Pop music is a never-ending conveyor belt of offerings: some brilliant, some terrible, and plenty forgettable. “Padam Padam” is one of those unexpected, rare instances in the music milieu, meming and looping its way around to become the sound of summer 2023. Released in May, the Kylie track reached the top of the UK charts, securing the singer her first No 1 in over a decade. In the US, too, “Padam Padam” steadily ascended the Billboard dance chart. The road to pop domination was not without potholes, though. In many ways, the dance song is a mirror of its star: a fun, sparkly crowd-pleaser with a bubbly nature that belies perseverance, determination and hard-earned grit.
As is the case with most pop hits, behind the star is a cohort of smaller stars working equally hard in the shadows. In the case of “Padam”, that cohort includes Lostboy – aka Pete Rycroft – who produced and co-wrote the track alongside Norwegian artist Ina Wroldsen, whose songwriting resumé reads like a veritable Who’s Who of 21st-century pop: David Guetta, Britney Spears, Clean Bandit, Demi Lovato, Jess Glynne, and Shakira. Since dropping out of university as a teenager, Rycroft too, has worked with A-listers including Calvin Harris, Rita Ora, Little Mix, Ellie Goulding, Lewis Capaldi, Shawn Mendes, and Bebe Rexha.
