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PADAM MADAM (KYLIE)

 


KYLIE

Inevitably, a streaming service has a documentary about Kylie Minogue.

Why wouldn't they?

Celebrity documentaries are surefire hits, with oven ready audiences ready to lap them up.

Over the years, we've seen docuseries on The BeatlesDavid BeckhamCharlie SheenArnold SchwarzeneggerWhamMartin ScorseseSteve Martin and Simone Biles.

Some are tightly controlled affairs - especially if the subject is executive producing. 

Others are bit more loose and revealing

Irish filmmaker Michael Harte's three part documentary 'Kylie' has landed on Netflix after the Australian pop singer negotiated a deal with the streaming service on 2024.

Like 'Beckham,' which Harte produced, it's never going to wield a cudgel as it pores over her life.

You know from the off that in all likelihood, it will paint her in the best possible light.

However it feels like a little less controlled, as its subject opens up her archive and reflects on her career and personal life.

Harte charts Kylie Minogue's emergence as a child actor in Australia, while her sister Dannii built her profile as a child singer.

Kylie confesses to Harte that while she achieved national fame through her acting, her heart was really set on singing.

We see her breakthrough as Charlene in the phenomenally popular Aussie soap 'Neighbours' alongside Jason Donovan who played her onscreen boyfriend and was also her boyfriend away from the camera.

As 'Neighbours' became a huge ratings hit in the UK, we see her being whisked away to London to the PWL studios to record 'I Should Be So Lucky' - a song that Pete Waterman admits was written on the hoof for a young soap star he did not even know was a big star.

A monster success, Waterman admits he was taken back by its success and soon Kylie is on the conveyor belt of recording hit singles, facing intense media interest and dealing with catty comments from some journalists.

With Kylie's career rising faster than Donovan's, the couple inevitably grow apart and we see him struggle as he recalls how he was supplanted by INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence.

What follows is a docuseries that charts many highs and lows in Kylie's life from the breakup with Hutchence and intrusive media coverage of her diagnosis of breast cancer to her resurgence as an artist and gay icon with classic hits like 'Can't Get You Out of My Head,' 'Spinning Around' and 'Padam Padam'.

Always an affable screen presence, Minogue is remarkably open about her mistakes and her personal trials.

Australian indie icon Nick Cave speaks glowingly about her and amusingly of how their creative partnership bamboozled their respective audiences.

If Cave emerges as an unlikely hero, Dannii Minogue's sisterly bond and Pete Waterman's paternalistic qualities towards her shine bright.

Donovan, however, seems the most damaged by a fame factory that simply chews people up and leaves them to deal with the consequences.

While the three episode documentary is hardly earth shattering, it's still an interesting watch.

A pretty good gallop through an eventful showbiz life, it's an enjoyable trip down memory lane and it will probably lead you down a YouTube or Spotify rabbit hole, digging out well produced tracks from an artist who has often been underestimated.

('Kylie' was made available for streaming on Netflix on May 20, 2026)

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