About Me
Sometimes you have to stop for a moment to appreciate just where youve been and all youve accomplished before you can embrace the future once more. After a staggering sixteen years in the music industry, nineteen hit singles and four top selling UK albums, Dannii Minogue has finally had a chance to draw breath and reflect on her amazing career. To mark the occasion, Dannii is releasing a collection of her previous singles alongside six stunning new songs, fittingly entitled The Hits And Beyond. Its an opportunity for her long-term followers to reminisce along with her but also an eagerly awaited chance for Danniis many new fans to find out just what they missed. Quite simply, its a unique collection of timeless pop songs that few other artists can boast, a selection of tracks that charmed hearts, transcended musical fads and moved dance floors whatever year they were released and, best of all, a sign there is plenty more where they came from. Few artists have had as much fun and success as Dannii Minogue, the girl whose friends lovingly call Disco.
Performing has always been in Danniis blood, though even in her wildest dreams she never imagined her life would turn out the way it has. Brought up on Abba and Olivia Newton John in Melbourne, Australia, she has been singing and entertaining as long as she can remember. There was a lot of jumping around the lounge room at home singing into a hairbrush, she laughs now. I would see people like Abba and think that looked like a really cool thing to do but never in a million years did I think that was something possible for someone like me.
Fate had other ideas, though. At seven, Dannii started in entertainment and soon went on to land herself a permanent role on Young Talent Time, a variety show that was Australias answer to The Mickey Mouse Club and which demanded its young stars sang an amazing seven songs live every Saturday night. It was a great training ground but I just loved singing and dancing so I wasnt thinking about anything else. I wasnt even really aware of the stage and the lights, I was just having fun. Six years later, Dannii moved on to continue acting, eventually landing a role in popular soap Home and Away. After a year there and with a burgeoning music career already in Australia, the 16 year old moved to London and released her debut single, Love and Kisses. Dannii hasnt looked back since.
When I arrived in the UK, I was completely overwhelmed! she remembers. I was like a kid in Disneyland. Theres no way in the world I thought that all these years later Id still be living here, writing and producing records. I just remember feeling like a country bumpkin and not knowing what was going on at all. People would get excited because I was going on Blue Peter and I didnt even know what those shows were. Id be thinking, what are you talking about? Whats a Blue Peter badge?! I really had no idea where I was or what I was doing but I didnt care because I was having such a good time.
Success soon followed and Dannii found her feet as the UKs newest pop princess, scooping countless magazine awards and hosting TV shows including Top of the Pops. By the time she released her second album, Get Into You (featuring the hit singles Show You The Way To Go and This Is It), she had also discovered a new-found passion for dance music.
We didnt really have dance music on the radio in Australia, Dannii explains, so if you were a kid and you didnt go to clubs, you werent really aware of it. Then I had my track, Baby Love, remixed by Steve Hurley [renowned house music producer who has worked with the likes of Madonna and Michael Jackson]. That was the first thing I did that was really cool and my love of dance music and clubbing started from there. There were so many different things to be exposed to, I loved going to specialist clubs like R&B - there was no such thing in Australia so I was excitedly discovering all these new sounds.
Even then, this new dance interest influenced the direction of Danniis outstanding third album, Girl (featuring the hit singles All I Wanna Do and Everything I Wanted), which received rave reviews and led to a breathtaking five month run in the lead role of Esmerelda in Notre Dame de Paris at Londons Dominion Theatre, a role that would win Dannii critical acclaim.
It wasnt until 2001, though, that Dannii really realised her musical potential and started to find her feet in the notoriously hard-to-crack dance world.
Friends had been going to Ibiza for years but it wasnt until I went myself that it finally all made sense, Dannii explains. Then I realised that its the place where all the DJs come together and where all the music thats going to matter over the next twelve months is tried and tested. Its an amazing place to be and I still have to go there every year because I feel like I need that contact with the DJs because theyre such style makers. Its important to me to know what theyre up to and peek into their record bags!
