BBC Radio 2 are celebrating Kylie Minogue’s musical career by revealing the nation’s favourite Kylie song as well as looking back at her various eras.
With just a few weeks to go until Kylie releases her 16th studio album ‘Tension’ on 22nd September, BBC Radio 2 has revealed the results of a poll they ran asking listeners to vote for their favourite Kylie single and it makes for a joyous listen as Steve Wright counts down the Top 40 most voted for by listeners.Â
SPOILER ALERT – don’t go any further if you’d like to listen to the countdown unveiled live on BBC Radio 2 on Bank Holiday Monday (28th August) or you can listen right now on the BBC Sounds app.Â
Kylie will of course headline Radio 2 in the Park on Sunday 17th September in Leicester which will be her first full live concert in the UK in four years. No doubt we’ll be treated to songs from the new album alongside many of the hits in this countdown.
Kylie will then head to Las Vegas for a run of sold out shows at the Voltaire. Find out which versions of her hits I’d like to see her revive for that performance.
As a bit of a statistics fan, I have dived deeper into the Radio 2 Top 40 countdown:
The Top 10 features songs from Kylie’s entire musical career with her UK debut ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ from 1988 sitting pretty just behind current smash ‘Padam Padam’ at #7 and #6 respectively.
The Top 10 also features two of her biggest duets, both with fellow Australian artists; Jason Donovan on ‘Especially For You’ (#8) and Nick Cave on ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ (#10).
It’s no surprise that taking the top spot is Kylie’s biggest selling single to date, the mighty ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ which topped the UK charts for four weeks upon release in 2001 as well as charting high across the globe. Settling for second place, from the year previous, was Kylie’s return to pop, with a gold hot-panted bottom for ‘Spinning Around’ which saw her gain her first no.1 in the UK in 10 years. In third place is 1990’s ‘Better the Devil you Know’ which was a major turning point for Kylie as an artist, seeing her take creative control and pushing SAW to develop her sound. Speaking of her sound maturing, in 1994 Kylie made a statement with her first post-SAW single ‘Confide in Me’ which ranks 4th in this run down. Closing out the top 5 is Kylie’s anthemic ‘All The Lovers’ from 2010’s ‘Aphrodite’ album which has gone on to be something of a signature song for Kylie’s loyal fanbase that she now dubs ‘Lovers’.
The best performing albums on the countdown are ‘Rhythm of Love’, ‘Fever’, ‘Kylie’ and ‘Enjoy Yourself’ with each of the four singles released from each finding a spot in the Top 40.
It’s great to see her early work represented so well, in fact her first 13 hits all feature. Poor old ‘Word is Out’ was Kylie’s first single to miss the UK Singles Chart Top 10 back in 1991 and is her earliest hit to miss this listener vote. Only one single from fourth album ‘Let’s Get To it’ made the list as ‘Give Me Just a Little More Time’ sits at #33.
The ‘Kiss Me Once’ album era fails to get any of its hits on the list; the only album not to be represented in this Top 40.
The highest placed track not to make the Top 10 Official UK singles chart is Kylie’s duet with Nick Cave which peaked at #11. On this countdown it does one better at #10. In total, this countdown boasts 7 #1s, a further 22 Top 10s and another 11 Top75 UK singles.
Country Kylie appears at #17 with 2018’s ‘Dancing’ as the only entry from her ‘Golden’ album. However, the options for this poll were limited to top 100 hits on the Official UK Singles Chart so ‘Lifetime to repair’, ‘Music’s too Sad’ and the title track were ineligble.
‘Padam Padam’ is the highest ranked recent hit, but two ‘Disco’ singles sneak in at #36 and #40 (‘Say Something’ and ‘Magic’ respectively). Perhaps surprisingly ‘Real Groove’ with Dua Lipa fails to rank.
Overall it’s a great countdown with many of the bigger hits you’d expect at the top amd showing exactly why Kylie has had such a long career. In terms of songs that are missing, I would have expected ‘In My Arms’ would have featured and ‘Finer Feelings’ is another fan fave omitted. Personally I would love to have seen ‘If You Were With Me Now’ in the list – it’s an underrated classic!
BBC Sounds will continue to celebrate Kylie’s musical career with The Eras: Kylie Minogue podcast which launches on Monday 28th August which tells the story of her iconic career through era-defining chapters. Hosted by Scott Mills, each chapter will be told by fans, commentators and packed with exclusive material from the BBC archive. Listeners will hear from famous fans including David Tennant, Olly Alexander, Jack Savoretti, fellow Radio 2 in the Park performer Beverley Knight, Tia Kofi, Jaime Winstone, and Emily Eavis. With Radio 2 presenters Rylan Clark, Dermot O’Leary, Fearne Cotton, Owain Wyn Evans and Michelle Visage also paying homage.
