Fairy-tale Ending?...

A new interview with Kylie Minogue from Metro:

Waiting in the lobby of a plush central London hotel, I can sense Kylie Minogue coming before I see her. Two doormen flanking the entrance are whispering feverishly as they crane to look down the street – while a waitress bobs past with a tray of tea, humming: ‘I’m spinning around…’

Suddenly the 45-year-old arrives and scoots upstairs, past gaping faces, in a spotless camel-coloured coat. I join her in a fancy suite, where it’s hard to believe the Kylie – the woman who wore a pair of 50p gold hot pants so well they formed the centrepiece of her own V&A show, whose bittersweet belter Better The Devil You Know is played at half-past midnight every single Saturday at legendary London club G-A-Y – is on the same sofa as me.

But we’re here to discuss her recent – shimmering, slick and frequently anthemic – 12th album, Kiss Me Once. And, more importantly, some just-announced autumn European tour dates. So it’s time to stop gawping and start talking.

Kylie, the consummate performer, is clearly itching to experience the rush of touring again – and is keenly attuned to the power of a superstar concert.

‘I just think it’s kind of cosmic, I’ve said that for a long time,’ she says. ‘That might sound a bit airy-fairy to some people but I’m talking about something very strong – this incredible collision of energies, from me and from the crowd.

‘I like to mentally pluck a few people from the audience and wonder… what is your experience? I’ve had something to do with your life and you’ve had so much to do with mine but we’ve never met. Did you play my song at your wedding? Was I the first album you bought? It’s just amazing to wonder.’

Kylie’s tours are always spectacular. But the last, 2011’s Aphrodite – which featured the pop princess in full goddess garb, arising from a giant seashell and straddling a golden Pegasus – was the most flamboyant so far. She is yet to confirm her costume designers for the forthcoming Kiss Me Once tour but Aphrodite was her third tour decked in Dolce & Gabbana, so it seems like a good enough bet. In the meantime, she’s been working with her long-term stylist William Baker to cook up a new vibe.

‘I’m currently obsessed with this kind of 1970s, soft-focus sexiness – I mean I’m on the verge of putting a brown-orange sofa and maybe an orange lamp in my house,’ she laughs. ‘My shows have a reputation for being over-the-top but I really want this one to be more streamlined, with more of that vibe. But there will probably still be glitter and feathers. I just definitely don’t think bigger is necessarily better.’

Kylie enthuses about ‘jotting ideas down on napkins’ and being inspired by fabrics and films but it’s hard to fathom when she finds the time to take on board new influences. As well as promoting her album, she’s coaching on both the British and Australian versions of The Voice – hardly the easiest commute.

She claims her decision to join the TV talent shows was inspired by a ‘state of mind that was open to trying new things, new experiences’. This state of mind may have had something to do with her unexpected decision to drop fellow Melbourne native Terry Blamey, her manager of 25 years, to join Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

‘I used to joke with Terry that they might as well pickle us, we’d worked together so long,’ she says. ‘So to change was a big deal but it was totally harmonious. It was the perfect time to wrap it up.’
When Kylie launched as the archetypal soap star turned pop darling, few would have predicted her longevity. Nevertheless, in the mould of Madonna, Kylie is both a survivor and a canny chameleon – and throughout all her incarnations, even 1990s experimental ‘indie’ Kylie, she has never publicly lost her rag with anyone.

‘Behind doors, I do have to deal with my frustration, yes,’ she admits. ‘But I think it was drilled into me at such a young age to keep it together and try and grin and bear it.’

One thing that must make her want to punch journalists on the nose, I suggest, must be the endless speculation about why she has so far never married or had children, despite a stream of long-term relationships. Currently single, she split from her Spanish boyfriend of five years, the extraordinarily handsome Andrés Velencoso, last October.

‘I’ve come to the conclusion that the worst thing about being my age in this business is simply being asked about it,’ she says. ‘It’s not really hindering me. I’ve gained so much from those experiences and my relationship with my fans is even deeper. So I don’t see where the negative is, except that I have to keep talking about it… and I don’t really know what to say.’

Just as I start to feel fairly mortified, she smiles that famous smile. ‘I appreciate people’s concern, I really do,’ she assures. ‘And the fact that they would like me to have a fairy-tale happy ending. Wouldn’t that be great? But maybe that’s just not my destiny, I don’t know. Who knows what my destiny is?’

Tickets for the Kiss Me Once tour go on sale at 9am today. 

Her new album Kiss Me Once enters the Irish album chart today at #4. BTW: getting tour tickets today has been very, very difficult - it seems that a large portion has been "set aside" for expensive, exclusive packages, etc. One more London show should be added at a later date...

Here are Miss Minogue's lates video antics ;)



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