After forging a friendship with Pete Tong, the superstar DJ asked Dannii to sing on the track Who Do You Love Now? The single went on to sell a phenomenal 200,000 copies and enter the UK charts at number 3. It was all the encouragement Dannii needed to start writing properly and she retired to Sweden to pen her fourth album, Neon Nights (featuring the hit singles Put The Needle On It and I Begin To Wonder).
I took everything Id seen and heard in London and just went away from it all and focused. Id done writing before, but nothing like this. I knew I could fall flat on my face but Im an all or nothing person. I had to give it a go rather than regret not trying it so I hung around studios, learnt from other people and then had a stab at it myself. Thankfully, that album got a whole different kind of attention and respect and great sales too. It was pretty terrifying but it made me realise it was ok to be in control and have an opinion on every aspect of the creative process. Now writing and producing is the biggest part of what I do.
The results wowed the music world, including America. Who Do You Love Now? kept Justin Timberlake and Beyonce off the top of the dance charts there for a staggering seventeen weeks, while Dannii was considered to be the stunning face of European dance music abroad. Back in Ibiza, a dance track shed written the lyrics to called You Wont Forget About Me vs. Flower Power was fast becoming the hit of the summer. Dannii had finally been accepted as the international queen of the dance floor, elevated from keen clubber herself to the voice behind the very tracks getting people into clubs.
Its a dream come true and I could never have planned all this, she smiles. Its strange that its taken so long but now Ive found a place where I feel comfortable and where the audience is on the same wavelength too. I guess Ive finally found that special ingredient in me that means I can put my stamp on tracks and make them individual. I dont want to lose that but I dont want to rely on sticking to a formula either, so my new tracks will be the big test for me.
The Hits and Beyond gives Dannii and her fans the chance to start this new, exciting journey into the future together. Rightly proud of her past, it offers one last look over her shoulder but, crucially, also a beginning of something even more interesting to come. The albums new songs reveal a creative maturity that proves just how at home Dannii feels in the studio now. Combining her love of unforgettable, upbeat melodies with the pounding dance rhythms she knows gets peoples feet moving, Dannii has also focused on each songs emotional resonance this time, opening her heart in the lyrics and sharing her most intimate thoughts and feelings. On forthcoming single, So Under Pressure, for example, we glimpse her private struggles over the last difficult year when her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Its a real achievement for me that I was brave enough to put all that into words, Dannii reflects. Id spent all year saying, everythings going to be fine, were all strong, but then you hear in the song that some days I actually felt like I was in quicksand. I didnt want to go into work at all the day I wrote that but then I realised that is what a songwriter is supposed to do, to write about what youre feeling and experiencing. Its funny that when you write about anything regarding a struggle, you find peace in it and thats where you get the uplifting, anthemic, euphoric feel to the music from.
Never one to take the easy option, Dannii also came up with a particularly challenging video to accompany the single which involves her being wrapped in a cream python twice her size, drilled into a claustrophobic Perspex box and being spun around until she couldnt take it any more. I tried to put different things in the video that made me feel under pressure and it really did! she laughs. It was the hardest video Ive ever done so I kept thinking, why on earth did I come up with this concept? Actually the one thing people tell me they couldnt do is be that close to a snake but that didnt bother me at all. It was beautiful. People dont realise but I definitely have that Australian tomboy side to me. I love snakes and sharks and jumping out of planes and stuff. Growing up, I was closer in age to my brother so it never occurred to me that it wasnt a girly thing to ride a bike, covered in mud holding frogs and collecting lizards!
Always full of surprises, 2006 looks set to be Danniis best and most creative yet. She is bursting with ideas and excitement at the prospect of, at 34, finally realising all she is capable of. A huge fan of visually entertaining acts like Goldfrapp, shes keen to test her new material out live, possibly write for other artists and film her lead role in a Sixth Sense-style psychological thriller due to be filmed in Australia.
