   #copyright

Kylie Minogue

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Performers and composers


   This is a featured article. Click here for more information.
                    Kylie Minogue
   Kylie Minogue during her Showgirl tour, 2005.
   Kylie Minogue during her Showgirl tour, 2005.
                Background information
   Born          May 28, 1968 (age 38)
   Origin        Melbourne, Victoria,
                 Australia
   Genre(s)      Pop, dance, Europop
   Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, dancer, actress
   Years active  1987–present
   Label(s)      Mushroom (AUS, 1987–present)
                 PWL (UK, 1987–1992)
                 Deconstruction (UK, 1993–1998)
                 Parlophone (UK, 1999–present)
                 Geffen (U.S., 1988–1990)
                 Capitol (U.S., 2001–present)
   Website       Kylie.com

   Kylie Ann Minogue (born May 28, 1968) is a Grammy Award winning
   Australian singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Minogue rose to
   prominence in the late 1980s, as a result of her role in the Australian
   television soap opera Neighbours, before she commenced her career as a
   pop recording artist.

   Signed to a contract by British songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken
   & Waterman, she achieved a string of hit records throughout the world,
   but her popularity began to decline by the early 1990s, leading her to
   part company from Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992. For several years
   she attempted to establish herself as an independent performer and
   songwriter, distancing herself from her earlier work. Her projects were
   widely publicised, but her albums failed to attract a substantial
   audience and resulted in the lowest sales of her career.

   In 2000, Minogue returned to popularity as a dance– pop artist and
   became well-known for her provocative music videos and expensively
   mounted stage shows. She has established one of the longest and most
   successful careers as a performer in contemporary pop music, and in
   Europe and Australia, she has become one of her generation's most
   recognisable celebrities and sex symbols. In Australia, after being
   dismissed early in her career by some critics, she has been acclaimed
   for her achievements; she holds the record for the highest ticket sales
   for an Australian tour by a female performer, and has attained nine
   number-ones on the ARIA singles chart. She has been acknowledged as the
   highest selling female recording artist in Australia and Europe of the
   period from her debut in 1987 to the present.

Childhood and beginning

   Kylie Minogue was born in Melbourne, Australia, to an Australian
   father, Ron Minogue, and a Welsh-born mother, Carol Jones who had
   emigrated as a child from Maesteg, Wales in 1955 to Townsville,
   Queensland. Kylie is the eldest of three children; her sister Dannii
   Minogue (born Danielle Jane Minogue) is also a pop singer, and her
   brother, Brendan, works as a news cameraman in Australia. The Minogue
   sisters began their careers as children on Australian television, and
   from the age of 11, Kylie Minogue appeared in soap operas such as
   Skyways, The Sullivans and The Henderson Kids. Dannii Minogue became
   successful as a regular performer on the weekly music programme Young
   Talent Time, in which Kylie gave her first singing performance in 1983.
   Kylie was overshadowed by her younger sister until achieving success in
   1986 with her role in the soap opera Neighbours.

   Minogue played the character of Charlene Mitchell; a story arc that
   created a romance between her character and that played by her then
   real-life boyfriend Jason Donovan culminated in a wedding episode in
   1987 that attracted a large audience. Her popularity in Australia was
   demonstrated when she became the first person to win four Logie Awards
   in one event, including the "Gold Logie" as the country's "Most Popular
   Television Performer", with the result determined by public vote.
   Neighbours began screening in the United Kingdom in 1986, and it
   achieved high ratings.

Recording and performing career

Stock, Aitken and Waterman: 1987 – 1992

   During a Fitzroy Football Club benefit concert with other Neighbours
   cast members, Minogue performed Little Eva's " The Loco-Motion" and was
   signed to a recording contract with Mushroom Records in 1987. Released
   as a single, and retitled " Locomotion", the Australian recording spent
   seven weeks at number one on the Australian music charts, and was the
   year's highest selling single. Its success resulted in Minogue
   traveling to London with Mushroom Records executive Gary Ashley to work
   with Stock, Aitken & Waterman. They knew little of Minogue and had
   forgotten that she was arriving; as a result, they wrote " I Should Be
   So Lucky" while she waited outside the studio. Her debut album Kylie, a
   collection of dance songs, reached number one on the British albums
   chart and became the year's highest-selling album. It sold over seven
   million copies worldwide, with most sales occurring in Europe and Asia,
   and it contained six successful singles, which includes the largest
   success "I Should Be So Lucky". It was only in the United States and
   Canada where the album did not sell strongly; however, the re-recorded
   version of "The Loco-Motion" reached number three on the U.S. Billboard
   Hot 100 chart and number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. " It's No
   Secret", released only in the U.S., performed poorly and peaked at
   number thirty-seven in early 1989. In late 1988 Minogue departed from
   Neighbours in order to concentrate fully on her music career.

