For 27 years Kylie Minogue has been a part of our lives, first as Charlene in Neighbours, and then with her hugely successful music career, but how well do we really know the princess of pop? Here are 25 intriguing facts about Ms Minogue - click on any image below to launch the gallery.
Watch our exclusive video shoot with Kylie by downloading our iPad edition here
Pictures: Rex Features and Youtube
Kylie fact No.1
When Kylie flew to the UK for her first meeting with music svengalis Stock, Aitken and Waterman, they forgot she was coming so hadn’t prepared anything. As a result, they wrote I Should Be So Lucky in 40 minutes while she was waiting in reception. She then recorded it in around the same time.
Kylie fact No.2
Kylie’s 1990 classic Better The Devil You Know is played at 12.30am every Saturday night at London’s "G-A-Y" club.
Kylie fact No.3
Michael Hutchence wrote INXS hit Suicide Blonde about Kylie, who he was dating at the time. She had to dye her hair platinum blonde for The Delinquents and said to him, "I'm going suicide blonde today."
Kylie fact No.4
Kylie’s middle name is the pleasingly non-showbizzy “Ann”.
Kylie fact No.5
The Loco-motion – Kylie’s third single in the UK, after I Should Be So Lucky and Got To Be Certain – was her debut in her native Australia, staying at number one for seven weeks and becoming their highest-selling single of the '80s.
Kylie fact No.6
At the suggestion of Nick Cave, with whom she’d just duetted on Where The Wild Roses Grow, Kylie recited the lyrics to I Should Be So Lucky as poetry for 1995’s Poetry Jam at the Royal Albert Hall. She described it “a most cathartic moment."
Kylie fact No.7
Kylie has provided guest vocals for The Pet Shop Boys, Coldplay, Just Jack, Towa Tei (formerly of Deee-lite), Hurts, Taio Cruz and sister Dannii.
Kylie fact No.8
When Madonna arrived on stage for the SuperBowl half-time show last week, pulled by centurions and flanked by sphinxes, many Kylie fans went online to point out similarities to Ms Minogue’s Aphrodite Les Folies tour.
Kylie fact No.9
In the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special, Kylie played a waitress on a spaceship modelled on the Titanic. Fans got very excited over the fact that her character’s name, Astrid, was an anagram of “Tardis”.
Kylie fact No.10
Her 1997 single Some Kind Of Bliss was co-written and produced by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore of the Manic Street Preachers. Its video was shot in the Spanish desert and co-starred British actor Dexter Fletcher.
Kylie fact No.11
A Sunday Kind Of Love by recently-deceased blues legend Etta James is one of Kylie’s favorite songs
Kylie fact No.12
A stage musical inspired by Kylie’s hits and entitled I Should Be So Lucky, premiered in her hometown of Melbourne in 2001 as part of the city’s Gay ‘Midsumma” Festival. Kylie’s recently been rumoured to be working on her own West End “jukebox musical”
Kylie fact No.13
Due to Kylie’s battle with breast cancer, doctors reported that the number of mammograms performed in Australia rose by 40% - a phenomenon they called “the Kylie effect".
Kylie fact No.14
Kylie played “The Green Fairy” in compatriot Baz Luhrmann’s film musical Moulin Rouge! but the absinthe-induced sprite was originally going to be a long-haired muscle man with a sitar, voiced by Ozzy Osbourne. We think they made the right decision.
Kylie fact No.15
In 2003, Kylie made a cameo in Aussie sitcom Kath & Kim. In a flash-forward, she played a grown-up version of Kim’s new-born baby daughter Epponnee-Rae (full name Epponnee-Raelene Kathleen Darlene Charlene Craig).
Kylie fact No.16
Kylie met her stylist and creative director William Baker when she went into Vivienne Westwood's flagship boutique on London’s Conduit Street. He was working there as a sales assistant and bombarded her with ideas.
Kylie fact no.17
Her 1988 duet with Jason Donovan, Especially For You, was kept off the Christmas number one slot by Cliff Richard’s Misteltoe & Wine. In 2001, she performed it with Kermit the Frog on An Audience With Kylie Minogue.
Kylie fact no.18
Her 2000 comeback hit Spinning Around was co-written by Paul Abdul. It was originally intended to relaunch Abdul’s own pop career. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head was written and produced by Cathy Dennis.
Kylie fact No.19
Madame Tussauds have cast four different Kylie waxworks. Only The Queen's had more.
Kylie fact no.20
The word "Kylie" is Aboriginal for boomerang.
Kylie fact no.21
As well as her little sister Dannii, Kylie also has a younger brother, Brendan, who is a TV cameraman.
Kylie fact No.22
In 2008, Kylie not only went to Buckingham Palace to receive an OBE for services to music but was also awarded France's highest cultural honour, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Last year, Anglia Ruskin University awarded Kylie an honorary Doctor of Health Science degree in recognition of her work in raising breast cancer awareness
Kylie fact No.23
When Kylie was a girl, she’d spend hours in dressed up in her best party frock and miming along to ABBA records using a broom handle as a microphone. Decades later, she got to sing Dancing Queen to a live global audience of more than 4 billion at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. In our exclusive interview she describes that experience: "What I mostly remember from my performance at Sydney 2000 is fear. Fear, excitement, and also pride. The pride in the country was so immense at the time. To be in the stadium, centre stage and know it’s being broadcast to four billion people; it was just such an honour."
Kylie fact No.24
Kylie’s mother was born Carol Jones in the small South Wales town of Maesteg, where her parents ran the local post office. She emigrated to Australia aged 12 on a £10 boat ticket. In this photo of Carol in her teens the resemblance to her pop star daughter is uncanny.
Kylie fact No.25
Kylie’s co-star and love interest in The Delinquents, Charlie Schlatter, went on to play Ferris Bueller in the TV spin-off from the iconic '80s film and for seven years, starred in Diagnosis Murder alongside Dick Van Dyke as Doctor Jesse Travis.
undefined
By signing up you agree to occasionally receive offers and promotions from Stylist. Newsletters may contain online ads and content funded by carefully selected partners. Don’t worry, we’ll never share or sell your data. You can opt-out at any time. For more information read Stylist’s Privacy Policy
Thank you!
You’re now subscribed to all our newsletters. You can manage your subscriptions at any time from an email or from a MyStylist account.