Dannii: ‘It was a real mind-blowing moment’

As Dannii Minogue prepares to celebrate her 50th birthday next week, she reflects on four decades of being in the spotlight and the “absolutely groundbreaking” role that took her by surprise.

On the cusp of turning 50 and with Melbourne yet to taste freedom after months of Covid restrictions, Dannii Minogue has made peace with having a lockdown celebration for her milestone birthday next week.

Minogue, who appeared on the cover of Body+Soul last Sunday, says all she’d hoped to do on her big day this Wednesday was see her family after being separated during Victoria’s six lockdowns.

“It would be really horrible if I can’t be with them,” she tells Stellar On Friday.

“I just didn’t see women doing what I was doing, let alone being celebrated for doing these kinds of things at this age.” (Picture: Justin Ridler)

“I’ve just been through a couple of friends’ 50ths and literally all you can do is Zoom, which isn’t ideal. I know we said this last year, but it will be a year to remember!”

While Minogue may not get to see her parents Carol and Ron, her 101-year-old grandmother Millie and her brother Brendan in person just yet, she can take comfort in the fact she’ll be reunited with her big sister Kylie in the coming months, after the 53-year-old singer recently confirmed that she plans to move home to Melbourne after 30 years of living in the UK.

While she and her pop-star sibling have spent decades in the spotlight, Minogue says she never expected to be working in the entertainment industry 40 years after first appearing on Young Talent Time aged 10.

“I was absolutely, positively prepared to not still be working in the entertainment industry,” she explains.

“I had no idea what I was going to do. I left school at 16 and I had no qualifications for anything.”

Now a judge on The Masked Singer, Minogue has also fronted The X Factor in both the UK and Australia as well as Australia’s Got Talent, but says the lack of older women on-screen when she was a child led her to believe that her own screen career might be short-lived.

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“I just didn’t see women doing what I was doing, let alone being celebrated for doing these kinds of things at this age.”

Minogue, who is mum to son Ethan, 11 (with her former partner, model Kris Smith), says she feels as if she’s pushed boundaries several times during her career, particularly when she remained a judge on Australia’s Got Talent throughout her pregnancy.

“It was a real mind-blowing moment,” she tells Stellar On Friday of appearing on television right up until she was about to give birth.

“I’d never seen somebody on a panel who was that pregnant. It really meant so much to me, because I thought, I wish I could have seen this when I was younger. I’d never heard of anyone renewing their contract while pregnant; normally it was like, ‘Oh well, you’re going to have a baby then, we’ll find someone else.’ It felt absolutely groundbreaking at the time.”

Originally published as Dannii: ‘It was a real mind-blowing moment’