   A duet with Jason Donovan, titled " Especially for You" was a major
   success in the United Kingdom in early 1989. The critic Kevin Killian
   wrote that it was "majestically awful... makes the Diana Ross, Lionel
   Richie " Endless Love" sound like Mahler". She was sometimes referred
   to as "The Singing Budgie" by her detractors over the coming years.
   Chris True's comment about the album Kylie for All Music Guide suggests
   that Minogue's appeal transcended the limitations of her music, by
   noting that "her cuteness makes these rather vapid tracks bearable".

   Her follow up album Enjoy Yourself (1989) was a success in the United
   Kingdom, Europe and Australia, and contained several successful
   singles, but it failed throughout North America, and Minogue was
   dropped by her American record label Geffen Records. She embarked on
   her first concert run, the Enjoy Yourself Tour, in the United Kingdom,
   France, Belgium and Australia, where Melbourne's The Herald Sun wrote
   that it was "time to ditch the snobbery and face facts—the kid's a
   star". Minogue had become Stock, Aitken and Waterman's highest selling
   act, so in the face of widespread comment that the second album was a
   poor imitation of the first, it was decided to adjust the overall style
   of her music.

   Rhythm of Love (1990) presented a more sophisticated and adult style of
   dance music and also marked the first signs of rebellion against her
   production team and the "girl-next-door" image. Determined to be
   accepted by a more mature audience, Minogue took control of her music
   videos, starting with " Better the Devil You Know", and presented
   herself as a sexually aware adult. A relationship with INXS lead singer
   Michael Hutchence furthered her attempts to gain acceptance as a mature
   performer, with Hutchence saying his favourite hobby was "corrupting
   Kylie", and writing the INXS hit song "Suicide Blonde" in reference to
   her.

   The singles from Rhythm of Love sold well in Europe and Australia and
   were popular in British nightclubs where Minogue started to be regarded
   as fashionable by the older audience she had targeted. When "Shocked"
   reached the British Top 10 in 1991, she became the first recording
   artist to place their first 13 single releases in the Top 10. Dispite
   the album seeing no Stateside release, " Shocked" became popular enough
   with club DJ's that it still is on some dance music radio station music
   databases. In May 1990, Minogue performed her band's arrangement of The
   Beatles's " Help!" before a crowd of 25,000 at the John Lennon: The
   Tribute Concert on the banks of the River Mersey in Liverpool. Yoko Ono
   and Sean Lennon offered Minogue their thanks for her support of "The
   John Lennon Fund", while the media commented positively on her
   performance. The Sun wrote "The soap star wows the Scousers - Kylie
   Minogue deserved her applause". Minogue's contract had been for three
   albums, but she was persuaded to record a fourth. Let's Get to It
   (1991) was designed to broaden her appeal by presenting a diverse range
   of ballads and slower dance songs, but despite generally positive
   reviews it failed to make the British Top 10, although the Let's Get to
   It Tour in late 1991 sold out in Britain.

   By this time Minogue had fulfilled the requirements of her contract and
   elected not to renew it. She had often expressed the viewpoint that she
   was stifled by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and later compared the
   experience to her time with Neighbours, saying all they wanted her to
   do was "learn your lines... perform your lines, no time for questions,
   promote the product". Realising that her fans were growing apathetic
   towards the Stock, Aitken and Waterman formula, and that she could only
   develop as an artist if she broke away from them, she decided to leave.
   She agreed to record three new songs to be included on the Greatest
   Hits album, which was released to coincide with her departure from them
   in 1992. The album reached number one in the United Kingdom. The new
   singles ("What Kind Of Fool" and "Celebration") were top 20 hits.

