Cameron Adams: It’s no accident that Kylie’s still a star at 50
KYLIE Minogue has been in the public eye for 39 of her 50 years, and globally famous for 30 of those — that doesn’t happen by accident or luck, writes Cameron Adams.
Opinion
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AS Kylie Minogue turns 50 on Monday, it’s worth remembering she’s been in the public eye for 39 of those 50 years and globally famous for 30 of them.
Minogue came from what seems now a bygone era in which you had to have some kind of talent to achieve major fame.
While she’d be the first to admit she’s not the best singer or actor, maintaining an international career at the top level (she scored her latest No. 1 album only last month) for 30 years is a talent in itself.
Yet with her decades of experience dealing with the media, even Kylie must have been dreading this year. With a new album, Golden, to promote, she knew there would be the questions about her former fiance.
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The guy who finally put a ring on it was the same one who found a new fiance just months after Kylie dumped him.
Then he was jilted at the altar by the rebound lady. Bullet dodged.
Kylie would also have been bracing herself for the questions about her age — the kind of pointed questions she’s been getting for the past 20 years — and the ones that have really heated up over the past five.
But the fact is that being an A-list celebrity at 50 is a big deal for a pop star, especially a female pop star. It’s something to be celebrated, not questioned, and it doesn’t happen because of luck or by accident.
This year, Kylie did a reverse Taylor Swift: swapping from electronic pop to a Nashville-influenced countrified sound. Commercial radio, whose ideal listener is a 23-year-old woman — because that’s who their advertisers want to target — pension off most female artists over the age of 40. And men, too — ask Robbie Williams.
They’ll say it’s about the song not the artist, but pop music is brutal when it comes to age.
Madonna told this reporter two years ago: “Radio is ageist. If you’re not in your 20s, they won’t play you on the radio.
“It’s bullshit but that’s the way it is. We live in an ageist society. That’s one frontier that has not been conquered. Because if I was a man, things would be different.”
Tina Arena, 50, used her ARIA Hall of Fame acceptance speech to directly tell the same people who are not playing her new songs that women over 40 (Kylie was literally standing behind her, after inducting Arena) will let them know when they’re ready to stop.
Indeed Sia, now 42, is the only woman over 40 getting regular radio play in Australia this year, with Pink, 38, just behind.
However, Kylie broke years of radio silence when her song, Dancing, wound up next to Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and Calvin Harris in heavy rotation on Top 40 stations.
And female pop artists over 40 are still killing it on the live front, breaking new ground in a genre where age doesn’t matter (think of Paul McCartney, the Stones, Springsteen, Elton, Dylan) as long as you can still cut it.
Cher is 72 and will fit in an Australian arena tour this year alongside her lucrative Vegas residency. Madonna, who turns 60 this year, is one of the most successful live artists of all time. Dolly Parton, who swings between country and pop, continues to tour the globe and make new music at 72.
Jennifer Lopez, who turns 49 in July, has a multimillion-dollar Vegas residency down the road from 50-year-old Celine Dion who is also managing to juggle the Vegas and Australian tour circuit this year.
Tina Turner broke ground for those women: she’s 78 now and has effectively retired but was still touring as recently as 10 years ago.
Since her Intimate and Live tour 20 years ago, Kylie has transformed herself into a seasoned live performer who can launch an international arena tour on the back of each new album.
OF course, being famous means Minogue’s personal life is public. Yet she’s handled the spotlight with grace. That’s helped by her parents (who instilled a strong work ethic and business skills into their kids) having never done an interview and being skilled in the art of not being photographed on a red carpet. And people waiting for a family feud with sister Dannii will be waiting a lifetime, and tellingly, only one ex-boyfriend has ever sold a story on Kylie after their split.
Kylie is used to copping the whole “Why is she doing/wearing/singing that at her age?” narrative. It’s something Angus Young doesn’t get even though he’s a 63-year-old man in a school uniform.
From the start, Kylie’s had the kind of vicious, relentless criticism that would break lesser people. But one of her major skills is survival, getting through the troughs and enjoying the peaks.
Critics may question her talent, but pop music is a ruthless business and you can’t rely on luck or marketing for a 30-year career.
Maybe she knows what she’s doing after all these years.
Cameron Adams is national music writer
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