‘Kylie’ by Kylie
A 30th anniversary celebration of Kylie Minogue’s eponymous debut album
4th July 1988. Where were you? Were you alive then?(!) Well for some of us it was a day we will not forget. They say you are defined by your teenage years, those around you and influences from music and film. Well in 1988 you couldn’t move for one 19 year old Australian lady by the name of Kylie Minogue.
She had wooed us all as the greasy mechanic Charlene Mitchell in the hit soap opera ‘Neighbours’. As if that wasn’t enough, she then branched out into singing with her version of Little Eva’s 1962 classic “The Locomotion”, which topped the Australian singles chart for SEVEN weeks in 1987. She came to London later that year to record with hit songwriters and producers Stock Aitken Waterman. The result was “I Should Be So Lucky”, a multi million selling number one across the world. That was followed by the Australian No.1, UK No.2 hit “Got To Be Certain”.
Kylie seemed unstoppable. Perhaps this success was made more possible without the presence of any chart competition from other female artists. Madonna was writing and recording her fourth studio album “Like A Prayer” and Whitney had released five singles from her 1987 long player “Whitney”. Belinda Carlisle and Gloria Estefan were both having success at home in the US and internationally, but it was the arrival of the diminutive Australian that seemed to fill the gap of a star female singer. And she was new too!
After three massive global smash hits, Kylie together with her PWL Studio released a whole album of songs that fourth day of July. Simply entitled “Kylie”. Ten songs sung by Kylie. Kylie on the cover. It needed nothing else.
Kylie embarked on a massive publicity tour to promote the album including here on Terry Wogan’s prime-time chat show in the UK.
Any fears the music buying public could not stomach a full album of Kylie songs were quickly blow away. “Kylie” took the global charts by storm reaching No.2 in Australia and selling 460,000 copies. In the UK the album entered the chart at No.2 and rested itself at the top spot the following week. To date it has sold over 2.1 million copies there, becoming the biggest seller of 1988 and the 5th biggest selling album of the 1980’s.
The rest of the world told a similar story:
France – 315,000
Germany – 390,000
Japan – 260,000
US – 500,000
Canada – 125,000
The album went on to sell over 5,500,000 copies worldwide, becoming Kylie’s most successful release until “Fever” in 2001.
A total of six singles were released from the album including “Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi” (UK No.2, Australia No.11), “It’s No Secret” (US No.37, Japan No.4) and “Turn It Into Love” (Japan No.1).
Amazingly that all happened thirty years ago! And who would of possibly thought that thirty years later we would not only be celebrating its release, but bathing in the glory of Kylie’s fourteenth studio album “Golden“!
We are so lucky. Lucky, lucky, lucky!
For more about ‘Kylie’ the album, click here.
For all things Kylie, album reviews, live performances and much more CLICK HERE
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