Kylie Minogue’s early alcoholic experiences weren’t particularly glamorous — drinking canned drinks with teenage friends and boxed wine at family barbecues.However Minogue54, the only female artist to top the music charts for 50 consecutive years, has since refined her relationship with booze.
On a recent Wednesday morning, she stood behind the Carlyle Hotel’s historic Bemelmans Bar, cocktail shaker in hand. She shook and shook it and mixed her drink with her own internal beats.
“Hey! Hey! Hey! How am I?” she asked Abdul Rashid, the poppy-jacketed Bemelmans bartender.
“Oh, that’s great,” said Mr. Rashid. “I’m jealous.”
A few days ago, Ms. Minogue was at this same bar to celebrate her. wine collection — two still rosé, one sparkling — sing a selection of hits on the grand piano. She came back this morning to demonstrate her mixology chops.
But those chops were a matter of some debate. One publicist described Ms. Minogue as an experienced bartender with specialty drinks. However, the cocktail on offer, the Pink Pearl, is newly created by Mr. Rashid. And Ms. Minogue questioned her ability to mix it up.
“I’m going to make this a pig’s ear,” she said brightly as she walked behind the granite and leather bar.
She wore a marabou-trimmed mauve pantsuit for the occasion. After wrestling with Matt for a bit, she switched them to a pair of black platforms and sang a snatch of “You Raise Me Up” while sliding them in.
“I need some jazz music,” she cried. “A little atmosphere.” Jazz, one of the many genres Minogue has tried, was summoned.
Rashid had already assembled the ingredients and ingredients: gin, apricot brandy, lime, simple syrup, bitters, a bottle of Minogue’s prosecco rosé, and various shakers and coupes. (He also prepared an array of snacks, including salted nuts, cheese straws, and potato chips, which she politely ignored.)
Ms. Minogue communicated some rules regarding cocktails. “It has to be pink,” she told him. It was borrowed from another drink. Le Bar in ParisMaybe it wasn’t Trademark registered.
Beneath his affectionate lashes, Mr. Rashid demonstrated the drink by garnishing it with a float of Mr. Minogue’s Prosecco Rosé. The garnish was a sprig of fresh mint.
“I propose this to you,” said Mr. Rashid bravely to her. “The finishing touches you do.”
“It didn’t work either,” said Minogue as she added the herbs.
Minogue, whom the BBC once called “Pop’s Most Underrated Icon” and someone whom occasional collaborator Rufus Wainwright called “homosexual”. abbreviation for joy‘ first introduced her wines in the UK in 2020, where sales have been strong. She’s not a winemaker herself, but she told her partners at Benchmark Wine Group that the wines should be “elegant, refreshing, not boring, not too difficult.” In that sense, her wine was a lot like her music.
After starting her career as an actress on the Australian soap Neighbors, she left pop music in her twenties. Early reviews of her called her a “singing budgie”, but Minogue, who is recording her album in her 16th studio, said her bad press didn’t deter her. Rarely. She worked on her own music. she has improved.
“I just learned on the job,” she said. Then I examined the ingredients lined up on the bar. “It’s like this,” she said, turning to the task in front of her, “I learn on the job.”
With Rashid’s help, Minogue added a dash of simple syrup (“Oops!” she said), half an ounce of apricot brandy, and three-quarters of an ounce of lime. juice. He showed her how to flip a jigger and add gin. She had a strong hand in bitters, which gave the drink a pinkish hue.
“It has a little extra love,” she said, dropping a few more drops of bitters. “I have to work on my cocktail skills. That’s it.”
At Mr. Rashid’s suggestion, she attached a metal shaker to the glass and shook it vigorously. “Wow!” she exclaimed, shaking her whole body in a way reminiscent of locomotion.
With a little fumbling, she strained the mixture into an ice-filled glass and added prosecco, mint sprigs, and another spring of mint as the first slid beneath the surface.
“And look!” she said. She didn’t have the courage to give her assistant a drink. “I’ll have to taste it myself,” she said of the irregularly mixed drink.
So, even though it was only 11am, Ms. Minogue took a straw between her perfect mauve lips and sipped.
“So refreshing, so lovely,” she said with a scheming smile. “Dangerously.”