Official Charts Pop Gem #38: Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue – Kids

We celebrate Robbie & Kylie’s unforgettable collaboration from 2000.

Robbie & Kylie’s hit from 2000 triumphed over other classic duets to nab Pop Gem status.

Each week we ask you for your Pop Gems, those hits that were huge back in their day and deserve a bit of recognition for their sheer pop amazingness. They can be overlooked or underplayed, or overshadowed and underappreciated when compared to their performer’s other hits. Or they might just need a big old hug from your ears. Whatever the reason, we’re here to celebrate the Pop Gem.

When we asked for your favourite duets, the response was overwhelming, and it was a tough decision. All kinds of classics were put forward, from Kylie and Jason to Barbra and Celine, with a few Whitney and Enrique hits thrown in. There were lots of suggestions for tunes that may well be a Pop Gem one day, but are a little too new. In the end, after much deliberation, head-scratching and blasting them out in the office, we whittled it down to a super six, all for different reasons. They were:

Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson – Scream (1995)

Brandy & Monica – The Boy Is Mine (1998)

Space & Cerys Matthews – The Ballad of Tom Jones (1998)

Whitney Houston & George Michael – If I Told You That (2000)

Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue – Kids (2000)

Enrique Iglesias & Kelis – Not In Love (2004)

All major hits, some of them still played regularly, of course. But which one should be inducted into the Pop Gem hall of fame? In the end, there could be only one. A duet with a huge impact, that’s still a fan favourite. One issue with duets is that you hardly ever get to see them live, but we chose the one that still gets an airing, even if the two original stars don’t always manage to get together to do it. It had to be Kids.

Watch the video for Kids before we explain why it deserves Pop Gem status and look at some other versions of the hit track:

Rewind over 13 years and you have two megastars at the top of their game. Pop princess Kylie Minogue has just successfully pulled off one of the biggest comebacks ever with her huge hits Spinning Around and On A Night Like This, after six years without a Top 10 hit. Her seventh studio album Light Years is a big hit and it looks like Kylie is back to stay.

Former Take That star Robbie Williams, meanwhile, has just released his third studio album, his third consecutive Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. Sing When You’re Winning has already spawned a chart-topping hit in Rock DJ, complete with controversial video. So where next for two of pop’s biggest stars to go? Well, in each other’s direction, of course.

Robbie and Kylie had already worked together on other tracks for Kylie’s album Light Years – including our previous Pop Gem Your Disco Needs You – so by the time this single was released, the dynamic duo looked like they’d been old drinking pals for years. The mischievous pair took it in turns to both camp it up and sex it up in the saucy video, and the track is full of killer one-liners, including Kylie’s ultimate BURN “I like drummers baby / You’re not my bag”.

Kids, which reached Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart and has sold 234,000 copies, felt like a true pop event, and both Kylie and Robbie have embraced the track and still play it on their tours. During her Showgirl: Homecoming live tour Kylie performed the tune with a variety of guest vocalists, including Bono and sister Dannii.

Watch Kylie perform the track with her little sister in Melbourne:

Robbie recently rocked the track with his close personal popstar friend Olly Murs. Check out a fan video of the pair in action.

A true Pop Gem if ever we heard one.

Since Kids, Robbie and Kylie have gone from strength to strength. Kylie has gone on to have 15 further Top 10 singles, including two Number 1s – the million selling Can't Get You Out Of My Head in 2001, and Slow in 2003. Robbie's had 21 Top 10 hits since Kids, including four Number 1s – Eternity/The Road To Mandalay in 2001, Somethin' Stupid (2001's Official Christmas Number 1 with Nicole Kidman), Radio in 2004 and Candy in 2012. He also landed the honour of scoring the 1000th Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart in 2013.