Kylie Minogue gets French cultural honour

Monday, May 05, 2008 PARIS (Reuters) - Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue received one of France's top cultural awards on Monday, the day before her world tour kicked off in Paris.

Minogue was made a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) for "the cultural pleasure she has given French people" and for her love of France, a French Culture Ministry official said.

"Princess of pop, uncontested queen of the dance floors, you are a sort of Midas of the international music scene who turns everything she touches into gold, from records to micro-shorts," Culture Minister Christine Albanel said presenting the award.

"Even if it isn't the part of your anatomy which is the most often praised by the media, you have a big heart," she added.

Pop group Police won the award in October 2007 and other knights include U.S. film stars Sharon Stone and Clint Eastwood.(Reporting by Swaha Pattanaik)

Kylie Minogue album a flop in United States

Friday, Apr 11, 2008
By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Despite an unusually aggressive promotion schedule, Kylie Minogue has bombed in the United States with her first album in four years.

"X," the Australian pop singer's fourth U.S. release and 10th overall, debuted at No. 139 on the Billboard 200 with sales of just 6,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Her previous album, "Body Language," debuted at No. 42 with 43,000 copies in 2004. Two years earlier, "Fever" bowed at No. 3 after selling 114,700 copies.

Minogue, 39, was sidelined for two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. She was in the United States the week of the album's April 1 release, doing TV interviews on NBC's "Today," CBS' "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and the syndicated "Ellen DeGeneres Show." She also sang on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," which was seen by more than 17 million people.

"X" was released internationally last November, debuting at No. 2 in Britain and No. 1 in Australia, her third chart-topper Down Under. She begins a European tour in France on May 6; no U.S. dates have been announced.

Minogue's international fame is not exactly replicated in the United States, where such albums as 2000's "Light Years" and 1990's "Enjoy Yourself" were not even released. Her only other Billboard 200 appearance was with her 1988 debut, "Kylie," which peaked at No. 53.

Still, the relative U.S. anonymity has its benefits.

"It's a slightly weird situation for me because I can still walk the streets here (in Los Angeles) and no one will recognize me. I love it," Minogue told Reuters in January.

A spokesman for Capitol Records, which released "X" in partnership with dance label Astralwerks, said a lot of Minogue's core fans in the United States bought imported copies of the album last year. The campaign for the album is still in its early stages, he added, with the first single, "All I See," going out to radio stations next week. Both Capitol and Astralwerks are units of Britain's EMI Group.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman)