Pop divas from Down Under - SOUNDS FAMILIAR by Baby A. Gil

Kylie Minogue was 17 years old when she started her career as an actress in the soap series Neighbors in Australia. She was cute, peppy and very talented. She could also sing and her revival of Little Eva’s The Loco-Motion produced by the famous Stock/Aitken/Waterman trio, who also made a big star out of Rick Astley, launched her into pop stardom.

Many years later, the darling of teen-aged girls from the Land of Oz is an even bigger star. But of a different sort. Kylie now topbills concert spectaculars that leave audiences stunned and breathless all over the world. Not only because of the spectacular shows or the hit tunes she performs but also because of her well-stacked frame that is almost always clad in revealing costumes.

Fans of the young TV star of the ’80s are often shocked at the transformation but little girls grow up and Kylie is not only teetering on six-inch stilettos these days, she can also give Madonna and Jennifer Lopez fair competition in the physical assets department.

But while she does tend to capitalize on her looks, Kylie does have full control of her formidable singing voice. She now takes a mature approach and is perfectly aware of the requirements of her repertoire. Sensuously appealing with her light ballads, she is also sweetly enticing when she invites her listeners to dance up a storm. It is no wonder then that her followers range from girls who wonder why anybody can look the way she does to men who pant their way through her shows.

Confide in Me and Put Yourself in My Place introduced this new image several years ago. It was perpetuated by her duet of Where the Wild Roses Grow with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds continued into Some Kind of Bliss and is now firmly in place with her latest album Light Years.

More pop than her indie-tinged outings during the ’90s, the album is a lot like Kylie in that it is a slickly-produced package with one potential seller after another. Spinning Around, which opens the album and the next cut On a Night Like This scream chartbuster throughout. Young fans, unless they get jealous, will surely adore her duet with top UK singing idol Robbie Williams. And then there is Bittersweet Goodbye, which echoes some of her early ballads.

Another girl singer from Down Under who deserves a long, good look is Vanessa Amorosi. Pinoys got their first good look at the remarkable 19-year-old during the Sydney Olympics, where she opened the games with Olivia Newton-John and John Farham with a rendition of the rousing Heroes Live Forever. Then giving further proof of her current stature in her native Australia, she was also there at the closing ceremonies singing one of her own hits Absolutely Everybody.

I don’t think that her next appearance a week later was seen by as many viewers worldwide, but you can bet that Vanessa was there at the opening of the Paralympic Games. She sung two songs from her first album, The Power and Shine, for a cause close to her heart. Vanessa had been working with disadvantaged children, mostly the terminally ill for a few years now, and there were several of them present at the Paralympics.

Pretty Vanessa was discovered when she was only 15 years. A child of showbiz parents she started out as a dancer but switched to singing after it was discovered that her sweet voice also packs a lot of power and that she is a gifted songwriter. Her first album The Power, for which she composed several songs, was released only a year ago but she has already become another one of Australia’s very successful exports in the international music scene.

She came out with a biggie on her initial try with the local Transistor label. The Power went straight to the top upon release and is now a double Platinum seller. Her attention-grabbing single Have a Look also reached number one in the Aussie hit charts. This was followed by Absolutely Everybody which made Platinum. By the time another single, Shine was released, Vanessa was under contract with Universal Records and ready for worldwide release.

Vanessa sings with delicate, infectious tones. Now that Olivia Newton-John has hit the half century mark and Kylie is no longer sweet but sexy, there is no need for young pop music fans Down Under to look elsewhere for their own young pop diva with Vanessa around.