Kylie Minogue lining up $120 million Vegas residency
For almost 40 years, Kylie Minogue has been Australia’s undisputed queen of pop. Now, everybody’s favorite girl next door from Melbourne is reportedly in talks for a 12-week run in Vegas that will net her a cool $10 million per week. It’s enough to get anyone spinning around!
Here, we take a look back over Kylie’s life and career to date before checking the latest rumors about how her Las Vegas residency might pan out.
Early life and fame
Kylie is the eldest of three siblings. Born into a middle-class Melbourne family, her father was an accountant, and her mother a homemaker. But all three of the Minogue children went into showbiz. Sister Danni had a successful music career and is now well known as a TV talent show judge, while brother Brendan has built a successful but lower-profile career behind the cameras.
After some childhood cameo roles in advertising and soaps, Kylie’s big break came when she successfully auditioned for the role of Charlene in Neighbours. Charlene’s romance with Scott Robinson, played by Jason Donovan, was one of the stories that defined the decade. And the celebrity press could barely contain themselves when Kylie and Jason got together in real life, too, although, unlike Charlene and Scott, they never tied the knot.
Kylie’s Neighbours success made her an international superstar, and that certainly did no harm to her burgeoning music career. Her debut album, Kylie, spent several weeks at the top of the charts and was the top-selling album of the 1980s by a female artist. Despite her success, critics found her dance-oriented pop hard to take seriously. One critic famously made one of the greatest back-handed compliments of our times when he remarked “her cuteness makes these rather vapid tracks bearable.”
International millennial stardom on stage and screen
Kylie released seven more albums between 1990 and 2004. While none achieved the sales of Kylie they all performed well, and perhaps more importantly for the singer, achieved steadily more praise from the music press as she gradually shed the cutesy bubblegum pop in favor of more mature sophistication.
While Kylie has always placed her music career above all else, she has not entirely abandoned the world of acting. By far her biggest role was in the musical extravaganza Moulin Rouge! In this, she starred alongside Nicolle Kidman, Ewan McGregor, and Jim Broadbent. It gave Kylie an opportunity to explore the whole showgirl image, which was something that would feature in subsequent tours.
Next stop the casino city?
Kylie eschews the Australian stereotype and is not typically a regular at the world’s big casinos. The truth is most Australians have taken their gambling online and prefer TopAustralianGambling.com's list of low-deposit casinos for their casino gaming due to a succession of problems with land-based casinos in Australia over recent months. But if Australia’s favorite daughter ends up in Sin City you can bet there will be an influx of Aussie accents on The Strip.
If there’s one thing Kylee’s Showgirl tours demonstrated, it is that she would be right at home with a Las Vegas residency. So far, it is challenging to differentiate fact from rumor, but major newspapers have been citing “reliable sources” close to the star saying that she has been in closed-door discussions with both Planet Hollywood and Caesar’s Palace. The latter is, of course, where Adele is scheduled to complete her own 12-week residency after it ended before it even began last year. Other major stars to have had recent Vegas residencies include Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Jennifer Lopez, so Kylie would be in good company.
Personal life, health, and wealth
Kylie recently celebrated her 54th birthday. She has never married or had children, but she has been in some high-profile relationships over the years. Of course, the most famous was with Jason Donovan, a relationship that ended after three years as a result, according to Kylie, of Jason’s drug and alcohol addictions at the time. However, in recent years the pair have rekindled their friendship and they even reunited on stage in 2018.
Kylie has also been in relationships with Michael Hutchence, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Olivier Martinez, Andrés Velencoso, and Joshua Sasse, to whom she was briefly engaged in 2016. Most recently, she was in a relationship with Paul Solomons, the Creative Director of British GQ, but they are understood to have split earlier this year after five years together.
In 2005, aged 36, Kylie was successfully treated for breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy followed by chemotherapy. After several years as a UK resident, she recently moved back to Melbourne to be close to family. She has a current net worth of around $150,000, a figure that could double if her Vegas residency goes ahead.
Fact Check
We endeavour for accuracy. If you believe our content has any misinformation, violates your copyright, or you want to propose an update, please feel free to contact us.