Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue is a phenomenon of truly international proportions. To date she has released seven albums, five long-play videos, in addition to the Greatest Hits double album and video package, live album and video and 34 singles throughout the world, all of which have been hits. In June of 1991, after the release of her 13th hit single, entitled Shocked, the British industry "bible" Music Week magazine declared that Kylie was the ONLY act in the history of the British pop music to have their first 13 releases all go Top 10. Kylie now has 30 consecutive U.K. hits, none of which failed to peak in the Top 20, 20 in the Top 10!

Today Kylie is one of the world's most successful female music artists, but she wasn't always known as a singer. Kylie started her career at age eleven when asked to act in the national Australian T.V. drama series Skyways, this was followed by more Australian television roles in the popular drama The Sullivans and later The Henderson Kids. After her seventeenth birthday Kylie left school to take up acting as a full time profession. Her character "Charlene" in the Australian "soap" Neighbours is still today, arguably one of the most popular characters ever to come out of Australian television.

By the time Kylie was out of her teens she had won five Logies (the Australian equivalent of an Emmy) ; the youngest actress ever to do so. In 1987 she won the Silver Logie for "Most Popular Actress" and in 1988 she was the first artist ever to win 4 Logies on one night, including the Gold for "Most Popular Personality on Australian Television", and another Silver. In 1989 Kylie's first feature film The Delinquents was released around the world to rave reviews. Christmas of that year it became the top grossing movie in the U.K.!

"Kylie" is literally a household name throughout the world. To date she has received dozens of awards, Gold and Platinum discs and countless international hits; over a dozen throughout Japan, Europe and South-East Asia, several in Canada and South America, three top 40 hits and a Gold album in the U.S. Kylie's Greatest Hits (containing 22 hits) was released in 1992 debuting at #1 on the UK charts, going gold on release and accompanied by Kylie's Greatest Video Hits which reached #1 on the video charts! She has been the guest of Royalty in Britain and Europe, and the subject of several invitations for Royal Command Performances. Three sell-out world tours, the Lennon Memorial Concert in Liverpool in 1992 and most recently her critically acclaimed Intimate & Live Concert Tour resulting in 24 packed houses throughout Australia and 3 more in London which left U.K. fans clamouring for more.

On her move from PWL to the dance label Deconstruction, Kylie effectively made the difficult transition from "Pop Princess" to "Career Artist", a delicate move very few artists have been able to make successfully. September 1994 saw the release of her album simply entitled Kylie Minogue. Greeted with much critical acclaim the album debuted at no. 4 in the U.K. All three singles released from the album became worldwide hits. Kylie's third duet Where The Wild Roses Grow, a "murder ballad" penned by Nick Cave and recorded with Nick and his band The Bad Seeds was released internationally in 1995, becoming her 25th consecutive hit peaking at No. 2 in Australia and 11 in Britain.

In 1994 Kylie had a lead role in the $40 million dollar epic Streetfighter with Jean Claude Van Damme, and in 1995 she starred in a short film entitled Hayride To Hell shot in Australia for the European Film Festivals. In 1998 Kylie starred in an Australian independent film called Sample People; and alongside Molly Ringwald in Mushroom Pictures horror film Cut (both scheduled for release in early 2000). Earlier in 1999 she also found time to appear in a Caribbean production of Shakespeare's The Tempest for which she received rave reviews.

The 7th album Kylie Minogue (aka Impossible Princess) was released in March 1998. With all lyrics by Kylie Minogue, Impossible Princess, featuring collaborations with The Manic Street Preachers, Brothers In Rhythm and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid), became yet another No 1 for Miss Minogue (Australian Music Report). Recent collaborations include the successful cult underground dance track G.B.I. recorded with leading Japanese artist Towa Tei (of Dee-lite fame); a track called In Denial with the Pet Shop Boys for their album, a duet with Ben Lee on The Reflex for a Duran-Duran tribute album, and the famous duet with Robbie Williams, Kids which debuted at No. 2 in the UK charts!

October '99 saw Kylie release a collectible art book featuring contributions from many of the world's most respected artists, on the theme of "Kylie". Demand for the book was unprecedented with a second printing within the first month of release!

June 2000 saw the much anticipated release of "Spinning Around" the first single from Kylie's debut studio album for Parlophone Records. In true style she caused a sensation by debuting at Number 1 in both the UK and Australian charts. Spinning Around also gave Kylie the honour of being one of only two artists (the other being Madonna) to have a number one in the eighties, nineties and noughties! September 2000, Kylie released the follow up single, "On A Night Like This" repeating Spinning Around's success by debuting in the UK charts at #2 and Australian charts at #1. Kylie's most anticipated album yet, Light Years, was released at the same time to massive critical & commercial success debuting at #2 in the U.K. and reaching #1 in Australia (double platinum!)

Kylie performed to her biggest audience ever at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games! Kylie thrilled more than 4 billion viewers with her rendition of "Dancing Queen" and "On A Night Like This." Less than two weeks later she headlined the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Kylie ended a phenomenal year with the release of a fourth single from Light Years, "Please Stay" on December 11th, as well as a prestigious appearance at the Royal Variety Performance. The top 10 hit "Please Stay" was Kylie's 33rd hit single and her 20th UK Top Ten hit.