Deconstruction: 1993 – 1998

   Minogue's subsequent signing with Deconstruction Records was highly
   touted in the music media as the beginning of a new phase in her
   career, but the self-titled Kylie Minogue (1994) received mixed
   reviews. It sold 500,000 units worldwide, and the single " Confide in
   Me" spent five weeks at number one in Australia. Subsequent singles, "
   Put Yourself in My Place" and " Where Is the Feeling?" were top twenty
   hits in the UK.

   Australian artist Nick Cave had been interested in working with Minogue
   since hearing "Better the Devil You Know", saying it contained "one of
   pop music's most violent and distressing lyrics" and "when Kylie
   Minogue sings these words, there is an innocence to her that makes the
   horror of this chilling lyric all the more compelling". " Where the
   Wild Roses Grow" (1995), was a brooding ballad whose lyrics narrated a
   murder from the points of view of both the murderer (Cave), and his
   victim (Minogue), and its success demonstrated that Minogue could be
   accepted outside of her established genre as a dance artist. It
   received widespread attention in Europe, where it reached the top 10 in
   several countries, and acclaim in Australia where it reached number
   two, and won ARIA Awards for "Song of the Year" and "Best Pop Release".
   She performed it with Cave at the Australian summer rock festival, "
   The Big Day Out" before a crowd of alternative music fans, and was well
   received. She also appeared with Cave during several of his concerts in
   small venues throughout Europe, as well as the T in the Park festival
   in Scotland which gave her more experience performing outside of the
   dance/pop genre and before audiences that were not necessarily her
   fans. She recited the lyrics to "I Should Be So Lucky" as poetry in
   London's Royal Albert Hall "Poetry Jam", at the suggestion of Cave, and
   later credited him with giving her the confidence to express herself
   artistically, saying: "He taught me to never veer too far from who I
   am, but to go further, try different things, and never lose sight of
   myself at the core. For me, the hard part was unleashing the core of
   myself and being totally truthful in my music".

   By 1997 Minogue was in a relationship with the French photographer
   Stephane Sednaoui, who described her as a combination " geisha and
   manga superheroine". He began taking photographs of her that downplayed
   her glamour, with the aim of attracting a more 'rocky' and discerning
   audience, and she drew inspiration from artists such as Shirley Manson
   and Garbage, Björk, Tricky and U2, and Japanese pop musicians such as
   Pizzicato Five and Towa Tei (with whom she would later collaborate on
   the singles "GBI: German Bold Italic" and " Sometime Samurai").

   Impossible Princess (named after a poetry collection by artist Billy
   Childish) featured collaborations with musicians such as James Dean
   Bradfield and Sean Moore of the Manic Street Preachers, and Minogue
   contributed the majority of the lyrics. Largely a dance album, its
   style was not represented by its first single " Some Kind of Bliss",
   and Minogue countered questions that she was trying to become an indie
   artist. She told Music Week, "I have to keep telling people that this
   isn't an indie-guitar album. I'm not about to pick up a guitar and
   rock." Billboard magazine described the album as "stunning" and
   concluded that "it's a golden commercial opportunity for a major
   [record company] with vision and energy [to release it in the United
   States]. A sharp ear will detect a kinship between Impossible Princess
   and Madonna's hugely successful album, Ray of Light". In the UK, Music
   Week gave a negative assessment, "Kylie's vocals take on a stroppy edge
   ... but not strong enough to do much".

   It became the lowest-selling album of her career in the UK, but was her
   highest-selling album in Australia since her debut album, with sales
   boosted by a highly successful live tour. In reviewing her show, The
   Times wrote of her ability to "mask her thin, often nondescript voice
   with musical diversity and brittle charisma and genuinely great pop
   songs by any standard", and a live album recorded during her tour,
   titled Intimate and Live, was successful in Australia. Kylie later
   confessed that she was a bit disappointed with her mediocre reception
   of this album in the UK and elsewhere. After all, Kylie herself claimed
   "Impossible Princess" is her favorite of her own works.

   She maintained her high profile in Australia with live performances,
   including the 1998 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the opening of
   Fox Studios in Sydney in 1999, where she performed Marilyn Monroe's "
   Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", and a Christmas concert in Dili,
   East Timor in association with the United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces.

