Backstage At The Arias: Kylie chats to Jabba about her induction into the Aria Hall of Fame, her favourite songs and tour plans, as well as explaining what goes on inside her dressing room...

Unlike previous media campaigns, which have usually revolved around promoting a new album, concert tour, perfume, range of lingerie or bed sheets, for this interview with PS, there was no agenda.

Sitting in a private room of the Sheraton on the Park Hotel on Tuesday, elegantly dressed in a sleeveless smock embellished with mother of pearl buttons and embracing her recent transition to brunette, there is no question the star looks years younger than 43.

And yes, the much-scrutinised yet strikingly beautiful face does move and there are even a few faint lines on it, probably the result of her trademark toothy smile, which she offers with little prompting.

Yet underneath all the sequins and showbiz gloss, Minogue has managed to cling to a comparatively realistic and refreshingly humble sense of who she is and where she stands in the world.



She has sold nearly 70 million records, amassed a fortune conservatively estimated at more than $100 million and been awarded an OBE from the Queen.

Next year it will be 25 years since The Locomotion was released, her first single, which spent seven weeks at No.1 on the Australian charts, selling 200,000 copies.

At the time Neighbours was taking hold in Britain, and Minogue and her long-term manager Terry Blamey were soon on a plane to London to meet with the world's biggest pop hit factory: Stock, Aitken & Waterman.

But it almost didn't happen.

''Yes they forgot I was coming,'' laughs Minogue. ''We were there for about a week finding things to do. I was still on Neighbours at the time and it was difficult to secure time off. I think I was maybe recognised once or twice, people had not become quite so fanatical.

''We went to Harrods, on bus tours, to Madame Tussauds, then finally, on the last day, they wrote I Should Be So Lucky. I was completely stressed and went in there, sang it then flew straight back to Melbourne.''

What did she think of the song?
''I honestly cannot recall, it was so rushed I just did the recording and had to get … back to Melbourne.''
The song was her first British No. 1, and over the next two years her first 13 singles reached the British top 10.


Despite the success and at the tender age of 21 she yearned for more.
''For a lot of the beginning of my career I sort of translated what I knew from acting, where you are given your lines, you delivered your lines and were given direction. I did what was asked of me. I think that's why I fitted into the Stock, Aitken & Waterman mould quite well, but that's also what ended up frustrating me because I wanted to be more involved. I wanted to get another level of satisfaction out of it.''

Minogue's transition from pop puppet to dance floor sexpot is well documented, she attributes the awakening of her womanhood to her then lover, the late Michael Hutchence.



But there have been other influential characters too. In 1994 she agreed to record a duet with Nick Cave, which at the time was one of the music industry's most incongruous collaborations - the ''Singing Budgie'' being serenaded by the … ''Prince of Darkness''.

Where the Wild Roses Grow was a haunting and uncharacteristically melancholic track for Minogue. But it delivered the artistic credibility she yearned for and remains one of her personal favourites, as does ''great friend'' Nick Cave.

''I saw Nick not long ago in London. I always go in for cuddles when I see him. Maybe not many people would associate that with Nick Cave, but he has such a strong presence,'' Kylie says, smiling broadly.

''All of my experience with him was nothing short of beautiful, really beautiful. He was always very gentle with me. Knowing that he believed in me for such a long time before we recorded Wild Roses. It was several years prior that I heard he wanted to work with me. That meant to me he wasn't being post-modern or ironic, or having a laugh at me by doing this duet. He genuinely believed in me and still does … I will be forever grateful to him for that.''


Long hailed as a mistress of reinvention, when asked if she still has the power to surprise her audience, Minogue booms back: ''I hope so, for my sake!'' But she is the first to admit, not every risk has paid off.

''Doll, I have been hot … and not,'' she says. ''I think I just have to do what I do. I can only continue. There is no master-plan and I don't have a crystal ball.''

Her chameleon-like ability to morph into new phases in her career means she is constantly compared to pop's other queen of reinvention: Madonna.

Yet even after sharing the same pop sphere and living in the same city over such a long period, the pair barely know each other.

''I'm a massive Madonna fan. I've only met her briefly and we have some friends in common. A message will go back and forwards, she says 'hi' or I say 'hi','' she says, adding somewhat reverentially: ''How can you not love Madonna?''

2012 is set to introduce new territory for Kylie - old ground. Minogue is calling it Kylie25. It marks the anniversary of her debut single, Locomotion, being released in July 1987 at the peak of Minogue's success in her original chosen field, acting, on her chosen vehicle, Neighbours.

There are all manner of grand, archive-raiding plans for 2012 - last month Minogue recorded an album of her greatest hits with an orchestra at Abbey Road. There's talk of reissuing her albums with rare material. She has a romantic vision of an "anti-tour" in which she performs obscure songs from her back-catalogue. And a book and documentary are in the works.
"It's so time-consuming to go through all of the videos and photos for those things," Minogue says. "Like anyone, you see an old photo and because everything is a memory you get distracted."

Unlike most, her life has been comprehensively documented for close to 30 years.

