Dannii Minogue

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Dannii Minogue

Dannii Minogue has graced the covers of international magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, InStyle and Marie Claire. She’s a fashion icon and well known for her hard work, professionalism and global success in the entertainment industry, particularly television, fashion, literary and music fields.

Dannii’s long-standing relationship with the Seven Network in Australia saw her complete her seventh series in 2015 as a judge on The X Factor, three years in Australia (2013 -2015) and four years in the UK (2007-2010). She returned alongside Guy Sebastian, as well as new judges and legendary performers Chris Isaak and James Blunt. The series finale saw Dannii and her sister Kylie perform together on television for the first time in 30 years, singing their Christmas disco hit ‘100 Degrees’ from the Kylie Christmas album, with the video clip taking the number one spot world-wide on the iTunes music video chart the same week. Dannii then flew over to London in December, to perform ‘100 Degrees’ at Kylie’s Christmas concert at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, much to the surprise and thrill of the audience.

In 2014, Dannii announced her exciting new venture as a designer for Target, introducing the first ever line of Petites clothing. The ‘Dannii Minogue Petites’ collection was launched at the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF) in March 2014 to an overwhelmingly positive reception and has continued to grow and achieve record-breaking sales since. The incredible response has led to major growth of ‘Dannii Minogue Petites’ brand in Target, with Luxe and Active Wear lines added in 2015. The Petites collection is designed for ‘petite’ women ranging from sizes 4-16 who struggle to find clothing tailored to their shape and size. Most recently, Dannii’s range extended beyond Petites to introduce a Maternity range for all women and a gift collection just in time for Christmas 2015. Her ranges are available in more than 200 Target stores throughout Australia, available online and can be shipped to the UK.

2015 also marked the 25th ‘Danniiversary’ of her very first Australian single release, ‘Love & Kisses’, and Dannii’s long-awaited and much anticipated return to music which she announced at the 2015 Sydney Mardi Gras event. The performance wowed thousands of attendees who were treated to a spectacular disco-mega-mix area production, brought to life by the world famous creative team at Squared Division .Further to her performance and announcement, and cementing her title as Queens of Clubs, Dannii recorded a new song as a celebratory anthem for Mardi Gras, ‘Summer of Love’, featuring up and coming English rapper Reece Robertson, with the track reaching the number one spot on the UK Club Charts and being remixed internationally by As I Am, Seamus Haji and Rich B & Phil Marriot. This number one song brings her a total of 14 #1 UK Club Chart hits as well as the record for the most amount of consecutive #1’s in the UK Upfront Club Charts.

Dannii first stepped in to the television judge’s chair in 2007 when launching Australia’s Got Talent, completing six series and holding the title as the only original judge whilst the show was on Seven Network. The same year as her debut on Australia’s Got Talent, her popularity and natural ability in the judge’s seat saw Dannii take on the role of judge and mentor on the UK’s highest rating television show, The X Factor. During these years, Dannii worked in both territories on each side of the world in these major format shows between 2007-1010. After completing four consecutive series with ITV in the UK, in 2010, alongside Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole, Dannii decided it was to be her final series. Finishing on a Minogue-style high, her act won the one million pound recording contract over One Direction and Rebecca Ferguson, becoming ‘Team Minogue’s’ second victory. Dannii’s final series of The X Factor UK remains one of the most successful with an incredible audience peak of 19.4 million viewers, and the finale being the most viewed television episode of 2010. In 2013, Dannii joined the on-screen team on Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model for Sky Living in the UK. She was thrilled to work with Elle Macpherson and Tyson Beckford for Season 9 of the worldwide phenomenon and again be able to demonstrate her skill and passion at mentoring in a whole new genre. Sky Living hailed this as the biggest shake-up of the UK show ever, and ratings were the highest the series had ever achieved.

With Dannii’s television judging roles on Australian and UK television taking up much of her career space for the most part of the last decade, she has been overwhelmingly embraced by her audiences. As Dannii is always at the forefront in regard to social media, and passionate about authentically engaging with her fans, she has become a leading influencer, showing this with her 1.25 million Twitter followers, over 440,000 Facebook fans and more than 230,000 current followers on Instagram.

Dannii has been an entertainer since the age of seven, performing professionally ever since. It is due to her outstanding international career and major contribution to the entertainment industry that Dannii was awarded the honorary degree – Doctorate of Media from Southampton Solent University for her services to the entertainment industry over the last 34 years – at a special ceremony on board the HQS Wellington.

Having been embraced by the UK, Dannii was thrilled to have been a part of the British institution Marks and Spencer prestigious nationwide advertising campaigns during 2010, 2011 and 2012; alongside one of her fashion idols, Twiggy.

As a global Ambassador for one of the world’s leading airlines, Etihad Airways™, Dannii unveiled to the world Etihad’s new product and service offering on its Airbus A380 and Boeing B787 Dreamliner aircraft. This includes The Residence by Etihad™, the world’s most luxurious living space in the air, available only on the airline’s award winning A380 aircraft. She has also hosted many events for Etihad Airways™, beginning with the launch of the Melbourne route in 2008, various world conferences and awards nights, including hosting the Los Angeles route launch, with Harry Connick Jnr performing, held at the opulent Beverly House Estate.

In 2009, following Dannii’s appearance on ITV1’s Piers’ Morgan Life Stories where she sat openly discussing for the first time her most personal feelings and life story, came her autobiography ‘Dannii Minogue My Story’, published by Simon & Schuster. Personal, contemplative and passionate, it marked a brave and exciting phase for both artist and audience, with sales exceeding 300,000 copies in the UK alone.

