It took some doing, but the AFL has finally landed its number one pick in the entertainment draft: Kylie Minogue.
The news that Australia’s Queen of Pop will perform at the AFL grand final in September broke on Sunday night. But it was a deal that had been years in the making.
An AFL insider, who was not authorised to speak on the record, told this masthead that Minogue had been the number one name on the list for both Mushroom Events, which produces the pre-game show, and the AFL for as long as they could remember.
“The first question is always ‘is Kylie available?’,” the insider said. “She’s always been interested in doing it, it’s just that she’s been busy. This is the first time the window worked.”
The reports that she had resisted previous attempts to woo her because it was an afternoon gig were, the insider insisted, “dead wrong”.
Speaking to the media on Monday afternoon, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon revealed, “the discussion started in earnest after the grand final last year, and we were able to conclude it not that long ago”.
The insider said an in-principle agreement was reached with Minogue’s management about three months ago, but the final contracts were only exchanged late last week.
There was little doubt, though, that Minogue was serious about doing it.
When she was in Melbourne to perform at the annual Pratt family bash at Raheen mansion in Kew on Saturday March 21, the insider claims, she visited the MCG and allowed the AFL media team to nab some promotional material, including the photo of her standing in the centre circle holding a Sherrin.
She was reportedly paid $3 million for the Pratt gig, at which around 250 guests were in attendance. The AFL has not revealed her fee for the grand final show, which will be watched by more than 4 million people, as per OzTam ratings (and many more than that if those watching at house parties, social clubs and pubs were taken into account), but the sporting body has not, in recent years, hosed down reports of $2 million paydays for its headliners.
That could be tactical, though, a way of keeping the real (possibly higher) figure secret so as not to skew negotiations.
Asked on Monday afternoon how much he was paying Minogue, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said only “It’ll be worth every cent”.
Asked again how much exactly she was costing, he repeated “It’ll be worth every cent”.
The revelation of Minogue as headline artist in March has put a cap on the speculation that typically reaches fever pitch mid-year about who will play at what is, generally, the most-watched sporting and television event of the year. Snoop Dogg (2025) and Katy Perry (2024), for instance, were both announced in late July. Having the news out early allows the focus to shift elsewhere. “It is a complex negotiation, and so yeah, it is good [to have it locked away],” said Dillon.
Still, there’s a certain inevitability about Minogue playing the grand final. Melbourne-born and, once again Melbourne-based, the Grammy winner got her start in music when, as a Neighbours star, she and some other cast members were asked to perform at a fundraiser for the Fitzroy Football Club in 1986.
“We sang a song, and we were really nervous,” she told ET magazine in 1988. “We ended up having such a great time that we wanted to do another song. My suggestion was Loco-Motion. I knew the words because I had a Carole King songbook. And the band knew the track. The backing was simple.”
A recording of that song became Minogue’s first single in July 1987, after Michael Gudinski signed her to his Mushroom label.
Mushroom Events has produced the grand final entertainment for more than a decade. “The AFL’s brief to us was clear,” Mushroom states on its website. “To elevate AFL events to new heights by delivering top-tier talent, flawless production, and creative direction.”
In most respects, they have succeeded. The go-to reference point for anyone wishing to take a swing at the match-day music is Meatloaf, but that was in 2011. Mushroom-backed artists such as Birds of Tokyo and Paul Kelly restored decency and a local flavour to the event in the immediate years after that debacle, and Ed Sheeran – famously a great mate of Mushroom founder (and Matt’s father) Michael Gudinski, who died five years ago last week – managed to satisfy both the global superstar and local connection demands in 2014.
Canny observers may have noticed that the headline artists appearing at the grand final often announce a forthcoming tour around the same time; in 2022, Robbie Williams announced his XXV tour was coming to Australia just days before he performed a stellar set at the MCG, while Katy Perry’s Lifetimes tour was announced on September 25 2024, just days before she performed an AI-assisted set before the big game.
There have been calls for the AFL to choose Australian artists to headline the gig, with the likes of Powderfinger’s Darren Middleton, Spiderbait’s Kram and former Richmond star Matthew Richardson putting their names to a campaign by Save Our Arts. The choice of Minogue satisfies that demand in the short term, but in truth it’s a case of a global star who just happens to be Australian.
There’s little doubt that Minogue continues an upward trend as far as the calibre of artists and spectacle delivered in the pre-game entertainment is concerned. Asked if that is being done with an eye to capturing international attention and growing the AFL brand globally, Dillon was equivocal.
“Our big focus is on where our fans are, which is in Australia,” he said. “But I think when you have artists of the calibre that we have had over the last few years, I think it will draw in fans outside Australia as well. So it’s a welcome addition.”
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