Kylie Minogue Flew Over the MCG to an Unreleased Dom Dolla

The last track of the set was a file nobody outside the production could buy. As Kylie Minogue rose above the Melbourne Cricket Ground on a suspended platform to close the AFL Grand Final pre-game show on Saturday 26 September, the version of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” filling the stadium was a new, unreleased club rework by Dom Dolla, DJ Mag reported.

It capped a 20-minute set of 11 songs for more than 100,000 people on a rain-soaked MCG, before the Brisbane Lions met the Fremantle Dockers. There were costume changes, pyrotechnics and more than 100 dancers, according to NME, and three guest collaborators, each brought in for one specific job.

The Remix Nobody Can Buy Yet

Dom Dolla did not just supply the track. The Melbourne DJ appeared on the field as an aircraft marshaller, in a hi-vis orange gilet and carrying signal wands, and guided Minogue’s platform back to the ground as the remix played, DJ Mag reported. In a behind-the-scenes video he joked that this was not quite what he had pictured when she asked him to be part of the show.

NME described the finale track as a specially created club reworking of the 2001 single. The choice makes production sense. The original’s tight, programmed synth figure and its “la la la” hook are exactly the parts a club rework can lean on, and a finale needs both: a melody the whole stadium already knows and the lift of a peak-time record to end on. The song also carries particular weight at home: Rolling Stone AU/NZ has named it the best Australian song of the 21st century, as Rolling Stone Australia noted in its report on the show, so handing it to a remixer for the finale was not a small decision.

For now the rework exists only as a performance. DJ Mag reported that an official release date has yet to be announced. It is not the first time the song has been reworked for the floor: the magazine noted that Alok and Glimmer of Blooms remade it in 2021, and that Alok and Minogue later released the single “Last Night I Dreamt I Fell in Love” in February 2025.

Eleven Songs, 36 Years, 20 Minutes

The set compressed three decades of singles into the pre-game window. Noise11 published the full running order with release years:

“Love at First Sight” (2002)
“In Your Eyes” (2002)
“Get Outta My Way” (2010)
“On a Night Like This” (2000)
“All the Lovers” (2010)
“Spinning Around” (2000)
“Confide in Me” (1994), with William Barton
“Slow” (2003)
“Padam Padam” (2023), with G Flip
“The Loco-Motion” (1987)
“Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (2001), Dom Dolla remix

The sequencing is built for momentum. It opens with three uptempo dance-pop singles, drops into the slower, darker “Confide in Me” for the one real change of pace, then climbs back through “Slow” and “Padam Padam” to the two closing numbers. The oldest song, “The Loco-Motion” from 1987, and the newest, “Padam Padam” from 2023, sit next to each other near the end, 36 years apart.

The wardrobe followed the same arc. Noise11 reported that her costumes included a top printed with a vintage image of herself, a black dress carrying a 2026 Grand Final reference and Melbourne detailing, a gold coat for the Barton section and, for the finale, a silver-white gown with sunglasses.

How the Intro Folded a Football Anthem Into Light Up

The show opened with a pre-recorded sequence about Minogue’s Melbourne roots. In it she recited lyrics from Mike Brady’s football anthem “One Day in September”, and its melody was woven into “Light Up”, the song created for her three-part Netflix documentary Kylie, while the introduction also nodded to “I Should Be So Lucky”, NME reported.

The film traced her connection to the city, pairing images of Minogue as a child with footage of Australian football. A young performer dressed as an early-era Kylie then appeared on the field before Minogue herself emerged, surrounded by dancers in metallic blue costumes, Noise11 reported. It was her first appearance on the sport’s biggest stage, as Noise11 noted when the booking was announced, which is why so much of the opening leaned on where she grew up.

Minogue later explained the choice. She said she had always wanted to reference Brady’s anthem in some way, and settled on reciting the lyrics with the melody mixed into “Light Up” so the football crowd would feel that song’s pull in an unexpected form, according to NME. When she stepped out, Noise11 reported, she greeted the stadium with a play on her own early hit, calling it a homecoming she should be so lucky to have.

Brady was there in person too. He performed “Up There Cazaly” during the retiree motorcade, while Michael Paynter sang the national anthem, according to Rolling Stone Australia.

Confide in Me, Rearranged for Strings and William Barton

The set’s biggest production swerve came in the middle. William Barton, the Kalkadunga songman and multi-instrumentalist, joined Minogue for “Confide in Me” with strings accompanying the 1994 single, both performers dressed in black and gold, Noise11 reported. NME described it as a new arrangement.

It was the one point where the programmed pulse dropped away. Noise11 wrote that the arrangement let the song’s brooding character stand apart from the dance material around it, and gave the performance its most unexpected musical turn. For a set otherwise built on synths and four-to-the-floor rhythms, a strings-led passage with Barton was a deliberate contrast before the climb back to the dance floor with “Slow”.

Noise11 also argued that Barton mattered as a collaborator because of his own musical language and his connection to Australian culture: rather than adding one more guest to a pop spectacle, his presence gave “Confide in Me” a different texture and weight.

Padam Padam Went Rock With G Flip

“Padam Padam”, Minogue’s 2023 hit, took a different turn. G Flip, dressed in red with a pink guitar, joined her for a rockier version, NME reported. G Flip had already opened the pre-game entertainment with “Worst Person Alive” and “Bed on Fire” before moving to saxophone, according to Noise11 and Rolling Stone Australia.

Swapping the track’s programmed bounce for guitar suited the room. In a stadium, a live guitar gives a crowd something physical to follow, and the song’s minimal hook carries over whatever the arrangement.

The Loco-Motion With 100 Young Dancers

The penultimate song became the production’s biggest number. Minogue performed “The Loco-Motion” surrounded by 100 young performers recruited from Melbourne dance and performance schools, NME reported. One of them, a current student at Minogue’s former school Camberwell High, played a young Kylie, and the comedy duo The Inspired Unemployed made a surprise cameo.

Noise11 reported that Minogue teased the crowd with the possibility that the show had ended before the song began, and that more than 100,000 people joined in once it did. Then came the lift: the circular platform, dancers performing around a giant football bearing her name, and the Dom Dolla rework carrying her above the stadium.

What Comes Next for the Rework and for Kylie

The obvious question is when the remix will be released, and there is no answer yet. What is clear is how busy Minogue’s year has been. NME noted that she joined Snow Patrol at Crystal Palace Park earlier this summer to perform “These Alarms” and “Chasing Cars”, reunited with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in Brighton for “Where the Wild Roses Grow”, and joined Madonna at WorldPride Amsterdam for “Love Sensation”.

The home industry is marking her career too. The 2026 ARIA Awards nominations celebrate the enduring success of Australian icons including Minogue, according to ARIA, and Dom Dolla has four nominations of his own. Australian electronic pop is having a strong year on the road as well: electropop.news recently reported how Empire of the Sun followed a 220,000-ticket tour with 31 more shows.

For a production built to be seen once, the Grand Final set left one lasting artefact: a Dom Dolla rework of a 25-year-old single that 100,000 people have heard and nobody can yet stream. If it is released, it will arrive with a launch most remixes never get.