The Neon Nights shine bright for Dannii Minogue's stateside dance album debut
by Lawrence Ferber
What exactly is Dannii Minogue beginning to wonder?
"Is Britney okay at the moment? She seems really not happy," ponders the multitalented Australian export, concern swathing her face. "I wish she would just be like, "You know, I need a few years to be wild. I've done the Mickey Mouse thing and I'm escaping."
Actually, a more pressing point of wonderment would be "When will people in the United States know I exist?" Let the wondering desist!
Neon Nights (Ultra Records) marks the first release to be properly marketed stateside for Minogue - yep, Kylie's little sis. The disc is a sexy, poppy and feverish (couldn't resist!) affair. And it's breaking through fast and fierce. Though it's probably the first you've heard from Minogue, like Kylie, she's been a busy international star since childhood.
“Unfortunately, you guys have got me after I’ve been on the road for a year and a half, so I’m a little bit tired,” admits the petite, brown-haired, blue-eyed Minogue while retiring on a couch in her Tribeca Grand suite. Though she’s based in the United Kingdom, her Australian accent remains intact.
Minogue’s in New York for the Billboard Dance Music Summit. At the closing party, she performed a rousing set from Neon Nights, which was just nominated for an Aria (Australia’s Grammy) for best pop album. The tracks were all hits overseas: “I Begin to Wonder,” “Put the Needle on It,” “Who Do You Love Now” (a 2001 smash done with Dutch trancemasters Riva) and “Don’t Wanna Lose This Feeling.” The latter was recently fused with Madonna’s “Into the Groove” by French pop/ production wonderkids Neimo, who sent his mash-up masterpiece as an e-card to Dannii as a lark. “I thought it’s brilliant and I would love Madonna to hear it,” Minogue recalls. “So we sent it and forgot about it because I thought she’ll never hear it. But then we get a call back and I was really in shock because she gave us the whole backing track, the instrumental, with a slice of her vocal on it. And she’s never done that for any other artist in the world ever!” The track got a proper release, and Minogue is now enjoying another mash-up hit, one that layers vocals from “Put the Needle on It” over Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round.”
The tunes from Minogue’s Billboard set are bubbly and catchy as hell, and she’s an energetic, accessible presence, with perhaps a touch more urban appeal than big blonde sis.
“I’m a lot more spicy!” Minogue giggles, admitting she’s irked when people insinuate that she’s a Kylie clone. The previous day, a woman at a radio station flipped out, babbling on and on about how much she resembled Kylie. “I know we look similar, but I see that we’re so totally different. People who know the whole family - there’s a brother, Brendan, in between - there’s more similarity between me and him. I guess the thing is we just try to do things our own way, which ends up being similar. Same parents - it happens!”
Get Into You
Born Danielle Jane Minogue in October of 1971, Dannii’s now an international superstar from Europe to Japan to Oz. She entered showbiz as a child actress on Australian TV shows Skyways, The Sullivans (alongside Kylie) and The Mickey Mouse Club-esque Young Talent Time. Her first recordings appeared on YTT albums (she covered Europe’s “The Final Countdown” on one!). By age 12, Minogue had her own fan club; for years, Kylie was referred to as “Dannii’s sister.” Her 1990 Love and Kisses album sold more than 60,000 copies, and within a year she racked four Top 15 singles on the U.K. charts. Minogue packed her bags and headed to London for a three-week promo trip…and stayed.
1993’s Get Into You album netted a Top 10 hit, “This is It.” Meanwhile, Minogue dedicated some time to her two-year marriage to Aussie actor Julian McMahon (Charmed, Nip/Tuck), which ended in a painful split. In their breakup’s wake, Minogue did a pictorial for Oz’s Playboy Magazine (which sold out within days of release). She also posed for a topless calendar. Then in 1997, she returned with the well-received disco-pop album, Girl.
In 2001, dropped from her record label, Minogue was enlisted by Riva to sing “Who Do You Love Now,” a single that took her to No. 3 on the U.K. charts and landed a recording offer from London Records.
This Is It
No stranger to Gay Pride and club appearances, Minogue was asked to perform at 1998’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. “I was on the stage with 40 lesbian dancers,” she recalls, “coming up and kissing me, going ‘My God, for the first time we’ve had the stage, it’s not all been about the boys in Sydney.’ The following year I did the song ‘Everlasting Night’ for the Mardi Gras CD. The video was me having a kiss with a girl - and that made the six o’clock news!”
The gays and drag queens are an unquestionably essential component of Minogue’s life. “I’m having a birthday party, and a friend said ‘I was thinking we should have a tarot card reader’ and I said ‘No, I need some drag queens! Otherwise it is not a Minogue party!’”
Put the Needle on It
Several different teams, including Murlyn, Neimo and Terry Ronald/Ian Masterson (two longtime gay friends), worked on Neon Nights. But Minogue’s true inspiration for Neon Nights was her 30th birthday. When her friends asked whether she wanted to run and hide from the milestone, Minogue recalls, “I said no way, I’m having a huge party, I feel fantastic. I wanted Neon Nights to be a little bit retro, because early ’80s was a fun time for me. And I wanted it to feel sexy because that’s how I was feeling! It’s a little time capsule to forever keep that.”
Who Do You Love Now?
Minogue has gotten a charge out of Formula One racer Jacques Villeneuve and former Bros. member (and Pink manager) Craig Logan. Currently, there’s at least one guy Dannii’s giddy about : Justin Timberlake. In fact, the overseas press was abuzz with rumors that the Minogue sisters tag- teamed him following the Brit Music Awards. Dannii insists that their relations with Timberlake remain platonic and that she and her sis would rarely pursue the same bloke.
”We like really different guys,” she confesses. “Kylie likes bad boys, scruffy around the edges. I like clean-cut. The only two…no, three guys we’ve ever both gone ‘he’s cute’ about were Justin, David Beckham and Freddie Ljungberg. Have you seen Freddie’s new pictures from the Calvin Klein underwear campaign? He’s taking over from Travis! I should have brought you…” Minogue begins rifling through a pile of international magazines for photos, then widens her eyes dishily and sits back on the couch. “There’s a big rumor Freddie is gay,” she nods, having shaken off all traces of the weariness betrayed when I first arrived.
