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"So Under Pressure"
Single by Dannii Minogue
from the album Club Disco and The Hits & Beyond
B-side	"Feel Like I Do"
Released	12 June 2006 (2006-06-12)
Recorded	2005
Studio	AATW
Genre	Dance-pop
Length	3:52
Label	All Around the World Universal Central Station
Songwriter(s)	Dannii Minogue Lee Monteverde Michael Ward Terry Ronald
Producer(s)	Lee Monteverde
Dannii Minogue singles chronology
"Perfection" (2005) "So Under Pressure" (2006) "I Can't Sleep at Night" (2007)
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"So Under Pressure" is a dance-pop song performed by Australian singer Dannii Minogue. The song was written by Minogue, Terry Ronald and LMC, and produced by Lee Monteverde for Minogue's fifth album Club Disco (2007) and was also used as the lead single for her greatest hits compilation The Hits & Beyond (2006). The song's lyrics discuss the cancer diagnoses of Minogue's sister Kylie and an unnamed friend.

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 into words". Allmusic reviewer John Lucas called the track one of "Minogue's more inventive moments".

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. The following week, "So Under Pressure" fell to number sixty and exited the chart in its third week of release. The track became Minogue's tenth consecutive Upfront Club Chart number one in the UK. In Ireland, the song reached number 31, remaining on the singles chart for one week. "So Under Pressure" proved popular in Irish dance clubs where it reached number six on the Dance Singles Chart.

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. It was the 30th-highest-selling dance single in Australia for 2006.

Music video

The music video was directed by Phil Griffin in mid-2006. 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!".

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. 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.

Formats and track listings

Personnel

The following people contributed to "So Under Pressure":

• Dannii Minogue – lead vocals
• Justine Riddock – backing vocals
• Lee Monteverde – keyboards
• Chris Martin – guitar
• Terry Ronald – backing vocals, additional vocal production
• Recorded and mixed at AATW Studios

Charts

References

1. ^ "Artist Profile: Dannii Minogue". All Around the World. 16 January 2007. Archived from the original on 10 August 2007. Retrieved 29 October 2008.
2. Lucas, John. "The Hits & Beyond Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
3. ^ "2006 Top 40 Official Singles Chart UK Archive". UK Singles Chart. Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
4. "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.
5. ^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Dannii Minogue". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
6. ^ "Top 10 Dance Singles, Week Ending 15 June 2006" . Chart-Track.co.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
7. ^ "Dannii Minogue – So Under Pressure". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
8. ^ "ARIA Charts – End of Year Charts – Top 50 Dance Singles 2006". ARIA. Archived from the original on 15 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
9. "Dannographii: So Under Pressure" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. DanniiMusic.com. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
10. The Hits & Beyond (CD Liner Notes). All Around the World. June 2006.
11. "Issue 857" ARIA Top 50 Dance Singles. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
12. Dannii Minogue — So Under Pressure. TopHit. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
13. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
14. "Dannii Minogue: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
15. "Official Dance Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company.

• 2006 singles
• 2006 songs
• Dannii Minogue songs
• Songs written by Dannii Minogue
• Songs written by Terry Ronald
• Central Station Records singles