In January 2001 tickets went on sale for Kylie's first major tour in nine years. The "On A Night Like This" tour sold out immediately for shows in the UK, Europe and Australia, where the tour became the most successful arena tour by a female artist EVER. The tour was no less successful in the UK, where the capacity doubled to accommodate the huge number of ticket applications. The tour garnered rave reviews in the press, with the NME declaring that "the hits wheeled out tonight are pop at its most exciting" and the Guardian writing that the show was "utterly fabulous".

By now Light Years was platinum in the UK and 4x platinum in Australia, where readers voted her "Best Pop Artist" in Australian Rolling Stone. Back in the UK, Kylie was nominated for a prestigious Brit Award for Best International Female. She later took time out to attend the LA premiere of the film Moulin Rouge, in which she features. In May, British Vogue put Kylie on its cover, an event that made the evening news in Australia. Later, at Vogue's "It's Fashion" party, Kylie was seated on the top table, next to Prince Charles. Kylie has also been recently nominated for 4 ARIA Awards (Australian equivalent of the Brit Awards). On the way with her second Parlophone album, Kylie releases a brand new single "Can't Get You Out Of My Head."

Although she's only managed a few hits in the U.S. since her arrival as a singer in 1987, Kylie Minogue is both Australia's and Europe's biggest-selling female pop singer over that period and a pop culture icon in those areas. Her image on the cover of magazines is guaranteed to produce extra sales. But a singing career was never what Minogue had in mind for herself.

Minogue was born on May 28, 1968, in Melbourne. In 1979, she began her acting career in the Australian TV drama series Skyways, eventually gaining a starring role in a children's series, The Henderson Kids, before achieving national fame in the five-days-a-week soap opera Neighbours. Around the time Minogue joined, Neighbours also started airing in the U.K.

A major celebrity on the basis of her Neighbours popularity, Minogue had agreed to give a charity performance in the company of other personalities, choosing to sing Little Eva's "Loco-Motion." Someone hit on the idea of submitting a tape of the performance to local record company, Mushroom, who didn't think much of the demo but saw the potential in releasing a single by the extremely popular young TV star. In their wildest dreams no one imagined a national number one record with the recorded version of "Loco-Motion" (July 1987).

At that time, Mushroom Records had formed a business relationship with London hit factory Stock, Aitken & Waterman (Dead or Alive, Mel & Kim, Samantha Fox, Bananarama, Rick Astley), who also saw potential in working with the popular actress, but she wasn't a priority. In fact, when Minogue turned up at their London studios they had forgotten she was coming and quickly wrote her a song while she waited. The result, "I Should Be So Lucky," gave Minogue the second of her six Australian number one singles and the first of her five English number ones. Now she became a priority for Stock, Aitken & Waterman. As was their way, Stock, Aitken & Waterman wrote and produced her records and they controlled her video image. Their re-recorded "Loco-Motion" put Minogue in the Top Ten in the U.S. In Australia, the U.K., and Europe, Minogue was scoring hit after hit and quickly left Neighbours to meet the demand on her.

If she was ever just along for the ride, Minogue took her first step toward control over her career with her 1990 single "Better the Devil You Know," not letting Stock, Aitken & Waterman see the video she was making for the song until it was completed. SAW insisted on casting her in a girl-next-door mode, while Minogue opted for a saucier Madonna-like image. It ensured her continued success and reputation as a celebrity beyond the pop charts. With her fourth album, Let's Get to It (1991), the singer also insisted on lyrical input.

Kylie Minogue ended up leaving Stock, Aitken & Waterman and recorded two albums, Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess, with London dance label Deconstruction. A romantic relationship with INXS singer Michael Hutchence had encouraged her to experiment musically. While the backbone of both albums was the Brothers in Rhythm team, Minogue was keen to work with a variety of people. One unlikely collaboration saw a duet with Nick Cave, especially written by Cave for his Murder Ballads album. "Where the Wild Roses Grow" featured a nude Minogue floating dead in the water for its video.

While Impossible Princess represented another major career turning point in Australia -- Minogue's transition to a concert performer -- in Europe the album was not considered a success. In 2000, she was encouraged by the Pet Shop Boys to switch to their label, Parlophone, and she re-emerged as the pop princess of old with the critical hit Light Years. The single "Spinning Around" went number one in both England and Australia. Her reign in music continued in 2001. Minogue issued Fever in October on the heels of the successful single "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Such hype around the song allowed it to become an global smash, earning Minogue two Brit Awards in February 2002 for Best International Female and Best International Album for Fever. Shortly thereafter, Fever was released in the U.S. on Capitol, landing Minogue her biggest U.S. hit in nearly 15 years with "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Spots on MTV's TRL and Saturday Night Live proved her power. Body Language appeared in 2004; Minogue won a Grammy that same year for Best Dance Recording.

In March 2005, Minogue began Showgirl -- The Greatest Hits Tour in Glasgow, Scotland. Following 23 sold-out shows in the U.K. and 14 in Europe, she was forced to postpone her scheduled Australian dates due to a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer. Minogue returned to the stage in November 2006 after a 12-month treatment and recovery period, playing shows in Australia as well as seven more dates in the U.K. She spent 2007 working on a number of projects, including her tenth studio album (X). Boombox followed in January 2009.

Without anything approaching Madonna's musical strength, like Madonna Minogue ensured her survival with imaginative videos and by keeping fans guessing and intrigued with consistent changes of personal image. She also appeared in a number of movies over the years; 1999's Cut with Molly Ringwald was her eighth film appearance. ~ Ed Nimmervoll, All Music Guide