Over the weekend, I did a post about Kylie Minogue’s appearance on the new issue of Blackbook Magazine. I’ve always considered Kylie to be a cute girl, and it pains me how much work she’s had done to her face. It also pains me that we’re supposed to pretend her face is the product of some Botox that she no longer does. Another thing that bothers me? Kylie thinks she’s way more important than she is. Sure, I’ll give her the gay icon status, and yes, I’ll give her a “dance-music queen” title too. She’s made some good to great dance music, and she’s famous for having a great ass. She’s also a cancer survivor, and I can’t imagine how much she’s struggled over the past years, dealing with cancer treatments and then remission, not knowing if it was going to come back. But she reckons that she and Madonna are on the same field, and that she (Kylie) is one of Lady Gaga’s influences. The full Blackbook interview is here, and here are some highlights:

On her business savvy: “I have big ambitions,” says Minogue, once the most-groped wax figure at Madame Tussauds’ famed London gallery. “But I’m really quiet about it. What’s that saying? ‘Never let people know how much you know.’”

On her early acting career: “Acting was the first thing I did when I left high school,” she says. “I signed up for the dole when I graduated, but I never got a check because I started working on Neighbours. Fame wasn’t the driving force, but I can’t say I didn’t aspire to it at all. I used to daydream as a kid that my neighbor was a record producer and that he would hear me singing.”

On her career, post-cancer: “When I came back after I’d healed, I realized, more than ever, that performing is what I do,” she says. “It’s what I love to do. Strangely, I’m less stressed about getting in front of an audience now, and so the shows have gotten better.”

On her new album: “I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this about an album. Although I’m not taking the title too literally,” she says, “Aphrodite is the goddess of love, and as far as the music goes, there’s a feeling of euphoria on this one.” Perhaps this new sound reflects her current state of mind? “Am I happy right now?” she asks. “What’s happy? I have moments of happiness and sometimes they’re even strung together, but I definitely have dark moments, too. Thankfully, those don’t last very long. I can go down very quickly, but I won’t stay there.”

On being a gay icon: It’s hard to imagine where Minogue would be today without her gay following, a devout demographic she first encountered in 1998, when drag queens began performing her songs in Sydney, Australia. “I was ecstatic when I found that out,” she says. “Shocked, but ecstatic. Before I knew it, I was cradled in their arms.” Her star rose in tandem with her over-the-top stage show, suggesting that perhaps Minogue knew a good thing when she saw it. But, she insists, “As far as the music goes, I’ve just kept doing what I do, which is, I suppose, what endeared me to them in the first place.” But surely there are times when she caters to her gay fans? “I don’t know how to answer that question,” she says, before a considerable pause. “To be honest, I like not having an answer to that question, because it was never calculated in that way.”

On the comparisons to Madonna: “But it’s a bit of a lazy comparison now,” she says. “If someone were to look at it more closely, they’d see that I have a lot of influences that precede Madonna.” She adds, “We have friends in common. She’ll pass me a message and I’ll pass a message back to her. I’m sure we’ll meet one day and have a good laugh.”

On Lady Gaga: The terrain of dance-pop has shifted considerably over the last couple of years, namely because of Lady Gaga, whose oddball combination of couture and camp has endeared her to fans of all sexual persuasions. “I think there’s an element of me in her, but you’d also have to add into that mix all of the other women we’ve been talking about,” she says. “It’s all part of a chain. Inasmuch as dance music has gone mainstream, I’d love to think that I’ve played a part in that.”

[From Blackbook]

Am I crazy, or does Kylie only really have a devoted following in Australia and the UK? Sure, she had some hits in America, but is she really this global superstar? Eh. And maybe I like Lady Gaga too much (true story), but it seems like Gaga is out there doing her own thing for the most part, and handing the other dance hall favorites (Madge, Kylie) their collective asses. Gaga has had how many number one hits in the past three years? More than Kylie has had in her whole career.

BlackBook photos courtesy of The Fashion Spot.