Princess of pop’s newest crowning: Kylie Minogue to join Ted Albert honour roll
Two months after beginning her world tour here, Melbourne-born pop singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue will soon be honoured with one of the top accolades in Australian music.
Two months after beginning her world tour on our shores, Melbourne-born pop singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue will soon be honoured with one of the top accolades in Australian performing arts.
On Tuesday, she was announced as the newest recipient of the Ted Albert award for outstanding services to Australian music.
Named after the pioneering record producer and entrepreneur, who died in 1990, Minogue will join a diverse roll-call of previous Ted Albert award recipients, including Helen Reddy, Colin Hay, Archie Roach, The Wiggles, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel and The Seekers.
The princess of pop’s newest crowning will take place as part of the annual APRA Music Awards, to be held on April 30 at Melbourne Town Hall, where lead nominees include Kevin Parker (aka Tame Impala), Tones and I, and Missy Higgins.
“As one of Australia’s biggest and brightest stars, Kylie was an obvious choice for this award,” said Jenny Morris, chair of music rights organisation APRA AMCOS.
“Kylie’s huge body of work and stellar career have been a guiding light for so many Australian songwriters and artists who have looked up to her as a beacon of Australian music, and we look forward to seeing what the next chapter of musical greatness will bring.”
The Ted Albert award is only the most recent accolade for Minogue, who on April 4 headlined her first concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City – a remarkable achievement for an artist whose recording career began in 1987 with her debut single Locomotion.
To mark the occasion of her two-night stand at one of the world’s best-known entertainment venues, New York’s Empire State Building was lit in green and gold to honour Australia’s enduring pop star, who enjoyed a career resurgence in 2023 with her Grammy Award-winning single Padam Padam.
Her Tension world tour began with a 10-date run across the nation, starting on February 15 in Perth. When she touched down in Brisbane, The Australian’s review noted that “her depth of catalogue and utter professionalism made for a superlative show”, as the 56-year-old artist dipped into her formidable discography with contagious glee, including tracks from her 17th album, 2024’s Tension II.
All told, Minogue’s Tension tour will consist of 70 concerts booked through to late August, where the tour is set to conclude with three shows in Mexico.
With the annual APRA Music Awards for excellence in Australian songwriting to be held between arena dates booked in Denver (April 29) and Los Angeles (May 2), it seems unlikely Minogue will return to Melbourne to accept the honour, but stranger things have happened in pop music.
“Kylie is such an inspiration to us Gen X and Y female musicians because she’s had so much longevity in the industry,” said Missy Higgins, who in 2014 covered Minogue’s moody, memorable single Confide In Me.
“She continues to tour consistently and remain exciting and relevant,” said Higgins, who is nominated for peer-voted song of the year and most performed alternative work. “I wanted to cover Confide In Me not only because it’s an incredible song but also because Kylie is just such an important figure in the history of Australian music – and she’s still going strong.”
Julian Hamilton of Sydney electronic duo The Presets is music director of the APRA Music Awards, and he’s been tasked with working up a tribute to Minogue’s work to be unveiled on the night.
“It has been an immense pleasure curating a performance of Kylie’s work for the awards this year,” said Hamilton. “With so many hits to her name, this hasn’t been the easiest of tasks though. We have a fabulous young singer preparing something very special for the night. I think folks will be blown away.”
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