Kylie Minogue Meets Madonna In a T-Shirt 24 Years In The Making
There’s archival pulls and vintage references, and then there’s the sort of history-making meta-referential fashion perfection that Kylie Minogue pulled off last night for her long-awaited joint performance with Madonna. Minogue was in the audience for the third night of the Los Angeles stop of Madonna’s Celebration world tour, and Madge sent the Kia Forum into overdrive when she announced Minogue would be joining her onstage. An acoustic joint rendition of Minogue’s hit “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” ensued (complete with a bit of dry humping on Madonna’s part), but it was Minogue’s fashion choice that cemented it as a truly surreal moment for the pop history books.
Despite any rumors to the contrary, Madonna and Minogue have long held a mutual respect. That’s perhaps evidenced by the bedazzled “Kylie Minogue” tank top Madonna wore back in 2000 to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Stockholm, Sweden. If it looks familiar, yes, Madonna also famously donned a similar shirt with Britney Spears’s name during a New York City performance that same month.
Twenty-four years later, Minogue decided to return the sartorial favor by wearing her version, this time with Madonna’s name emblazoned on her shirt. Sure, many stars have paid homage to Madonna’s fashion choices over the years, but how many can say their Madonna moment was referencing something that had originally paid homage to them?
Madonna and Kylie have crossed paths before, but even Kylie has lamented the fact that no one has ever gotten a proper picture of them together.
“There’s one hilarious picture from the Met Gala, maybe 5 years ago or so, where I went to say hello to her and we had a brief chat,” Minogue told Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM radio program in 2020. “The photographer got one picture, but he probably didn’t know who I was. I think it’s her boyfriend at the time, or friend, who is blocking me out. So fans have gone nuts. ‘It’s just the one pic that we can see them together!’ and it was completely missed.”
Minogue has always responded positively to the idea of an eventual collaboration when interviewers have brought up the subject, and on stage last night she said the moment had been a “long, long, long, long time coming.”
“Why did it take so long?” asked Madonna. “You live far away. Australia is far.”
As far as we know, both singers do still maintain residences in London. Perhaps the next collaboration won’t take quite so long. Besides, with Madonna’s tour a hit and Minogue riding high on her “Padam”-fueled global resurgence, perhaps some of today’s younger stars could use a reminder of what life-long pop superstardom looks like.
