Aspinall - Kylie Queen of the World

T he year was 1968. It was to be an auspicious year by anyones standards: students were rioting in Paris, President Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House and Billie Jean King was hard at work winning the Womens Singles Tournament at Wimbledon. And on the other side of the world in Australia, a housewife called Carol Minogue a Welsh-born ex-ballerina now married to a chartered accountant called Ron was giving birth to her first child. That child, a girl, was born on 28 May in the Bethlehem Hospital in Melbourne. Her name was Kylie Ann Minogue.

Kylie was the fulfilment of a dream for Carol, in more ways than one. For a start, she was a much-longed-for child; her parents had been wishing for a baby of their own for some time. On top of that, however, she was also to become the vessel through which her mothers ambitions would flow. Carol, who had emigrated from Maesteg, Wales, with her parents the Joneses when she was just a child, had never entirely given up her dreams of stardom. And although since marrying Ron when she was 20 there had been no chance of her ever becoming the prima ballerina she had dreamed of being as a child, she felt that there was still a very good chance her daughter would become a star. A big star, at that. Other members of the family were in the entertainment business: Uncle Noel was a TV cameraman and Aunt Suzette was an actress. So why shouldnt little Kylie go on to become someone big in show business too?

As it happens, Carol had dreams for all her children. Two and a half years after Kylie was born, Danielle, later known as Dannii, came along on 20 October 1971. Brother Brendan had arrived a year earlier, and he was to end up as a cameraman, like Uncle Noel. But it was the girls future that Carol concentrated on. With her encouragement the two girls learned to dance and play the piano.

It was Dannii who first caught the showbiz bug. She was the one desperate to succeed and force her way into the nations consciousness (at the time, the nation in question was just Australia; it was a while before anyone was to realise that global domination was a distinct possibility for at least one of the Minogue sisters) while Kylie sat around in the background sewing. Sewing was, and still is, Kylies favourite hobby; she might have the pick of the worlds designers these days, but shes still a dab hand with needle and thread. And back then it was pretty much all she was interested in. I was pretty shy at school and I suppose I still am, Kylie revealed in an interview shortly after becoming famous in Neighbours. I was a loner Id rather sit and sew than run about playing games. Like most other children, however, she did have daydreams about an illustrious future: I dreamed of being a pop star one day, she says, but I never thought it would happen. I was just another kid who liked to think it might.

Right from the start, though, even despite this lack of ambition and a preference for sitting around in corners sewing, it was obvious that Kylie had something that other children didnt something that can best be summed up as charm. These days Kylie is a seasoned professional, someone who has been a star since her mid-teens, but even now she retains an innocence and a fresh-faced charm that wins over just about everyone, even the most hard-bitten show business professionals. And that charm was evident right from the start. My mother tells this story about me competing in the under-eights piano competition at the Dandenong Eisteddfod, she says. Apparently I walked on stage, turned and gave a really big smile to the judges, proceeded to play Run Rabbit Run, gave them another really big smile and promptly walked off with the prize. I just charmed it out of them!

I do remember being little and dreaming about the television or singing in to a hairbrush, just desperate to be Olivia Newton-John in those tight, tight pants, she continues. Id also sing along to The Beatles and the Stones, to one Bonnie Tyler song I absolutely loved and, of course, to Grease and Saturday Night Fever. I was obsessed with the movie Grease. I loved the bit where Olivia transforms herself in to a high-heeled leather-clad rock chick. But I never really had any aspiration to be on TV and it wasnt like anything you hear from some American artists: When I was three years old I just knew I wanted to be a performer so I started taking lessons. A lot of my career has just been a happy accident. Something my dad said to me sticks its the story of my life: I skip steps one to eight and just do nine and ten, but miraculously I get away with it.

There was, in fact, a little more preparation to it than she admitted to. Kylie learned her trade from an early age, courtesy, of course, of her mother. Carol was not a particularly pushy showbiz mum compared to the parents of other child stars, but if a chance arose for her daughters, she was determined that they would be ready to take it. From a very early age both girls were learning the skills that would stand them in such good stead in the years to come and they were also learning the professional attitude to work that both maintain to this day. When I was four my mum took me to music classes with a bunch of other raucous four- and five-year-olds , Kylie recalls. I remember making noises with sticks and glockenspiels. My mum wanted to introduce us to different artistic and creative influences, specifically music. I played piano, flute and violin till I was 13, by which time I became a slave to pop music. And she hasnt really looked back since.

That said, it was Dannii who was by far the more exuberant and lively of the two and it was Dannii who first attracted the attention of a talent scout. The younger of the Minogue girls was in a Melbourne supermarket, aged eight, when she was spotted by an acquaintance of Carols, who was also a talent scout. On the look-out for a new child star, the friend asked Dannii to audition for the part of Dutch girl Carla in the television soap The Sullivans.

Carol was delighted for her daughter. However, in order to avoid Kylie feeling left out, she decided to take her along too. She did so to avoid competition between the girls; in fact, it had totally the opposite effect at the ages of just ten and eight, the Minogue sisters found themselves competing with one another for the first time. Mum thought Id be jealous and insisted I go along to the audition as well, recalled Kylie. All I remember is that I had to speak in a Dutch accent and I wasnt very good at it. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the producers of TheSullivans decided that it was Kylie, not Dannii, who was most suitable for the role. And so it was the elder of the two budding stars who ended up getting the part.

As it happens, Kylies good fortune also turned out to be Danniis, as well. Carla didnt last long in the series, as she was soon killed off. She made a comeback, though, when she returned as a vision by which time Kylie was too old to play the part and so Dannii, who bore a strong resemblance to her older sister at the time, was drafted in. She, too, began a successful television career one which was, throughout their childhood, to eclipse Kylies.

By this time, Kylie was attending Camberwell High School in Melbourne. Years later, she recalled wearing a bottle green uniform, which she absolutely hated, and also recalled a campaign by the girls to be allowed to wear green cords instead of skirts in the winter. She also secured a little television work: when she was 11 she took part in a television series called