EDGE Interview: Dannii Minouge Returns to Host New Show – This Time it's for 'Girls Who Like Girls'

EDGE: Tell me about the fashions you get to show off. Are these from your closet? Or are you offered some selections to choose from?

Dannii Minogue: Thank you for mentioning it, because there are a lot of hours put into couture fittings. I am five foot two; nothing fits me off the rack, and I love nothing more than going and meeting my couture designer friends and just coming up with creations.

These were created especially for the show. Bringing the drama, bringing the action, bringing the color, we tried to kind of get the colors of the rainbow in there. And, for me, fashion is a big thing. I have a fashion brand, but choosing a particular outfit for a particular event or meeting somebody is what I get so much joy out of when it all comes together. That was the idea: That the fashion would be something fun to look at, as well as the beautiful scenery of Puglia and the beautiful masseria.

EDGE: Do you have a room in the masseria for yourself, or do you commute from somewhere else?

Dannii Minogue: I have both. I commute in, and then I have my glam room where I'm getting ready, because there's going to be no commuting in those big ball gowns. So, I arrive daytime me, and then do the "Voilà, woke up like this!" after two hours of glam.

[Laughter]

EDGE: After "I Kissed a Boys," was the prospect already there to have a show for the girls, or was the idea that there was going to be a second season for the boys, and that turned into "I Kissed a Girl" instead?

Dannii Minogue: I was thinking it would probably be another round revisiting the boys, so I was in such shock and delight that it was going to be the girls as the second series.

Years ago – I think it was 1998 – I did the first ever all-female show at Mardi Gras in Sydney. The Mardi Gras is so huge, it's been going for so many years, [but] when we were rehearsing, and all the girls were on stage with me, the Mardi Gras board were telling me, "This is so exciting. It's the first time the girls have had their own performance." That really shocked me. I presumed that would have happened by then. I had that in my muscle memory that, "Oh, probably the girls won't get a chance for ages," but the BBC commissioned it and made it happen.

EDGE: You're credited on the show with being the matchmaker. How does that work?

Dannii Minogue: I'm a bit like the fairy godmother who is coming to grant a wish. Essentially, these girls are saying, "I want to meet someone. I'm sick of swiping. I'm sick of bad dates. I really want to meet someone great." They know what they're looking for, so they'll describe intimately what experiences they've had – good, bad or minimal – and who they're looking for. Sometimes, especially at their age, you think you know who you're looking for, but sometimes a little bit of matchmaking doesn't go astray, especially if you're always attracted to the same kind of person and that doesn't work out.

They all have interviews before the casting is done, and we have a psychiatrist with us on set for all of the filming, and [the cast members] are all able to access them for a year after filming. I am very involved with the producers and the psychiatrists from when [a season is] commissioned. As soon as all of those interviews come in, I'm watching videos, I'm reading the bios, and I'm speaking to the psychiatrist. I'm part of that team, as opposed to just being a host and saying, "Here's my script, and this is what I'm reading."

EDGE: Have you been surprised by how well some of the matches have worked out – or not worked out?

Dannii Minogue: I think we've had a good amount of success. Sometimes their success is not with who we were matchmaking, but who they met from the show. There was a great little story with one of the girls who left the series. She was the quickest in and out; she just didn't find anyone there for her. A year later she was invited to a gorgeous party by these girls who have a fabulous British podcast called "The Lesbian Supper Club." Another lady at that party walks up to this girl and says, "I loved you on that show. You're only on there for a tiny bit, but I just loved you so much. I can't believe I'm getting to meet you at this party." And, bingo! Now they are a gorgeous couple.

EDGE: Did it feel like a different vibe with a group of lesbians and bisexual women, as opposed to what it would have been like if they'd been straight women?

Dannii Minogue: Oh yeah, for sure. When you're just around other females, there's some kind of secret club, there's a feeling of security. But for these women that were part of our show, it was incredible, because they got to meet other women that they wouldn't have from different parts of the community and different levels of experience. It's this incredible environment where they go in, and then three weeks later they leave with this incredible knowledge and a support system.

I think that's a little bit different than it would have been if it was just a bunch of straight girls on holiday. We leave as different people. I think that must have been incredibly special for [the cast].

"I Kissed a Girl" and "I Kissed a Boy" are both streaming on Hulu.

Watch the trailer here: