Kylie Minogue doesn’t get to visit New York City often, so when the Aussie superstar squeezes in a rare stateside trip, she likes to pull out all the stops. And when you’re an internationally beloved pop icon, that means hosting a one-night-only cabaret at the Carlyle one night, and having Chris Martin pull you onstage at MetLife Stadium to surprise 60,000 Coldplay fans on another.
“Chris heard I was in town and texted me the day before: ‘Would you like to come out and sing “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”? We’d love to see you! No pressure!’” Minogue recently told Vogue. “I suppose it’s not where one might expect to see me—especially in this country!”
Draped across a green velvet couch in her suite at the Carlyle Hotel, Minogue is in town for a whirlwind week of press to promote the U.S. launch of her wine brand. Since debuting in 2020, Kylie Minogue Wines has sold over 5 million bottles and become the top-selling prosecco rosé in the U.K. Along with overwhelming commercial success, Minogue has also earned the respect of an industry that typically looks down on celeb-endorsed spirits. She won last year’s Liquid Icons’ Wine Entrepreneur Award, which is sorta like the best actress Oscar of the wine world.
“People will come up to me and say, ‘Your rosé is actually really good,’” Minogue says and then laughs. “It’s like, ‘Yeah… I know!’ I only present products that I truly believe in, so I’m never gonna give you anything that isn’t great!”
She certainly has a sterling track record. After first making her mark in the late ’80s as a budding soap star on the Aussie hit Neighbours, Minogue has become one of the most consistent hitmakers of the past three decades. With over 80 million records sold worldwide, the 54-year-old artist has retained a childlike glee in assuming new musical identities, be it a synth-pop goddess on Aphrodite (2011) or a country crooner on Golden (2018).
It was while working on the latter in Nashville that Minogue first flirted with the idea of launching her own wine. Recorded over a particularly sweltering summer in 2017, she and her studio team ended most days by dining alfresco and uncorking one—or four—bottles of rosé. Minogue has never considered herself a big drinker, but she’s long understood the value of a chilled bottle shared amongst friends.
With three Kylie Minogue Wines available in the U.S. as of this week—including a Côtes de Provence rosé—it’s sure to become the beverage of choice at rooftop Pride parties across the nation. The processo rosé poured by the gallons Monday night when Minogue celebrated the launch with an intimate one-off performance at the Cafe Carlyle.
A New York institution housed on the ground floor of its namesake hotel, the high-end cabaret was transformed into something far more boisterous when the pop icon appeared onstage in a body-hugging Alexandre Vauthier gown. Accompanied by just a pianist and three background singers, Minogue reimagined her biggest dance-floor hits (“Love at First Sight,” “All the Lovers”) as stripped-down pop ballads.
“I suppose when one goes to see a show at the Cafe Carlyle, they’re expecting something quite reserved and low-key,” she giggles. “We took out some of the tables and really made that space our own!”
The performance marked one of the rare occasions that Minogue has been able to perform material from her most recent album in front of a live audience. Released in November 2020, Disco saw Minogue return to her dance-floor roots at a moment when her fans needed a dose of sweaty escapism the most. With a tour out of the question at the time, she opted to release the concert livestream Infinite Disco as a special treat for her fans. Filmed at the height of lockdown without a live audience, Minogue acknowledges that although she remains fiercely proud of the special, it didn’t exactly replicate the rush of a live performance.
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“There’s still a bit that’s missing that keeps the Disco era from feeling complete to me,” she says, citing her desire to do a “mini Disco tour” before immediately backtracking. “Oh no, I already said it out loud! If you print that now, I have to find a way to make it happen!”
Minogue will have to move fast. She’s already scheduled to head back into the studio this July to prep her Disco follow-up. She’s tight-lipped on the exact direction her sixteenth studio album might take, but name-drops the sensual “Slow” as a musical reference point. Released as the lead single off of Body Language, her experimental foray into electro-pop, “Slow” became a major hit for Minogue despite sounding like nothing else on the charts in 2003. “It’s still one of my favorite songs—it doesn’t matter what you do with “Slow” or what version you play, it always works!” Minogue says. “I think about what that song did for me back in its time, and I’d like to make something like that again that pushes my boundaries a little bit.”
Disco fans needn’t worry, though: Minogue still plans on giving you plenty to cry about on the dance floor. “Dance music is such a happy place for me, and I love working from that state of melancholic euphoria,” she elaborates. “I never know what’s gonna happen when I roll into the studio, but I’m gonna say carpe diem and just really try to enjoy myself.”
Here, Minogue takes Vogue behind the scenes of her glamorous and “once-in-a-lifetime” debut at the Cafe Carlyle.
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