Dannii Minogue

Biography of Dannii Minogue

Danielle Jane "Dannii" Minogue was born October 20, 1971 in Melbourne, Victoria. She is an Australian-British singer and actress. She is the younger sister of the internationally successful Kylie Minogue and has sold over seven million records worldwide to date.

Minogue is the youngest daughter of Ron and Carol Minogue. Her older siblings are Kylie and Brendan, who works as a cinematographer for Australian television. Minogue was married to fellow actor Julian McMahon from 1994 to 1995. After her divorce, she was engaged to former Canadian Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve for a number of years. From 2008 to 2012 she was with former British rugby professional Kris Smith, with whom she has a son (b. 2010).

Minogue's career began on Australian television. She starred in the series Skyways and The Sullivans, among others. From 1979 she was part of the talent show Young Talent Time. In Australia she became a child star and was the better known of the two Minogue sisters until 1986, but she was never able to step out of her sister's shadow internationally. From 1988 to 1990 she played the role of Emma Jackson on the soap opera Home and Away.

Minogue started her international singing career in spring 1991 with the single Love and Kisses, which was released in Australia in autumn 1990. The album of the same name contained the singles Success, Jump to the Beat and Baby Love. The album went gold in the UK, cracked the top ten and has sold over 60,000 copies. In the summer of 1991 she toured South Africa.

The follow-up album Get into You was released in autumn 1993, but only the single This Is It reached the British top ten.

Despite Minogue's most successful single, All I Wanna Do, released in August 1997, her third album Girl was a commercial flop.

From then on, Minogue dedicated herself to a career as a musical singer and in February 2001 successfully embodied the role of Esmeralda in the musical Notre Dame de Paris at London's Dominion Theater.

In the spring of 2003 followed the album Neon Nights, which was certified gold in the UK, and other single releases such as Put the Needle on It, I Begin to Wonder and Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling, each of which made it into the UK top ten.

In June 2006, Minogue released The Hits and Beyond, a best-of album featuring some new songs and all the old hits. In the course of this best-of album, which only sold moderately and dropped out of the top 100 after a week at number 17, a third single called So Under Pressure was released, but it did not reach the British top ten.

In May 2007, Minogue returned to the UK Top 40 with Sister Sledge's cover of He's the Greatest Dancer. In November 2007 their fifth studio album Club Disco was released, which was first available digitally and from 2008 on CD.

In 2008, Minogue appeared increasingly on Australian and British television as a juror for various talent shows. In 2010 her biography My Story, which she wrote during her pregnancy, was published.

Minogue was a judge on Australia's Got Talent from 2007 to 2012 and a judge on The X Factor from 2007 to 2010. From 2013 to 2015 she was a judge on the Australian edition of The X Factor.

In the course of her start as a judge on Australia's The X Factor, Minogue released a best-of album in August 2013, which also included a new song. In September 2013, she released a duet with fellow vocalist Ronan Keating. A year later, she released a new song for a Disney album.

In March 2015, Minogue performed at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. In early March 2015, her first single in eight years, #PressPlay, was released, which also featured British rapper Reece.

In addition to another appearance in England, the single 100 Degrees - a duet with her sister Kylie - was released in December 2015.