Kylie Minogue and Prince’s long-lost collaboration leaks online

Posted On December 17, 2024December 17, 2024

Prince was an artist who adored collaboration. Over the course of his illustrious career, the songwriter worked with everyone from Tom Petty to Beyoncé. Now, a long-lost collaboration with iconic Australian vocalist Kylie Minogue has leaked online 32 years after it was initially created by the pair. 

Reportedly, the origins of the unreleased song, titled ‘Baby Doll, date back to June 1992. At the time, Prince had played his Diamonds and Pearls show at Earls Court, and Minogue met the songwriter backstage after the concert. During the course of this encounter, Prince invited Minogue to Paisley Park, his expansive estate in Minnesota, which included a recording studio. 

From there, the pair recorded a demo version of ‘Baby Doll’. Awash with Prince’s usual funk styling and pop potential, the track provides an interesting look at the prolific nature of both artists during that early 1990s period. For Minogue, it also cements her position as a talented songwriter, even given the fact that many of her earlier hits were written for her. Ultimately, though, ‘Baby Doll’ is clearly an unpolished demo that was never meant for public release.

According to Minogue, there were only two copies of the demo made – one for her and one for Prince. One of these cassette tapes was posted to Minogue, though she has often claimed she subsequently lost the tape. 

The singer has discussed her collaboration with Prince a number of times over the years, and the lyrics she has said were included in the song certainly line up with the song that has now been leaked. In 2018, she discussed the lyrics, “Let me be your baby doll, sugar and spice and all things nice/ Let me be your paradise,” which do appear in this resurfaced track. 

At this stage, the likelihood seems to be that the leak originated from Prince’s copy of the demo. After all, the demo was slated for widespread release in 2022 on an expansive Diamonds and Love compilation, though it was later cut from the final tracklisting. This would suggest that the songwriter’s estate has access to the song, and that access may have been exploited for this leak.

Copies of the song were originally posted online on December 15th, although many of these original uploads have since been taken down or removed due to copyright claims from Warner Music Group. However, the song was online for long enough that it has been extensively shared, downloaded, and reuploaded to a plethora of platforms.

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