44 Things We Love About Birthday Girl Kylie Minogue

We've been celebrating plenty of our favorite artists and actors on their birthdays recently, but hey -- we can't help that so many kickass, gay-ass superheroes were born in May! Since I spent Memorial Day chilling out, I'm only now getting to the birthday of the unfailingly fabulous, intelligent, and cool Kylie Minogue. She turned 44 on monday, and thus, we must pick 44 things we love about the Aussie superstar, her amazing career, and her cheeky pop songs. Somehow the woman remains underrated among worldwide pop superstars, though I find her irrepressible coolness totally supreme. Twenty-five years into Ms. Minogue's career, I honestly refuse to get her out of my head. Let's count.

1. Her darling/hilarious soap opera past on Australia's Neighbours

2. "I Should Be So Lucky"

3. Her Twitter is an adrenaline rush of optimism and fun for fans.

4. "Hand on Your Heart"

5. Her defense of her soap opera past: "It's not supposed to be Gone With the Wind!"

6. She played a gay nerd hero -- Cammy from the video game Super Street Fighter II -- in the beloved, wretched movie adaptation Street Fighter. She even suplexed a bad guy!

7. Somehow she topped the horribleness of Street Fighter with her next movie appearance, Bio-Dome. <3

8. "Especially For You," her fantastic, cheese-tastic duet with Neighbours alum Jason Donovan

9. Her moody '90s album Impossible Princess is a gay cult classic.

10. There's a museum exhibition dedicated just to her wardrobe.

11. "Butterfly," the killer Light Years track that some lucky U.S. fans have on their copies of Fever. I know I do!

12. Her credible vogueing (click to 1:15)

13. Naturally, Kylie loves Madonna.

14. Naturally, Madonna loves her back.

15. Kylie even loves covering Madonna.

16. Her taste in men includes legendary hotties Michael Hutchence and Olivier Martinez.

17. The song and vid for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' gorgeous duet "Where the Wild Roses Grow" features a waterlogged Kylie. The mysterious Cave said he was "quite obsessed with her."

18. "Love at First Sight"

19. The fierce, Mobius-strippy video for "Come Into My World." I still want that shirt and messenger bag.

20. "The Loco-Motion." She could've gone by the name "Even Littler Eva."

21. Her sister Dannii is just as charming!

22. My vote for the greatest Kylie single, "Spinning Around," and its crazy list of songwriters that includes two American Idol judges: Kara DioGuardi and Paula Abdul. Mind blown?

23.

24. The ethnically confounding "Cowboy Style." It's Far Eastern! It's Irish! It's... cowboy! It is awesome.

25. The rich intimacy of "Confide in Me"

26. "Can't Get You Out of My Head's" unabashedly gay/Euro/nutty video.

27. The sick mashup "Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head"

28. The eerie, funereal version of "CDYOOMH" she performed with PS22

29. The bawdiness of her TV special The Kylie Show and the kickass performance of her glorious prude anthem "Got to Be Certain." Louis secret: "Got to be Certain" is the most played song on my iTunes. It is ABBA-licious and secretly saucy, darlings. I am not sorry.

30. Her cute way of brandishing a Grammy (for Best Dance Recording, "Come Into My World")