"Padam Padam" by Kylie Minogue

About

Padam Padam is a song by pop artist Kylie Minogue released in May 2023. The song's title is an onomatopoeia for the sound of a heartbeat. Following its release, the song became increasingly popularized on sites including TikTok and Twitter, inspiring numerous memes that month, including memes using the term "padam" out of context and memes about gay people embracing and loving the song.

Origin

On May 18th, 2023, Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue released her new song "Padam Padam," including the release of a music video on YouTube,^[1] garnering over 1.7 million views in five days (shown below). The song features the repeated lyrics, "padam, padam," meant as an onomatopoeia for the sound of a heartbeat. She also posted a teaser for the song on TikTok,^[2] garnering over 127,000 views in the same span of time.

Spread

Following the song's release, people began posting reactions to the song and memes referencing it. Some of the most prominent memes reference gay people loving the song and dancing to it. For example, on May 18th, 2023, Twitter^[3] user @heyjaeee posted a video of elderly people playing slot machines, writing, "Gays over 30 hitting replay on Padam Padam," garnering over 4,800 likes in five days (shown below).

Gays over 30 hitting replay on Padam Padam pic.twitter.com/KiPWSa9Gyp

— 💫 (@heyjaeee) May 18, 2023

Memes using the term "Padam" out of context also became prevalent. For example, on May 21st, Twitter^[4] user @beverlychills_ posted a meme using the term, garnering over 7,200 likes in two days (shown below, left). On May 22nd, Twitter^[5] user @dzennon posted a meme that gained over 5,000 likes in a day (shown below, right). On May 23rd, the Huffington Post^[6] then reported on the memes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References