Actors - Kylie Minogue

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	Actors - Kylie Minogue

Kylie Ann Minogue (born May 28, 1968) is an Australian singer–songwriter and occasional 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.

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 music 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 many critics, she has been acclaimed for her achievements; she holds the record for the highest concert ticket sales for a female performer, and has placed nine singles at number one on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.

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 immigrated 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, Minogue appeared in soap operas such as Skyways, The Sullivans and The Henderson Kids without attracting much attention. Dannii Minogue became successful as a regular performer on the weekly music program 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 storyline 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 record 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 1987, achieving high ratings.

Recording and performing career

Stock, Aitken and Waterman: 1987 – 1992

During a charity event in Melbourne 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 travelling to London to work with Stock, Aitken & Waterman. They knew little of her, forgot she was arriving, and wrote "I Should Be So Lucky" while she waited outside the studio. Her first 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 7 million copies worldwide, with most sales occurring in Europe and Asia, and it contained six hit singles, including the biggest hit, "I Should Be So Lucky". The United States was the only major record market in which the album did not sell strongly, although the version of "The Loco-Motion" (re-recorded in the UK) reached number three on the US Billboard Magazine Singles Chart. In late 1988, Minogue left Neighbours to concentrate fully on her music career.

A duet with Jason Donovan, titled "Especially for You" was a major hit in Britain in early 1989. The critic Kevin Killian wrote that it was "majestically awful... makes the Diana Ross, Lionel Richie "Endless Love" sound like Mahler". Another critic named her "The Singing Budgie", in part because she is only 5ft 1in (1.55 m) tall and this tag continued to be used 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".

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Actors - Kylie Minogue

Childhood and beginning

Recording and performing career

Stock, Aitken and Waterman: 1987 – 1992

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