In September 2011, following her best-selling autobiography, Dannii expanded her writing portfolio with a second published book My Style, a 250-page fashion bible. As well as being contracted as contributing editor for AOL’s my daily.co.uk during its inaugural year in 2011, Dannii also enjoyed her contributing editor status at UK’s biggest-selling glossy monthly Glamour during 2011 and 2012, where she was the first female to grace the cover twice in the same year.

Being selected as one of Vogue’s Top 3 most stylish women in the world in 2011 cemented Dannii’s reputation and expertise as a worldwide fashion icon. Dannii’s fashion label Project D London (2010-2013), grabbed world-wide attention and was acclaimed for its high-profile fans including Kate Middleton, Pippa Middleton, Elizabeth Hurley and her sister Kylie Minogue. Dannii has dedicated much of her time these past few years to the fashion industry and was honoured to be the Ambassador for Melbourne Spring Fashion Week 2011.

Very few experience the success and longevity in the entertainment industry that Dannii Minogue has. Dannii first rose to prominence in the early 80’s in two iconic Australian television drama series; Skyways and The Sullivan’s. She later became a house-hold-name for her six-year role in the weekly Saturday night prime-time variety show Young Talent Time, the Australian equivalent of Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club. This was Dannii’s first foray into fashion world, when she signed a deal to design her own fashion range for Kmart at the age of 16, as it turned out designing came natural to Dannii and the first range sold out in a record breaking 10 days. Dannii continued to star in Australian network dramas before joining the internationally successful soap opera Home and Away, where she played the rebellious Emma Jackson throughout 1989 and 1990. Other acting credits include the feature film Secrets (1992) opposite Shine’s Noah Taylor, and UK short film, The Porter (2005) with Max Beesley and Brian Ferry.

With her background in live family entertainment TV, some of Dannii’s favourite career moments are hosting ITV1’s prime-time special Ultimate Movie Toons (2010), hosting UK television prime time special for ITV1 ‘Boyzone at 20: No Matter What’ (2013), presenting The Lion King special for Disney (1995) and hosting the UK Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards (2008). So impressed was the President of Nickelodeon U.S, Cyma Zarghami, that she requested Dannii lecture with her at a members only event at the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA).

As one of Australia’s biggest female exports, Dannii is no stranger to the music charts. In 1990 the then pop starlet released her debut Top 10 single and album Love and Kisses. A string of Top 10 chart hits followed internationally including Jump To The Beat, This Is It, Put The Needle On It, I Begin To Wonder and You Won’t Forget About Me. Dannii proudly holds the music title Queen of the Clubs after scoring a record-breaking 14 Number One dance singles in the UK; more consecutive than any other female artist in the world. This achievement began in 1997 with the Xenomania chart-topper All I Wanna Do. The dance music hits continued with the international hit Who Do You Love Now? in 2001. Madonna then sealed Dannii’s place at the top with Don’t Wanna Lose This Groove in 2003, granting sampling permission (for the first time) with a bootleg of Into The Groove and Don’t Wanna Lose This Feeling. Dannii’s music has earned her more than 200 weeks, virtually four years, on the official UK sales chart, selling in excess of seven million records worldwide. In 2013, Warner Music Australia released This is It: The Very Best Of, a collection of singles spanning the past 23 years. It also featured a new track ‘Cos You’re Beautiful, co-written by one of Dannii’s The X Factor UK contestants, Ruth Lorenzo, and the previously unreleased duet with her sister Kylie, The Winner Takes It All. With music being such a passion for all of her career, Dannii decided to go back into the studio late last year to record one of her favourite Disney movie songs, ‘That’s How You Know’, for Universal’s Australian artists release of the album We Love Disney – released for Christmas 2014. Her most recent single ‘Summer of Love’ being celebrated having recently scored Dannii her 14th #1 Club Chart hit.

From cutting individual and iconic sounds for our dance-floors, Dannii sliced up British radio by creating her own music show called Neon Nights for London’s Capital Radio Group in 2003. Her radio show was the first to ever be sold by the radio network internationally. She has also guest co-hosted on Kyle & Jackie O’s Breakfast Show and guest hosts with Fifi Box.

Dannii’s theatre and musical roles include her all-time favourite movie character ‘Rizzo’ in Australia’s production of Grease – The Arena Spectacular, playing to more than 450,000. Next came the role of Lady Macbeth in a special outdoors adaptation of Macbeth for the Edinburgh Festival. Another triumph saw Dannii play leading role ‘Esmeralda’ for five sell-out months in Notre Dame De Paris at London’s prestigious Dominion Theatre. It was here that Dannii picked up the award for ‘Best Stage Performance,’ playing to a 2,000 strong audience, seven times a week.

Last summer Dannii joined forces with Invisible Zinc as the face of their “Some Spots Can Be Dangerous” campaign to raise money for all-important research undertaken by Melanoma Institute Australia. For every share of the video created for the campaign featuring Dannii painted in leopard spots, Invisible Zinc donated $1 to Melanoma Institute Australia. The campaign exceeded all expectation securing record contribution for the Invisible Zinc campaign.

Outside the world of showbiz, Dannii supports various organisations including The Nappy Collective, St Kilda Mums, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre and CVQO.

VIDEOS

Dannii Minogue – I Begin to Wonder
Dannii & Kylie Minogue Live
Dannii Minogue on creating “Petite” range for Target

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/dannii-minogue