Parlophone: 1999 – present

   Minogue and Deconstruction Records parted company and following a duet
   with the Pet Shop Boys' on their Nightlife album, she signed with
   Parlophone in April 1999. Her album Light Years (2000) was strongly
   influenced by 1970s disco artists, such as Donna Summer and Village
   People (see 1970s in music), and included several songs written by Guy
   Chambers and Robbie Williams who imbued their lyrics with humour. New
   Musical Express wrote: "Kylie's capacity for reinvention is staggering"
   and summarised the album as "sheer joy" and "what she does best". It
   generated career-best reviews for Minogue and quickly became a success
   throughout Asia, Australia and Europe and sold over two million copies
   worldwide. The single " Spinning Around" became her first UK number-one
   in ten years, and its accompanying video, which featured Minogue in
   revealing gold hot pants, received widespread television airplay. The
   subsequent single releases, which includes the duet " Kids" with Robbie
   Williams, sold strongly too. She joined Madonna as the second artist to
   achieve UK number-one singles in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

   In 2000 Minogue performed a cover version of ABBA's " Dancing Queen"
   and her single " On a Night like This" at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
   closing ceremony, an event watched by an estimated 3.7 billion people
   in 220 countries. Afterwards, she embarked upon a concert tour, On A
   Night like This Tour, which played to sell-out crowds in Australia and
   the United Kingdom, where she sold over 200,000 tickets and set an
   Australian record for a female artist. Her six planned Melbourne shows
   were increased to twenty-two due to public demand. Minogue was inspired
   by the style of Broadway shows such as 42nd Street and films such as
   Anchors Aweigh, South Pacific and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
   musicals of the 1930s. Describing Bette Midler as a "heroine", she also
   incorporated some of the "camp and burlesque" elements of Midler's live
   performances. The show directed and choreographed by Luca Tommassini
   featured elaborate sets such as the deck of an ocean liner, an Art Deco
   New York City skyline, and the interior of a space ship, and Minogue
   was praised for her new material and her reinterpretations of some of
   her greatest successes, turning " I Should Be So Lucky" into a torch
   song and " Better the Devil You Know" into a 1940s big band number. She
   won a "Mo Award" for Australian live entertainment as "Performer of the
   Year". Following the tour she was asked by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer
   journalist what she thought was her greatest strength, and replied,
   "That I am an all-rounder. If I was to choose any one element of what I
   do, I don't know if I would excel at any one of them. But put all of
   them together, and I know what I'm doing."

   In 2001 Parlophone released Fever, which retained some disco elements
   and combined them with 1980s electropop. Its lead single " Can't Get
   You out of My Head" became the biggest success of her career and
   reached number one in over forty countries, and sold more than six
   million copies worldwide. The album's success was equally widespread,
   and following extensive airplay by North American radio, Capitol
   Records released it in the United States in 2002. It attracted
   favourable comment, with Rolling Stone calling it "campy as a tent full
   of Boy Scouts and yet easy on the cheese", while Popmatters described
   it as "a perfect album of gorgeous dance music". Minogue attracted some
   negative commentary, such as from Launch's Bob Gulla, who wrote:
   "she'll do virtually anything to get our attention. Not since Pia
   Zadora have we seen a more vacant talent grab... an astoundingly bland
   helping of hollow dance pop grooves and nauseating pleas for sex...
   it's so desperately lightweight it's in imminent danger of
   disintegrating altogether". The album debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200
   albums chart at number three, and the single reached number seven on
   the Hot 100. Fever peaked at number ten on the Canadian albums chart
   and the single reached the BDS airplay top three. Following singles "
   In Your Eyes", " Love at First Sight" and " Come into My World" were
   substantial successes throughout the world, and Minogue established a
   presence in the mainstream North American market, achieving particular
   success on the club scene. In 2003 she received a Grammy Award
   nomination for "Best Dance Recording" for "Love at First Sight", and
   the following year won the same award for "Come into My World".