"There's a lot to go through," Minogue, 43, says. "I am embracing it, but it's tiring. There's so many photo sessions. It does blow my mind seeing how much I've done and what a baby I was when I started."

Kylie25 is starting in Australia. The first step - Minogue will be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on Sunday.

"God, 25 years!" she says between giving bite-sized masterclasses for X Factor contestants on how to work a stage.

"It is amazing. Especially to be given the honour in Australia considering it hasn't always been an easy ride here. I'll accept that with much pride."

For years Kylie-bashing was a national sport. Minogue had haters before haters were invented. She was "the singing budgie", the girl who got lucky with I Should Be So Lucky. The blueprint for navigating from TV to the pop charts.

In keeping with her classy upbringing, Minogue never took the bait, merely riding out the highs and lows of her career and in the late '90s reinventing herself as a touring act, starting with 1998's no-budget Intimate and Live Australian tour.

2011's $25 million Aphrodite Les Folies tour visited Europe, Asia, South Africa, Australia and the US. One moment in the tour, a cover of Prefab Sprout's If You Don't Love Me (the b-side of Confide in Me in 1994), was rendered with just Minogue and a piano.

Even after 10 world tours, commentators were surprised Minogue was singing live - and doing it impressively well.

"I'm astounded," she says of lip-synching claims. "I'll take it as a compliment if you think it sounds that great that it's got to be (from) tape."

She feigns banging her head on the caravan's dining table.

"I'm tired of saying it. People who need to know know. Even when I didn't have a clue what I was doing, every concert tour has been 100 per cent live.

"When I was terrified and I knew people would give me a hard time about my voice, yes I could have opted out and taken the easy option (and mimed). But I didn't. And it's great."

Early on, Minogue was the first to admit she wasn't the world's best singer. These days she points out how constant touring and honing her craft has improved her voice.

"I am proud of it, yeah. More than being proud it's accepting - which I have for a long time - you can keep banging your fist and people who don't like it or don't rate your voice, fine. But it's my voice. That's the most important thing. No one else in the world sounds like me.

"That's my tool of communication. Communication is the most important thing in my job. I'm not singing just to hear the sound of my voice."

It was the band from her Aphrodite tour that Minogue assembled in Abbey Road to re-record her greatest hits. As well as performances with an orchestra, some are stripped back to just guitar or piano.
When showing it off for her label EMI, she drew praise.

"People were saying, 'We've never heard you like that, we're so impressed'. The crazy thing is that singing with an orchestra is about a billion times easier than a pop concert. That's a walk in the park.

"To do a pop show in a crazy outfit, you can't walk, you can't breathe, you've raced to do a quick change, you've got two seconds to compose yourself, you're up against everything.

"So the Abbey Road recordings were an absolute pleasure. And you hear so much about Abbey Road, the myth, and I thought, 'Really, is it really all that?' And actually, it is."

Then there's the "anti-tour" - "I'm quite chuffed with that idea," she says. "I've never heard of anyone doing that."

It came when she was constantly asked how she could top the huge Aphrodite tour.

"I don't know how I can beat having water fountains, which is madness," Minogue says. "Some people's favourite tour is still Intimate and Live where we had two penny farthings to put it on."

Minogue asked fans to tweet their fave forgotten songs with a "antitour" hashtag.

"There's too many songs, which is a great problem to have. The reason I thought of it was, when you're on the big shows you're obliged to play a stack of hits. How do you go bigger? You don't, you go completely the other direction.

"I'm not sure when I'll do it. I don't want to spend too long rehearsing, I want it to feel fresh and organic and liberating."

Is it her way of giving back to the most loyal fans in pop?

"Yes, but it's also for myself. Go off-piste, take a turn you're not meant to take. It's a little indulgent, but there's never enough time."

Minogue confirms the tour, when it happens, will take in Australia.

"I'd be in an awful lot of trouble if I didn't come here."

For a woman who admits she struggles to remember the lyrics to some of her Stock Aitken Waterman hits, the anti-tour will be a challenge.

"Oh I'm going to need a lyric stand for sure. I imagine the fans will do homework and know all the lyrics better than I do. That fills me with excitement."

Minogue also used Twitter recently to clarify a media report (with an unflattering photo) that her face doesn't move.

"It's upsetting to say the least," Minogue says, pointing out that her face hasn't got any younger in the last year.

"That was an unfortunate picture," she says. "I thought, 'Who have I pissed off? What have I done?' I'm sure there was another frame from the 10 seconds of pictures they took that wasn't a bad picture."

After passing the five-year all-clear mark, the breast cancer survivor embraces sister Dannii's philosophy that only lucky ones get to grow older.

"That's a really good way of thinking about it," Minogue says of ageing. "I feel good. Right now, jetlagged, I feel 103. But it's been a good year."

Still loved up with model boyfriend Andres Velencoso, who is in Australia to see her Hall of Fame induction, Minogue has earned her place in Aussie music history as one of our most successful pop stars.

"I mostly know what I'm doing," she says. "I've learnt what it means to be a good pop star. There's no shortcut to learning your craft, after all these experiences you feel like you deserve it, you've earned it."