Kylie Minogue

Kylie Ann Minogue (pronounced: {{IPA|/mɪn'əʉg/}}, to rhyme with "vogue", born May 28, 1968) is an Australian singer and actress. She rose to prominence in the late 1980s as a result of her role in the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a pop singer and recording artist.

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 has remained constant even while her success as a recording artist has 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". http://www.kylie.co.uk/pressroom/00000019.html Her relationships, including her current relationship with French actor Olivier Martinez, have been extensively reported as well. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14506107&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=kylie-at-the-crossroads-name_page.html

Related Topics:
The Australian - 1997 - French - Olivier Martinez

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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, her confident sexual posturing and her sense of fun, she acknowledges the gay community throughout the world by performing at gay venues and events, and by supporting AIDS 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". http://www.mp3.com/updates.php?artist_id=4215&article_id=32576

Related Topics:
Gay icon - Gay - AIDS

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Minogue has utilised the medium of the music video as an effective way of promoting her image, and has consistently worked at creating and evolving her visual representation. Her earliest videos portrayed her as a "girl-next-door" who was innocent and somewhat gauche but when she took control of her portrayal in 1990, she developed a more adult and provocative image. This caused her to be compared unfavourably to Madonna. Minogue admitted that she was an influence, but as her confidence grew she established a coquettish persona that differed considerably from that of Madonna's sexual aggressor. Minogue presents herself as a more passive object of desire, and frequently imbues her performances with camp elements and humour. Madonna acknowledged Minogue by wearing a "Kylie Minogue" shirt for a performance at the MTV Awards in 2000.

Related Topics:
Music video - Madonna - Camp - MTV Award

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In several of her music videos, Minogue has touched on adult themes—an interracial 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.

Related Topics:
Interracial relationship - Lesbian - Drag queen - Telephone sex - Prostitution - Barbarella

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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".

Related Topics:
1993 - Baz Luhrmann - Bert Stern - Marilyn Monroe - Los Angeles - Fashion designer - Jean Paul Gaultier - Stephane Sednaoui - John Galliano - Lolita - Barbarella

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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 who might never buy one of her records. 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 Britain, and Kath & Kim in Australia, that have 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.

Related Topics:
The Face - Vogue - Vanity Fair - Pop culture - The Vicar of Dibley - Men Behaving Badly - Kath & Kim - Neighbours

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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". She continues to attract discussion, both positive and negative, 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.

Related Topics:
Sex symbol - Lush - Paul Morley

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Minogue has often spoken of the stability of the team she works within. 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 she has freely 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" http://www.mp3.com/updates.php?artist_id=4215&article_id=32576

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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".

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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 clubs 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".

Related Topics:
Paris - Jazz

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