   Minogue's former stylist and creative director William Baker explained
   that the music videos for the Fever album were inspired by science
   fiction films—specifically those by Stanley Kubrick—and accentuated the
   electropop elements of the music by using dancers in the style of
   Kraftwerk. Alan MacDonald, the designer of the 2002 Fever tour, brought
   those elements into the stage show which was based around a framework
   of seven iconic female images, drawing from Minogue's past
   incarnations. The show opened with Minogue as a space age vamp, which
   she described as "Queen of Metropolis with her drones", through to
   scenes inspired by Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, followed by the
   various personas of Minogue's career. Minogue said that she was finally
   able to express herself the way she wanted, and that she had always
   been "a showgirl at heart".

   Her next album, Body Language (2003), was released following an
   invitation-only concert, titled Money Can't Buy, at the Hammersmith
   Apollo in London. The event marked the presentation of a new visual
   style, designed by Minogue and Baker, inspired in part by 1960s icon
   Brigitte Bardot, about whom Minogue commented: "I just tended to think
   of BB as, well, she's a sexpot, isn't she? She's one of the greatest
   pinups. But she was fairly radical in her own way at that time. And we
   chose to reference the period, which was... a perfect blend of coquette
   and rock and roll."

   The show attracted mixed reviews, with the main criticisms being that
   nothing substantially new was presented, and that the new songs did not
   match the appeal of her previous hits. Despite this, the concert was
   made into a successful television special that drew high ratings.

   The album downplayed the disco style and Minogue said she was inspired
   by 1980s artists such as Scritti Politti, Human League, Adam and the
   Ants and Prince, blending their styles with elements of hip hop. It
   received some of the most positive reviews of her career with Billboard
   Magazine writing of "Minogue's knack for picking great songs and
   producers". All Music described it as "a near perfect pop record...
   Body Language is what happens when a dance-pop diva takes the high road
   and focuses on what's important instead of trying to shock herself into
   continued relevance" Sales in the United Kingdom and Australia were
   good but paled in comparison to "Fever", despite the large success of
   its first single, " Slow" and in the United States the album made
   little impression, although the singles became major club hits. In
   November 2004, "Slow" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category
   of "Best Dance Recording".

   Minogue released her second official greatest hits album in November
   2004, entitled Ultimate Kylie, along with her music videos on a DVD
   compilation of the same title. The album introduced her singles " I
   Believe in You", co-written with Jake Shears and Babydaddy from the
   Scissor Sisters, and " Giving You Up". Both songs reached the British
   top ten, and with a tally of twenty-nine top ten singles, Minogue
   became the second most successful woman on the British singles charts,
   behind Madonna. " I Believe In You" reached the U.S. Hot Dance Club
   Play top three and attained dance and rhythmic radio airplay
   nationwide. Minogue was nominated for a Grammy Award for the fourth
   consecutive year when "I Believe in You" was nominated in the category
   of "Best Dance Recording".

   In April 2005, Minogue and her creative director William Baker ended
   their professional relationship, with Minogue commenting that it had
   been timed to coincide with the release of the Ultimate Kylie album and
   the launch of the Showgirl - The Greatest Hits Tour. The tour was
   intended to be the most extensive of her career, and anticipated a
   total audience of more than 700,000. Minogue completed the European
   stage of the tour, and was in Melbourne when she was diagnosed with
   breast cancer, leading to the postponement of the remainder of the
   tour.

   In December 2005, following successful treatment for her illness,
   Minogue released a digital-only single, " Over the Rainbow", a live
   recording from her Showgirl tour. During the early months of 2006,
   media began reporting Minogue's upcoming projects and the general
   improvement in her health. In June 2006, she was reported to be
   recording material for a new album, collaborating with The Scissor
   Sisters, Steve Anderson, Richard Stannard, Johnny Douglas, Ash Thomas
   and Teddy Riley while also making preparations to continue her newly
   renamed Showgirl Homecoming tour. She gave her first public interview
   since her diagnosis with breast cancer on the British satellite channel
   Sky One, July 16, 2006.

   Her children's book, The Showgirl Princess was published in October
   2006, and perfume "Darling" was launched in November 2006. On her
   return to Australia for her concert tour, she likened her cancer battle
   and chemotherapy to experiencing a nuclear bomb, and said that she is
   determined to resume her career.

