Kylie Minogue has won the inaugural Grammy for best pop dance recording for her global hit Padam Padam, from her 2023 album Tension.
A pounding Eurodance track named for the sound of a heartbeat, Padam Padam delivered the 55-year-old pop star’s second ever Grammy award – and her first in two decades. She previously won best dance recording in 2004 for Come Into My World.
This year, Minogue beat out four other nominees in her category, including fellow Australian Troye Sivan for his ubiquitous club anthem Rush, and Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s Miracle. David Guetta had two tracks in the running: One in a Million, with Bebe Rexha, and Baby Don’t Hurt Me, with Anne-Marie and Coi Leray.
The award for best pop dance recording was among 85 prizes handed out in a pre-show event titled the Premiere Ceremony.
On the red carpet afterwards, Minogue thanked the LGBTQ+ community – the bedrock of her fanbase.
“I would say thank you for being with me for such a long time now, through thick and thin,” Minogue told E!’s red carpet host Laverne Cox.
“We ride the highs, the lows and the in-betweens, and to know that we’ve got each other’s backs, and this feels like the start of the next era.”
Minogue’s Grammy is the latest in a long line of wins for Padam Padam – a song widely considered a surprise smash for the singer, four decades into her career.
When it was released in 2023, it became Minogue’s highest-charting single in a decade on the UK charts. In the US, Padam Padam became her first top 10 song on the Billboard dance/electronic charts.
In Australia, it became her first top 40 hit on the Aria charts since 2012’s Timebomb. When it ranked at No 48 in last month’s Triple J Hottest 100, Minogue also broke the record for the longest time between appearances on the broadcaster’s countdown, with a stretch of 26 years.
Other big winners at the 66th Grammys included Billie Eilish, whose doleful Barbie contribution What Was I Made For? won multiple gongs including song of the year and best song written for visual media; alternative supergroup Boygenius, who picked up three awards including best rock song and performance for their track Not Strong Enough; and Taylor Swift fans, who received news of a surprise new album as the pop star accepted her win for Midnights.