Theres still a long way to go and a lot to unfold, Dannii promises. I dont know why Im still around and still having hits but Im taking it day by day and hoping more things pop up, things that I would never even have thought of doing. Thats the thrill and the challenge for me and thats what I love.
The new single from called So Under Pressure is out Monday 12th June 2006. The new album The Hits and Beyond is out Monday 19th June 2006 on Universal : All Around The World.
Enjoying a staggering sixteen years in the music industry as a top selling recording artist, nineteen hit singles and four top selling UK albums, Dannii Minogue is returning to the charts this summer with her twentieth UK single, So Under Pressure, a song that will no doubt continue Danniis reign as the undisputed queen of the dance floor.
Taken from her forthcoming album The Hits and Beyond (released June 12th), the highly charged So Under Pressure showcases Danniis writing skills as she joins up with co-writers Terry Ronald and Mike Ward and legendary dance producer Lee Monteverde of LMC Productions. Lyrically the song glimpses into Danniis private struggles over the past difficult year.
Its a real achievement for me that I was brave enough to put all that into words, Dannii reflects. Id spent all year saying, everythings going to be fine, were all strong, but then you hear in the song that some days I actually felt like I was in quicksand. I didnt want to go into work at all the day I wrote that but then I realised that is what a songwriter is supposed to do, to write about what youre feeling and experiencing. I found that writing about this struggle, helped me find peace in it.
Never one to take the easy option, Dannii also came up with a particularly challenging video to accompany the single which involves her being wrapped in a cream python twice her size (10 foot 5 inches), drilled into a claustrophobic Perspex box and being lifted through a white tunnel until she couldnt take it any more. I tried to put different things in the video that made me feel under pressure and it really did! she laughs. It was the hardest video Ive ever done so I kept thinking, why on earth did I come up with this concept? People dont realise but I definitely have that Australian tomboy side to me. I love snakes and sharks and jumping out of planes and stuff. Growing up it never occurred to me that it wasnt a girly thing to ride a bike, covered in mud holding frogs and collecting lizards!
Danniis dance music career started in the early 90s, her passion for the music elevated her from keen clubber to the voice behind the very tracks getting people into clubs. After forging a friendship with Pete Tong, the superstar DJ asked Dannii to sing on the track Who Do You Love Now? The single went on to sell a phenomenal 200,000 copies and enter the UK charts at number 3. I took everything Id seen and heard in London and Ibiza and just went away from it all and focused on writing The results wowed the music world, including America. Who Do You Love Now? kept Justin Timberlake and Beyonce off the top of the dance charts there for a staggering seventeen weeks. More chart success soon followed with the worldwide smash I Begin To Wonder debuting at number 2 in the UK charts. Back in Ibiza 2005, a dance track Dannii had written the lyrics to called You Wont Forget About Me vs. Flower Power was fast becoming the hit of the summer. The song would chart top five throughout Europe and the Far-East. To date Dannii Minogue has charted at number 1 in the dance specialist arena an impressive ten times and this summer looks set to bring even more record-breaking hits.
Always full of surprises, 2006 looks set to be Danniis best and most creative yet. She is bursting with ideas and excitement, finally realising all she is capable of. Theres still a long way to go and a lot to unfold, Dannii promises. I dont know why Im still around and still having hits but Im taking it day by day and hoping more things pop up, things that I would never even have thought of doing. Thats the thrill and the challenge for me and thats what I love.
The new single from Dannii Minogue called So Under Pressure is out Monday 5th June 2006 and features special release mixes by Soul Seekerz, Steve Pitron, Thriller Jill and Riffs & Rays. The new album The Hits and Beyond is out Monday 12th June 2006 on Universal : All Around The World.
// THE SINGLES //
// WATCH THE LATEST VIDEO - SO UNDER PRESSURE //
THIS IS NOT DANNII MINOGUE. THIS IS A FAN RUN MYSPACE.