Film career

   In 1989, Minogue starred in The Delinquents, which told the story of a
   young girl growing up in Australia during the late 1950s. Its release
   coincided with her popularity in Neighbours, and while both the film
   and Minogue's performance received poor reviews, it was a commercial
   success. She appeared as Cammy in the action film Street Fighter
   (1994), based on the fighting game series of the same name. The film
   received poor reviews by critics, with The Washington Post's Richard
   Harrington calling her "the worst actress in the English-speaking
   world." Subsequent films such as Bio-Dome (1996), Sample People and Cut
   (both 2000) failed to attract an audience.

   Australian film director Baz Luhrmann, cast Minogue in Moulin Rouge!
   (2001) where she played the part of Absinthe, the Green Fairy, singing
   a line from The Sound of Music. In 2002, Minogue provided the voice of
   a young girl named Florence in the animated film The Magic Roundabout,
   released in 2006. Minogue also sang the title song in the movie and was
   one of the two starring actors not replaced when the film was released
   in the US.

Filmography

   Year Title                Role                  Other notes
   2006 The Magic Roundabout Florence
   2001 Moulin Rouge!        The Green Fairy
   2000 Sample People        Jess
        Cut                  Hilary Jacobs
   1996 Bio-Dome             Doctor Petra von Kant
        Misfit
   1995 Hayride to Hell      The Girl
   1994 Street Fighter       Cammy
   1989 The Delinquents      Lola Lovell

Image and celebrity status

   Throughout her professional life, Minogue has been the subject of
   intense media interest in both the United Kingdom and Australia, which
   remained constant even while her success as a recording artist had
   temporarily fluctuated. Her efforts to be taken seriously as a musician
   have sometimes been hindered by her high profile as noted by The
   Australian, who wrote in 1997, "When you have to lug around an image
   the size of Kylie's, it's difficult for any music you produce to match
   the hype—especially in a country that gives scant credibility to pop".
   Her relationships, including her current relationship with French actor
   Olivier Martinez, have been extensively reported as well.

   Minogue is regarded as a gay icon, which she encourages with comments
   such as "I am not a traditional gay icon. There's been no tragedy in my
   life, only tragic outfits." While part of her appeal lies in her
   flamboyant costumes and her confident sexual posturing, she
   acknowledges the gay community throughout the world by performing at
   gay venues and events, and by openly supporting AIDS and gay rights
   causes. She has said that she believes gay fans responded to her
   apparent distress when the news media began heavily criticising her in
   1989, and that those fans have remained loyal, explaining, "My gay
   audience has been with me from the beginning... they kind of adopted
   me".

   After playing the " girl next door" in her early videos, Minogue began
   to touch on adult themes: a mature relationship in "Better the Devil
   You Know", lesbian posturing and drag queens in "What Do I Have To Do",
   telephone sex in "Confide in Me", and prostitution in "On a Night like
   This". She performed a slow strip tease in the Barbarella-inspired "Put
   Yourself in My Place" and wore revealing costumes in many of her
   videos, most notably "Spinning Around" and "Can't Get You out of My
   Head". She satirised her image in the video for "Did It Again", in
   which the four major incarnations of her career, "Indie Kylie", "Dance
   Kylie", "Sex Kylie", and "Cute Kylie" battled for supremacy. Her
   evolving image and often overt sexuality led some critical comparisons
   to Madonna. Minogue has admitted her admiration for Madonna and has
   cited her as a significant influence. Minogue's status has led to her
   being referenced in several pop songs including The KLF's "Kylie Said
   to Jason" (1989), BMX Bandits' "Kylie's Got A Crush On Us" (1993), The
   Pretenders' "Popstar" (1999), and The Androids' "Do It With Madonna"
   (2003).

   In 1993 Baz Luhrmann introduced Minogue to the photographer Bert Stern,
   notable for his work with Marilyn Monroe. Stern photographed her in Los
   Angeles and, comparing her to Monroe, commented that she had a "similar
   vulnerability and awareness of the camera". She has gained credibility
   by her association with people such as fashion designer Jean Paul
   Gaultier, photographer Stephane Sednaoui, and designer John Galliano,
   who described her as a "blend of Lolita and Barbarella".

