Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE, (born 28 May 1968), is an Australian pop singer-songwriter and occasional actress. She rose to prominence in the late 1980s through her role in the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a recording artist in 1987. Raised in Surrey Hills, a Melbourne suburb, the Minogue sisters began their careers as children on Australian television, and from the age of twelve, Kylie appeared in small roles in soap operas such as The Sullivans and Skyways, before being cast in one of the lead roles in The Henderson Kids. She gave her first singing performance in 1983, on the weekly music programme Young Talent Time which featured Dannii as a regular performer. Dannii's success in this program overshadowed Kylie's acting achievements, until Kylie was cast in the soap opera Neighbours in 1986.
During a Fitzroy Football Club benefit concert with other Neighbours cast members, Minogue performed "The Loco-Motion" and was signed to a recording contract with Mushroom Records in 1987. Released as a single, the Australian recording spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian music charts, and was the highest-selling single in Australia for the 1980s. 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. The song reached number one in the UK and Australia and was a hit in many parts of the world. Her debut album Kylie, a collection of dance-oriented pop tunes spent more than a year on the British album charts, including several weeks at #1. It sold over seven million copies worldwide, with most sales occurring in Europe and Asia, and it contained six successful singles. In the United States and Canada, the album did not sell strongly, however the re-recorded and correctly titled version of "The Loco-Motion" reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number one on the Canadian Singles Chart.
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.
"It's No Secret", released only in the U.S., peaked at number thirty-seven in early 1989, and "Turn It Into Love" was released as a single in Japan, where it reached number one. In late 1988 Minogue left Neighbours to concentrate fully on her music career. Jason Donovan commented "When viewers watched her on screen they no longer saw Charlene the local mechanic, they saw Kylie the pop star." A duet with Donovan, titled "Especially for You", sold over one million copies in the UK in early 1989.
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 eponymous Kylie Minogue (1994) received mixed reviews. It sold well in Europe and Australia, where the single "Confide in Me" spent five weeks at number one. Subsequent singles, "Put Yourself in My Place" and "Where Is the Feeling?" were top twenty hits in the UK.
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." Fever, released in 2001, retained some disco elements and combined them with 1980 selectro pop. It reached number one in Australia, the UK, and throughout Europe, eventually achieving worldwide sales in excess of 6 million. Its lead single "Can't Get You out of My Head" became the biggest success of her career, reaching number one in over twenty countries.
Following extensive airplay by North American radio, Capitol Records released it in the United States in 2002. The album debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart at number three, and the single reached number seven on the Hot 100.
It was announced in late December 2007 that Minogue was to be among those honoured in Queen Elizabeth II's 2008 New Years Honours list, with an OBE for services to music. Minogue commented "I am almost as surprised as I am honoured. I feel deeply touched to be acknowledged by the UK, my adopted home, in this way." She received the OBE officially from The Prince of Wales in July 2008. Shortly after, Minogue was voted and named as the Britain's Best Loved Celebrity by a tabloid newspaper. Also in 2008, Minogue won best International Female Solo Artist award at the 2008 BRIT Awards, and received the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in May, this being France's highest cultural honour. [wikipedia]
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