Like Kylie, Dannii got her start on an Australian soap opera. Three years her sister's junior, she got her start in the music industry shortly after Kylie began scoring hits. Dannii's career as a singer got off to a promising start with
Love and Kisses in 1991, scoring four UK top twenty hits with its singles, including the ironically-titled "$ucce$$." Her follow-up album
Get Into You, despite continuing her debut's upbeat mix of pop and dance, failed to find chart $uce$$. Released after four singles, including the top ten hit "This Is It," it missed the top 50 in both the UK and Australia. She disappeared from the music scene after losing her record deal, showing up often in the tabloids and infamously posing nude in the pages of Australian
Playboy. Dannii eventually returned in 1997 with the more mature club sounds of
Girl. Preceding it was her biggest hit yet, the top five "All I Wanna Do," however the album was met with low sales and little $ucce$$ outside of the club charts.
After another hiatus, Dannii collaborated with Riva on the huge international club hit "Who Do You Love Now?" An instant $ucce$$, it reignited her music career and got her a six-album deal with London Records. She returned in 2002 with the addictive dance cut "Put The Needle On It," and solidified her comeback with its follow-up "I Begin To Wonder," just narrowly missing out on her first number one hit in the UK. Her fourth album
Neon Nights hit the top ten in England and went gold, and her run of top ten hits continued with her next two single releases. Her club success soared to new heights, propelled by the popular mash-ups of the album's singles (including the first to ever be allowed to sample a Madonna track). Suddenly, and with little explanation, she switched labels to dance independent All Around The World. Though a follow-up album to
Neon Nights was supposedly imminent, it never materialized. Instead, she released two one-off collaboration singles and eventually a compilation of hits and new tracks called
The Hits & Beyond. It was met with minor $ucce$$ and has since been followed by two limited-release singles, both of which have undeniably flopped due to lack of promotion. With no new music on the horizon, Dannii has most recently released a series of back catalog items, including
Unleashed, a collection of unreleased tracks and mixes, and deluxe re-issues of
Girl and
Neon Nights, much to the joy of her fans. It may be a while before she gets back on top of her musical game, so take the opportunity to look back and see what the minor Minogue has to offer. There's a reason she's known by many as a trashier, more clubbed-up version of Kylie, but no reason to deny yourself of this truly guilty pleasure!
Dannii Minogue Vs. Flower Power, "You Won't Forget About Me" (Radio Edit) [YSI]
Riva Feat. Dannii Minogue, "Who Do You Love Now?" (Riva's Bora Bora Edit) [YSI]
Dannii Minogue Vs. Jason Nevins, "Touch Me Like That" (Radio Edit) [YSI]
For the excellent Dannii mash-ups with classic Dead Or Alive and Madonna songs, check out the recent post
.
This post contains tracks from my own personal Serve Chilled playlist on my computer, which I periodically update (this round is the spring '08 edition). I noticed a handful had a common theme of isolation and decided to roll with it. Keane's "We Might As Well Be Strangers" describes the feeling that someone you once knew well (or thought you someday could know well) has become a stranger. Garbage's "Tell Me Where It Hurts" is a call to comfort a lover, though there is the sense that the lover may have tuned out of the relationship already. Saint Etienne's deceptively upbeat "Been So Long" is an ode to loneliness wrapped up in nostalgic pop melodies. Along the lines of nostalgia and pure isolation, Manic Street Preachers' breakthrough early hit "Motorcycle Emptiness" is a must-have addition to your playlists.
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