   During her career she has chosen photographers who attempt to create a
   new "look" for her, and the resulting photographs have appeared in a
   variety of magazines, from the cutting edge The Face to the more
   traditionally sophisticated Vogue and Vanity Fair, making the Minogue
   face and name known to a broad group of people. Stylist William Baker
   has suggested that this is part of the reason she has entered in the
   mainstream pop culture of Europe more successfully than many other pop
   singers who concentrate simply on selling records. She has appeared in
   guest roles in television series such as The Vicar of Dibley and Men
   Behaving Badly in the UK, and Kath & Kim in Australia, which
   capitalised on her celebrity status and image for comedic effect. In
   the latter she played a Melbourne teenager on her wedding day,
   referencing her role as Charlene in Neighbours.

   Despite her commercial success, and her acceptance by a large audience
   as a contemporary sex symbol, her critics describe her willingness to
   display her body as an attempt to disguise a lack of talent. Her
   detractors, such as those discussed in the book La La La, have
   described her as a "one dimensional performer" and "pretty, but
   mindless and talentless". Miki Berenyi of the group Lush said "I have a
   massive problem with her because she epitomises the acceptable role ...
   it's a shame she gets so much credibility when there are so many women
   worth a hundred times that. It's war—you shouldn't stick up for Kylie,
   she should be fought at every turn". Minogue continues to attract
   discussion, and in Paul Morley's study of the evolution of pop music,
   Words And Music: A History Of Pop In The Shape Of A City, Minogue is
   the vehicle by which pop is explored.

   Minogue has often spoken of the stability of the team she works with.
   Her parents, Ron and Carol Minogue, are actively involved in her
   career; her father, an accountant, is her financial advisor and her
   mother has joined her on each of her tours. She has been managed by
   Terry Blamey since 1987 and the close network, along with her Stock,
   Aitken and Waterman origins, have led to comments that she is
   "manufactured", an assessment which Minogue has admitted is partly
   accurate, saying, "if you're part of a record company, I think to a
   degree it's fair to say that you're a manufactured product. You're a
   product and you're selling a product. It doesn't mean that you're not
   talented and that you don't make creative and business decisions about
   what you will and won't do and where you want to go... Ultimately, yes,
   it's my name and I have to deliver the goods. But it doesn't happen
   without a team. So I try and work with the best people I can and take
   from them what I can. Hopefully I enhance what they do as well" William
   Baker has described her status as a sex symbol as a "double edged
   sword" observing that "we always attempted to use her sex appeal as an
   enhancement of her music and to sell a record. But now it has become in
   danger of eclipsing what she actually is: a pop singer".

   Minogue has suggested that although her career will inevitably change
   direction, she expects to continue as a singer, and move away from the
   "sex-pot" persona she has created. In 2003 she received positive
   reviews for some low key performances in Paris nightclubs where she
   performed jazz standards, and she indicated she may take her career in
   this direction. Rather than identify herself as a particular type of
   singer, she has assessed herself with the comment, "now more than ever,
   I consider myself a performer... on stage is where I have given and
   received so much energy and enthusiasm".

Breast cancer

   The Sydney Dome following the announcement of the postponement of
   Minogue's tour.
   Enlarge
   The Sydney Dome following the announcement of the postponement of
   Minogue's tour.

   On 17 May 2005, it was reported that Minogue had been diagnosed with
   early-stage breast cancer and would receive medical treatment in
   Melbourne. The remainder of her Showgirl, The Greatest Hits world tour
   was postponed and she withdrew from participating at the Glastonbury
   Festival.

   The announcement of Minogue's cancer diagnosis resulted in a brief but
   intense period of media coverage, particularly in Australia, where the
   Prime Minister John Howard issued a statement supporting Minogue. As
   media and fans began to congregate outside the Minogue residence in
   Melbourne, the Victorian Premier Steve Bracks warned the international
   media that any disruption of the Minogue family's rights under
   Australian privacy laws would not be tolerated. His comments became
   part of a wider criticism of the media's overall reaction, with
   particular criticism directed towards paparazzi.

   Minogue underwent surgery on 21 May 2005 at the private Catholic
   Cabrini Hospital in Malvern. . Friends such as Olivia Newton-John,
   herself a survivor of breast cancer, urged the media and fans to
   respect Minogue's privacy. Soon after surgery, she commenced
   chemotherapy as part of her treatment regimen.

