Film - Australia
Baz Luhrmann's ambitious epic film Australia has divided audiences around the...
20 Years Of Miss Minogue
What a whirlwind it’s been for Kylie Minogue since her first hit, The Locomotion topped the Australian charts on this day twenty years ago. Practically overnight she was thrust into the public consciousness and there she’s stayed. Two decades on, it seems she can do no wrong – although it hasn’t always been that way.
This year in the UK Kylie was voted the number one gay icon of all time, beating the likes Dolly Parton, ABBA and even Liza. “I am not a traditional gay icon. There’s been no tragedy in my life, only tragic outfits,” says Kylie. While a great deal of her appeal now lies in her glamorous, sex kitten persona, this wasn’t always the case. She was once the flat chested, awkward Melbourne girl with the bad hats and perm. Her sound was unashamedly manufactured – she was pure bubblegum. But the gays loved her – even more so when the Australian press started to really turn nasty in 1989, dismissing her as a “singing budgie” amongst other things.
“It’s always difficult for me to give the definitive answer [as to why I have such a gay following] because I don’t have it. My gay audience has been with me from the beginning… they kind of adopted me.”
In typical Australian fashion people felt Kylie was getting too big for her boots. She was flaunting her success and as such she needed to be cut down. It’s the perfect example of our country’s tall poppy syndrome – a term originally coined as a Roman military expression, meaning that a successful individual who stands above the rest is eventually resented. Some blame our geographic isolation for this phenomenon, others think that because we’re a former penal colony we have an inbuilt contempt for authority, and in turn, success and power. Regardless, Kylie felt the full force of it early on in her career, and it polarised people – those who admired Kylie aligned with her strongly, the rest were scathing and vicious. Is it any wonder she fled to the welcoming arms of the United Kingdom?
Her gay icon status was cemented in February 1994 when Kylie jetted to Sydney to perform at Mardi Gras. She performed What Do I Have To Do? onstage with a troupe of 30 dancers before an hysterical audience of over 19,000 people. She was back again with sister Dannii in 1998 for Mardi Gras’ 20th Anniversary. Dannii performed All I Wanna Do in the RHI at 2am, Kylie performed Better The Devil You Know with the marching boys two hours later. Next year marks the 30th Anniversary of Mardi Gras, and while many are pinning their hopes on Kylie’s return, a lot has changed in the last decade. Kylie’s mainstream success, combined with the changes in Australia’s gay scene now make it almost a certainty that Kylie’s Mardi Gras days are over.
Twenty years on Kylie has come full circle – she’s gone from feeling deep shame about her Stock Aitken Waterman past to embracing it proudly. A huge turning point was when Kylie met Nick Cave. They recorded a duet in 1994 and in June 1996 he convinced her to publicly read the lyrics to I Should Be So Lucky at the Poetry Olympics, at Royal Albert Hall in London. The performance was a beautiful marriage of humility and irony and it brought the house down.
Kylie’s Intimate and Live Tour was very much the show that re-ignited her popularity on our shores. The show was to support her sixth studio album Impossible Princess, an album that had been derailed in the UK by the death of Princess Diana. It was a more mature, intelligent sound, one that earned her credibility, particularly within Australia where the album had become a huge hit.
According to Kylie they put on the show with barely two pennies to rub together, her motto being “if in doubt, apply more glitter!” Eighteen sell out shows later, the demand for Kylie seemed to be unquenchable. She received the best reviews of her career and looking back on the tour now, it’s easy to see where her inspiration for Showgirl came from.
It was the catalyst for the bold, glamorous, popular Kylie that we see today. Australia as a whole has taken her under its wing, and Kylie isn’t bitter about how long it’s taken either. Twenty years on she still says there’s no greater feeling than coming home.
“Everyone knows how much Australia means to me. I try to get back here as much as I can, but normally it’s for work, so I’m in and out and jetlagged and stressed,” she says.
Even though she only toured here recently, she’ll be touring Australia again this coming summer, and her tenth studio album which has the working title of Kylie X is rumoured to be out in the next few months. According to some press they’re still looking for “a killer comeback single” to rival Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. On her quest to find this jewel she’s worked with many different artists and producers including Calvin Harris, Groove Armada, Boy George, Teddy Riley, Amanda Ghost, Scissor Sisters and Australia’s Sneaky Sound System. According to Calvin their track is “camper than a row of tents” and Groove Armada have said that their collaboration with Kylie is the best thing they’ve ever done.
The world waits with baited breath for the next chapter. In the meantime Kylie will be celebrating her achievement with a party in London being thrown by her manager, Terry Blamey. Apparently her ex Jason Donovan will be one of the attendees. That should be a step back in time.
And what has Kylie learned in her twenty years in the business? “When someone follows you into the loo, that’s a pain. But it’s mostly a pleasure to be in a position to make people happy.”
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