Dannii Minogue on I Kissed A Girl future and why allyship matters: ‘A joyous queer summer’

Gay icon Dannii Minogue is back on screens for I Kissed A Girl season two, with a group of queer girls looking for love in the masseria.

The series, which debuted on BBC iPlayer and BBC Three this week, sees 10 single girls head to Italy for a long, hot summer of romance, with sparks already flying.

Sadly, it was announced this year that the series has been axed, but, speaking to PinkNews, Minogue said it was important to celebrate the show, rather than focus on the sadness many are feeling since its cancellation.

“There have been so many emotions to go through since then,” she says. “The only thing I can do is try and shoot an arrow through all of those emotions that come up for all the people that I’m sad for, and just say, ‘What can I do?’

“What I can do now is focus on celebrating this incredible season, and everyone who worked on it, and the cast, and not let them get lost in the mix of conversation about that.

“We made the show to celebrate these people, to celebrate the community, to have something that was joyous and real and entertaining, and I feel like the more we focus on that conversation, the more it takes it away – but it has to be addressed as well.”

Dannii Minogue fighting to find new home for I Kissed A Girl

She adds: “There has to be something like this on TV. It’s important on many levels, and the thing that astounds me is the people that still ask why Pride is important, why is it important to raise this flag or have this day. The conversation blows my mind.”

Speaking of a potential future for the show, Minogue is hopeful that it will find a new home and “will fight so hard to find one”. However she applauded the BBC for giving it the green light to begin with, and “keeping it on track”, saying it is “the show that it was always written to be”.

“I’m like this little puppy at the front of the window, we’ve coiffed the hair, put a little bow in and said, ‘Someone take me home, look after me,'” she says, on her hope the series will be picked up elsewhere. “It’s something that needs a lot of love and a lot of care.”

Minogue says fans are “right” to feel sad about the show’s end. She says: “Everybody wants to feel seen, and there are people who are just discovering themselves, so may not feel like they are in the community yet but really need to explore these feelings coming up.

“There are a lot of families that are watching it to understand their family members, so I think they’ve got every right to be upset.”

Of course, at the time of filming, nobody knew that the cancellation was on the cards, so Minogue was thrilled to be back at the masseria. She says: “It’s a joy. It’s wonderful. When that’s your workplace, it’s something we look forward to.

“To make a show that is so special, so needed, and with such a great production team that make sure they take so much care. The cast had a magical time, but even the crew, when they leave, they’re like, ‘There’s nothing else like this.'”

As usual, this year’s series kicks off with two girls meeting for the first time with a kiss. They’re matched up behind-the-scenes based on what they’re looking for and their usual types – but it doesn’t always turn out right.

“It starts with the production people who are in the community, they’re across what is happening everywhere in that age group,” Minogue says.

Laughing, she adds: “For starters, I’m living in Australia, I’m 54 – this conversation should never start with me.”

The singer explains the casting crew look for “people that are not lunging for it, going ‘Pick me, pick me'”, saying: “It’s almost like we want the people who you just find, and they’ve never ever thought of going on a TV show. That kind of sets us apart, and that takes a lot of time and a lot of scrolling, going into the community and having conversations.”

She says: “We want to represent people around the country, the different kinds of people. And then we’ve also got to take into account what they’re looking for, so fem-for-fem or masc-for-masc, or whatever. It’s like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna put that in front of you, exactly what you said.'”

Once matches are made, Minogue gives them a look over, but in this year’s series she admits “Cupid’s bow is broken” as the initial pairings soon form new connections.

She says: “Sometimes what people set out looking for is not what floats their boat. You can see the electricity with Elise and Elisha from across the pool. The sparks are flying – and that’s not what they had written on paper who they were looking for.”

Sadly, some girls’ journeys in the masseria are cut short if they’re not picked by another girl during the dreaded kiss-off, but Minogue is on hand to make sure everyone is okay.

“I just can’t imagine what it would be like in their position,” she says, “and it’s not just the one going home, but the one who’s choosing between two girls, knowing she’s going to upset somebody.”

She adds: “Nobody wants to leave. It really is like this crazy, beautiful, queer summer, and nobody wants to go home.

“I try to remember being back their age on a summer holiday, how you feel when someone’s caught your eye and you’re like, ‘Oh no, I’m going home tomorrow!’ Emotions are so heightened at that age as well.”

Despite the sad goodbyes, the show – which has also had two series of I Kissed A Boy – has featured beautiful moments from the LGBTQ+ community. Something Minogue is most proud of is that it sparks conversations, with cast members often learning new things about the community and themselves from co-stars.

“If you’re on the outside looking in, you’d think they all know all of that, but I love asking the question,” she says. “It always tends to come back that there’s something new in there for people to get.”

‘I just want to do something to help’

Unfortunately, still in 2026, the LGBTQ+ community faces attacks from politicians and the general public, just for being who they are. Yet Minogue is one of a number of famous faces who have consistently come out to support us.

As well as hosting the I Kissed franchise, Minogue has performed at Pride events around the world, done charitable work with Just Like Us and the Terrence Higgins Trust, and all profits from her song “We Could Be The One”, which is also the show’s theme song, went to LGBT Switchboard.

She says: “When you zoom back and you’re looking down on planet Earth, I really think this is the last thing that should be an issue for most people. It just boggles my mind why it is. So it’s important that we would stand up.

“I’ve heard enough just from a few stories of how painful life is for somebody too scared to come out, not in an environment where they can do, where it’s not safe or they have come out and life is still not safe. I just want to do something to help.”

I Kissed A Girl is available on BBC iPlayer, with news episodes dropping Tuesdays, and also airing on BBC Three from 9pm.

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