   Minogue issued a public statement, thanking her fans for their support
   and urging them not to worry. On July 8, 2005, she made her first
   public appearance after her surgery, when she visited a children's
   cancer ward at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital. She returned to
   France where she completed her chemotherapy treatment at the Institut
   Gustave-Roussy in Villejuif, near Paris.

   In November 2005 Minogue's tour management in Australia announced that
   she will continue her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour in late 2006. It
   was announced on Kylie.com in June 2006 that the first of these
   performances would be at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on November
   11, 2006. Minogue explained there would have to be some changes made to
   the format of the show and that getting back onstage would be a very
   emotional moment for her.

   It was reported in The Times Online in January 2006 that Minogue had
   completed her chemotherapy treatment. Her publicists were unwilling to
   speculate on its apparent success, as Minogue required a further six
   weeks of radiotherapy to try and help prevent a recurrence of tumours.

   During the course of her treatment, Kylie wrote a children's book
   entitled The Showgirl Princess, about a girl's rise to stage fame.

Return to stage

   On Saturday November 11th, Kylie resumed the sellout Showgirl Tour; her
   opening words, as she rose from below the stage on a platform dressed
   in a pink feathered head-dress and flowing gown by John Galliano, were
   "Good evening Sydney!". For 30 seconds in between her ascension and the
   beginning of the first song, Better The Devil You Know, Kylie absorbed
   an explosive standing ovation from a tearful audience. The emotional
   comeback performance was watched by her parents and boyfriend Olivier
   Martinez at the side of the stage, and 10,000 fans. Despite being in
   recovery from her breast cancer ordeal, it was Kylie who asked the all
   important question of the night, "How're you feeling tonight?"

   Throughout the weekend of November 11th and 12th, newspapers worldwide
   carried photographs from "Kylie's Comeback". The second evening's
   performance saw Kylie duet with U2 frontman Bono, singing "Kids", the
   song she made famous with Robbie Williams. However, Kylie had to cancel
   an apparently scheduled performance at a U2 concert on 13th November
   because of exhaustion. According to a source in British tabloid
   newspaper The Sun, "Kylie called Bono to explain that she had worn
   herself out. She is really feeling the physical effects of her return
   to the stage. He told her to spend Monday resting, get her energy
   levels fully restored and relax."

   After Australia, Kylie will return to Britain to play dates in Wembley
   Arena (January 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9, 2007) which sold out in six
   minutes according to organisers and British press, and then further UK
   dates in MEN Arena in Manchester (on January 12, 13, 15, 18, and 19),
   which also sold out in record time.

Discography

Studio albums

          The following list includes all Kylie Minogue albums with the
          exception of compilations, live and remix albums. For a complete
          album list, see Kylie Minogue discography.

     * 1988: Kylie
     * 1989: Enjoy Yourself
     * 1990: Rhythm of Love
     * 1991: Let's Get to It
     * 1994: Kylie Minogue
     * 1997: Impossible Princess
     * 2000: Light Years
     * 2001: Fever
     * 2003: Body Language

Number-one singles

          The following singles reached number one in the United Kingdom
          and/or Australia and/or Europe. Their peak positions are shown,
          along with the peak positions for Canada and the United States.
          For a full singles discography, see Kylie Minogue discography.

   Year             Single                Peak positions
                                        UK AUS CAN U.S. EUR
   1987 " The Loco-Motion"              2   1   1   3    1
   1987 " I Should Be So Lucky"         1   1  25   28   1
   1988 " Got to Be Certain"            2   1   —   —    3
   1988 " Especially for You"
        (with Jason Donovan)            1   2   —   —    1
   1989 " Hand on Your Heart"           1   4   —   —    3
   1990 " Tears on My Pillow"           1  20  35   —    2
   1994 " Confide in Me"                2   1   —   —    9
   2000 " Spinning Around"              1   1   —   —    7
   2000 " On a Night like This"         2   1   —   —   10
   2001 " Can't Get You out of My Head" 1   1  55   7    1
   2002 " In Your Eyes"                 3   1  11   —    2
   2002 " Love at First Sight"          2   2   5   23   1
   2003 " Slow"                         1   1   6   91   1
   2004 " I Believe in You"             2   6   —   —    1
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylie_Minogue"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
