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It’s been 35 years since Kylie Minogue released her debut single Locomotion, but the homegrown pop icon isn’t hitting the brakes. Instead, her newly released single has everybody dancing, and she’s lapping up every minute of it.

Whether scrolling through TikTok or listening to the radio, you’re bound to come across Minogue’s newest single, Padam Padam, which she released on May 18. Inspired by an Édith Piaf song, the name of it is supposed to mimic the sound of a beating heart – appropriate given it has sent thousands of hearts racing worldwide.

Kylie Minogue can barely contain her excitement, as her new single races to the top of the charts.Credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

The electro-pop song has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the charts. It climbed to No. 6 in the UK’s official chart and also became the UK’s most-downloaded song of the week at the end of May. All physical sales, downloads and streams combined, this is Minogue’s highest chart peak in the UK since All The Lovers hit No. 3 in 2010. The song has also been Kylie’s biggest hit in Australia since 2012.

This is no small feat, especially for a 55-year-old artist who has been battling it out in the competitive music scene for over three decades. This achievement is not lost on Minogue, who has spent the past few weeks celebrating her track’s well-deserved success. Though she’s been down this road before, Minogue’s reaction to her major comeback has been that of genuine surprise, humility and childlike joy – almost as if this were her first banger to hit the big leagues. And fans are loving her even more for it.

In a video posted to Instagram following her UK chart results, Minogue physically could not contain her excitment, grinning from ear to ear and wiggling around like an eager child on Christmas.

“What an incredible – another – wild turn in my life and career. Thank you so much for all your love and support, everyone who has got onto Padam Padam and made this possible for me,” she said before raising a trophy above her head and doing a little happy dance.

Minogue has performed the song live multiple times since its release, including the Capital’s Summertime Ball in the UK and on the finale of American Idol, which pulled in an audience of 5.7 million TV viewers.

The song’s memeability, which has kept many TikTokers busy over the past month, has even spurred conversation within Minogue’s circle of inserting “padam” into the dictionary.

“A friend said, ‘do you think it’s going to make it into the dictionary’, which is a wild thought. I said, ‘well, what would it mean?’” she told Capitol Radio presenters in a video posted to Instagram, adding that it could become a new form of saying hello and goodbye over the phone, or remain the sound of a heartbeat.

But it’s official meaning? According to Minogue, it’s “whatever you want, babe”.

Since her career has spanned multiple decades, Minogue has the rare opportunity to see how the social media machine alters the way tracks gain traction. In an appearance on Entertainment Tonight Canada at the beginning of this month, she said she wasn’t quite sure how to define the “Kylie era” we’re entering, but she’s loving the humour and active online engagement it’s eliciting.

“I don’t know if this has ever happened to me,” she said. “People are so funny and so clever, and I think it’s only just begun … It’s a different state of mind for me.”

Locally, Minogue joined The Project on Monday, saying the last time she could recall one of her songs gaining popularity so quickly was Can’t Get You Out Of My Head in 2001.

“I think this only happens, you know, once in a lifetime. That it’s happening again is just wild to me,” she said, clearly still in disbelief despite her previous success in the charts.

Her 16th studio album, Tension, is due for release on September 22. Shortly before that, Minogue will co-headline the BBC’s Radio 2 in the Park in Leicester alongside 80s icons Tears for Fears. Following this announcement, she told the Radio 2 Breakfast host Padam Padam had taken on a life of its own.

“I can’t even, full stop! I mean, it’s really taken us all by surprise. We loved it as a team, but the way that it’s taken off is way beyond me … [Padam has] become a noun, a verb, an adjective,” she said.

“You know, friends leaving going, ‘Padam’ – like they’ve turned into minions or something.”

Minogue may still be surprised, but her legions of fans aren’t. From the moment they all began dancing to Locomotion, they could sense this was a talent that would stand the test of time.

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