Over the years, there have been many Kylie Minogues. We’ve had Pop Kylie, Indie Kylie, B-Side Kylie, Country Kylie, Disco Kylie – different versions of the same superstar, each with her own sound and wardrobe. Just as iconic as orange halterneck-and-white hot pants Kylie is Kylie, tear-sodden and ethereal, tangled up in a haunting ballad with Australia’s enfant terrible Nick Cave.
And yet, there is a sense that every last one of these iterations has contained a bit of the real Kylie – who that is, is less clear. Because well, what do we really know about this luminous antipodean? There are the broad strokes – she is famously friendly and has a gregarious laugh – and the statistics: eight UK No 1 singles, 36 Top 10 singles, 124 weeks in the Top 10, 11 No 1 albums and 11 more in the Top 10. Not to mention the freight train of high-impact hits. But at 57, Kylie possesses the kind of nebulous mystique that brooding rock gods strive for.
