head all weekend.” For the image that Madonna and Kylie Minogue have left behind in the wake of performing “I Will Survive” (the gayest of the gay anthems by none other than Gloria Gaynor) and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” is something that has caused many an older gay gentleman’s synapses to short circuit. The performance in question occurred when Minogue joined Madonna onstage at her March 7th date of The Celebration Tour at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum. (Unsurprisingly, Madonna timed her rash of L.A. dates to coincide with when the Academy Awards would be taking place [March 10th], for it’s no secret that M and her manager, Guy Oseary, are beloved for the Oscar party they’ve been throwing since 2008.) Fittingly, their long overdue public union onstage (and in life) would serve as something of a nod to March 8th’s International Women’s Day (or at least that’s how the duo is billing it). And what could be more inspiring than two such women supporting one another?
The genesis of that support really began on November 16, 2000, when Madonna performed “Music” at the MTV European Music Awards whilst wearing a black tank top with Kylie Minogue’s name shinily emblazoned on it (along with a pair of then-fashionable very low-rise pants). Incidentally, Minogue was also at the same awards show, and performed “Kids” with Robbie Williams. While on the red carpet afterward, Madonna was asked about her recent predilection for wearing tees of Britney and Kylie, to which she replied, “Well, it’s really my celebration of other girls in pop music, basically. I had to give a big-up to Britney and then I had to give a big-up to Kylie… I think they’re the cutest.” And yes, Spears, too, has famously joined Madonna onstage during one of her tours before—once again, at an L.A. date (so don’t try to say the NY shows have superior celebrity cameos ‘cause they don’t). Specifically, the November 6, 2008 one at Dodger Stadium, where Spears cameo’d for “Human Nature” (appropriate, considering its “Piece of Me” vibe and the fact that Madonna used backdrops of Spears pacing around in an elevator for it).
This cameo by Minogue, however, appears to be more deeply felt. Not just by the audience of swooning gays, but by Madonna and Minogue themselves. Accordingly, Minogue posted a video of herself dancing on the floor of the arena as Madonna performed “Ray of Light” in the background, captioning it, “MADONNA It’s been a long time coming. LOVED being with you!!!! Celebration Tour AND it is now International Women’s Day …. THANK YOU and LOVE LOVE LOVE.” Madonna was slightly less gushing (she’s still a tough-talking, brass balls-packing Midwestern girl, after all) with her own caption beneath a high-quality video of their performance together: “Couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate International Woman’s Day…………………Then to Sing with @kylieminogue.”
In fact, wearing that instantly iconic ensemble back in 2000 was part of Madonna celebrating women outside of “just one day out of life.” At the time, while being interviewed on a 2000 episode of Celebrity!, Minogue said she was “chuffed” about seeing M wear the shirt. Right after her assessment, the host passed Minogue a gift containing a riff on that top bearing the name “MADONNA” instead (an uncanny foreshadowing of twenty-four years later, evidently). Although Minogue has been asked countless times since the beginning of her career about 1) what she thinks of Madonna and 2) how she feels regarding being so often compared to Madonna (with Minogue’s responses being gracious…most of the time), the two never seemed to align—meeting or collaboration-wise.
In 2011 (before the infamous [non-]photo of them together at the 2013 Met Gala was compromised by the Kylie’s-head-blocking presence of Brahim Zaibat, erstwhile Madonna boy toy), she told an interviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald, “I’ve only met her briefly [backstage at the 2000 EMAs, as it were]. We have some friends in common and, you know, a message will go back and forth and she says, ‘Hi’ or I say, ‘Hi.’” And now they’ve said so much more—hopefully feeling comfortable enough at this point to message directly back and forth. A newly-established dynamic that many are likely hoping could lead to the frequently teased potential song they might make together.
Minogue’s own talk of wanting to do a collaboration with the woman she, too, calls “the Queen” has been repeated more than once over the years, including during an interview for HuffPost UK when asked if she would be interested in doing a song with M, to which Kylie noted, “Maybe the world would stop mid-orbit or something.” For about five minutes in Inglewood on March 7th, it kind of did.
But, as Minogue herself said, it’s been a long time coming. Indeed, over the past year, Madonna and Kylie have been dancing around each other (no pun intended) more than usual. That dance started around the time Minogue released “Padam Padam” in the spring of 2023. Mainly because said lead single from Tension was an instant chart-topping success despite the then fifty-three-year-old (she was eight days shy of fifty-four when the song was released) reciting lyrics that many (chiefly Republicans) would still deem age inappropriate, regardless of the numerous strides that have supposedly been made when it comes to not judging women through an ageist lens.
In contrast, Madonna, in later years, has rarely received so much attention or praise for a song (save for, oddly enough, her collaboration with The Weeknd and Playboi Carti on “Popular”) featuring her own similar use of “youthisms” in lyrics (hear: “Candy Shop,” “Girl Gone Wild,” “Some Girls and “S.E.X.,” among others).
Granted, she’s never really gone so far as to say something (at least not in what her critics would call her “geriatric phase”) like, “I know you wanna take me home/And get to know me close…/I know you wanna take me home/And take off all my clothes” or “This place is crowdin’ up/I think it’s time for you to take me out this club/And we don’t need to use our words/Wanna see what’s underneath that t-shirt.” And, in spite of being a notoriously ageist community themselves, the gays probably did wanna see what was underneath Minogue’s Madonna t-shirt last night, so obsessed can they be with aesthetic appraisal. But that might have been the thing that truly caused a short circuit from which none of them could ever return. Besides, maybe Madonna casually dry humping Minogue was enough.
