Rob's Kylie Minogue Site (Biography 4)

The year 2000 was a very special year for Australia in sporting terms. In the summer, Sydney held the Olympic Games. This was without doubt, one of the finest Olympics ever held. In the closing ceremony, many Australians from the world of sport, music, television, theatre and politics took part in a very spectacular show. Among these was Kylie who sang live to millions of people in Stadium Australia and viewing on the television at home. She sang two songs, starting off with a cover of Abba's "Dancing Queen" and followed this with "On A Night Like This" which was a taster for the upcoming tour.

After the summer Olympics, Australia also hosted the Paralympics. Kylie stole the show in the opening Ceremony. In this show, she performed a stirring version of "Waltzing Matilda" followed by a stunning version of "Celebration". In the BBC commentary, Barry Davies described Kylie as a true pop-icon, not only in Australia, but in the world.

In September 2001, Kylie was asked during an interview on MSN what her proudest moment was in her career. Without a moments thought, she said it was singing at the closing ceremony of the Olympics. She said it was a tremendous honour to be able to sing live to so many millions of people throughout the world on TV and in the Stadium Australia especially as it was in her home land.

October 2001 was a very special time for Kylie. She topped the UK charts simultaneously in all the formats it was possible to do so. "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" was top of the singles charts, "Fever" was top of the album charts, "Kylie - Live In Sydney" was top of the video charts and "Moulin Rouge" in which Kylie played a green fairy called Absynthe was top of the movie charts! That is a record that I'm not aware of anyone else ever achieving.

2001 also proved to be one of Kylie's most successful years to date. "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" became one of Kylie's biggest selling worldwide hits ever. It was released on 17th September, going straight in at Number One that weekend. It spent 4 weeks at the top, becoming Kylie's longest Number One since "I Should Be So Lucky" back in 1988. By Christmas, it was still just outside the Top 10, at number 14, having climbed 7 places from it's previous weeks number 21. By this time it had spent 14 weeks in the charts, all but one of which was in the top 20!! It eventually remained in the charts for 1 week short of half a year and also meant that the follow up single, "In Your Eyes" had its release date put back!

February 20th 2002 was the day of the Brit Awards. I was lucky enough to get tickets for the show. Kylie was nominated for two awards, namely Best International Female and Best International Album with "Fever". She won both of these categories which gave Kylie her first ever Brit awards. She also performed "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" which was mixed with bits of New Orders "Blue Monday." On the back of this performance, "Fever" went back up to Number 4 in the album charts and "Can't Get You Out Of My head" re-entered at Number 36 in the singles charts.