The song was released as a single on 12 June 2006 in the United Kingdom. It entered the top forty in Australia, Ireland and the UK and became Minogue's tenth consecutive Upfront Club Chart number one. The song's music video, directed by Phil Griffin, features Minogue in a variety of high pressure situations. She has described it as "the hardest video I've ever done".
Background and reception
In 2005, Minogue began writing and recording material with longtime collaborator Terry Ronald and British dance group LMC. During one of their sessions, they penned "So Under Pressure", which was inspired by the cancer diagnoses of her sister Kylie as well as that of an unnamed friend. Minogue has described the recording of "So Under Pressure" as a "real achievement" as she was "brave enough to put all [her feelings] into words".[1]Allmusic reviewer John Lucas called the track one of "Minogue's more inventive moments".[2]
Chart performance
"So Under Pressure" was officially released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 12 June 2006. The song debuted on the UK Singles Chart on 19 June 2006 at number 20.[3] The following week, "So Under Pressure" fell to number sixty and exited the chart in its third week of release.[3] The track became Minogue's tenth consecutive Upfront Club Chart number one in the UK.[4] In Ireland, the song reached number 31, remaining on the singles chart for one week.[5] "So Under Pressure" proved popular in Irish dance clubs where it reached number six on the Dance Singles Chart.[6]
The track was released in Australia on 29 July 2006. It debuted on 8 August 2006 at number 16 and became Minogue's eighth top-20 single. The song remained on the ARIA Singles Chart for five weeks, exiting on 5 September 2006.[7] It was the 30th-highest-selling dance single in Australia for 2006.[8]
The music video was directed by Phil Griffin in mid-2006.[9] Minogue described the video:
"I tried to put different things in the video that made me feel under pressure and it really did! It was the hardest video I`ve ever done so I kept thinking, why on earth did I come up with this concept? People don’t realise but I definitely have that Australian tomboy side to me. I love snakes and sharks and jumping out of planes and stuff. Growing up it never occurred to me that it wasn’t a girly thing to ride a bike, covered in mud holding frogs and collecting lizards!".[1]
The music video's crew did not believe that Minogue could work with the python, but she said that it did not bother her at all.[1] The music video was released commercially on The Hits & Beyond special edition companion DVD, released in June 2006.
The video opens with a scene of Minogue in a white room dressed in a black swimsuit. She is then shown lying on top of a white platform with a python wrapped around her body. Scenes of Minogue and her three dancers walking a catwalk, posing for photographs and dancing are intercut throughout the music video. The video concludes with Minogue trapped inside a spinning perspex box.
^"Club Queen". DanniiMusic.com. 29 June 2006. Retrieved 23 November 2007. Archived 31 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine from the original on 10 July 2006.
