Entertainment
Dannii Minogue says living in big sister Kylie’s shadow in the UK ‘was a weird flip and reverse’ as she was better known sister in Australia
Dannii had been more famous in Australia (Picture: Getty/Instagram/danniiminogue)
Dannii Minogue has lifted the lid on living in big sister Kylie Minogue’s shadow when she moved to the UK in 1990, calling it a ‘weird flip and reverse’ as she had been the better-known sister in Australia.
The then 19-year-old had just spent a successful year on Home and Away and was invited over to promote one of her singles, little knowing that she’d end up spending 22 years in Britain.
She had also had success as a child star, appearing in various Australian soaps from the age of seven before joining the cast of weekly variety programme Young Talent Time in 1982, where she remained for six years.
Speaking to News.Com.Au, Dannii recalled: ‘I came from Australia, where I grew up on TV, and everybody knew me from Young Talent Time, and then I went to London and then I was the girl from Home and Away who’s Kylie’s sister.
‘And I had a good five years of that: every introduction was, “You’re Kylie’s sister.” Which she used to get back in Australia, when I was on Young Talent Time, so it was a weird flip and reverse.’
By 1990, Kylie was known by British fans for her role as mechanic Charlene Mitchell in Neighbours, a popular soap in the UK, and had ‘released a lot of music already’, including her cover of The Locomotion, I Should Be So Lucky and her duet with Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan, Especially for You.
Kylie and Dannii are close as sisters and have had similar starts to their careers (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Dannii was particularly frustrated when people would make the connection between her and Kylie’s music careers and assume she was following in her older sister’s footsteps.
‘The hardest question was people would always say, “Oh, so you’re doing music now, because your sister does it?’ And I said, “No, I’ve been singing professionally since I was 10 years old, but great. Cool.”’, she remembered.
Dannii didn’t have to wait long to make her mark in the UK though, with her debut album Love and Kisses certified gold after its release in June 1991.
She has since gone on to carve out a successful career in music and television, appearing as a judge on The X Factor and Let It Shine in the UK as well as Australia’s Got Talent and The Masked Singer Australia.
Dannii and fellow X Factor judge Cheryl Cole (Picture: Ken McKay/TalkbackThames/Rex)
The Who Do You Love Now singer has also appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway Australia, having previously designed her own fashion range, and on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.
More: Kylie Minogue
Dannii, 49, is close with her 53-year-old sister, although they are rarely photographed together as they live on opposite sides of the world from one another.
However, the pair was seen on a shopping trip together in February, after Kylie flew home to spend time with her family in Melbourne.
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