‘I don’t feel unlucky in love – it just hasn’t been a fairytale!’: Kylie Minogue’s 7 Attitude covers, revisited

Eternal pop princess Kylie Minogue has a special place in Attitude’s heart – and so too in our 30-year history as a title.

Believe it or not, the ‘Padam Padam’ singer and exemplary LGBTQ ally has appeared on our cover a record seven times. As a friend of the magazine, she also accepted her Legend Award at the 2017 Attitude Awards in person in London. And the honour was all ours.

“You get me and I get you,” she said of the queer community during her acceptance speech. “And that’s enough.”

Here, to celebrate our 30th birthday, we step back in time with Kylie herself – first, to 1997, the era of ‘Indie Kylie’, Impossible Princess and the single ‘Did It Again’. That she did!

Kylie on her gay fans

“I feel so flattered and secure with my gay audience that I’m almost wary of trying to figure out why they’re so good to me… But maybe another part of it is that I’ve been given a hard time in the past and I’ve pulled through” – issue 41, September 1997

Kylie on performing

“It’s like Michael [Hutchence] once said, when you go on stage, always put on your ego jacket. There have been times when I’m about to go on stage and I’ve been yawning, but then I go out and I become the person I want to be. Like I said, I’m the girl on the show pony” – issue 41, September 1997

Kylie on Girl Power

“I saw this Spice Girls special recently – all these 11-year-olds going: ‘We don’t need boyfriends, we’re just into Girl Power!’ … Perhaps they really won’t go through this stage of being pathetically grateful because some guy wants to go out with them. Which would be great. I know I’ve been with boyfriends I should absolutely not have been with” – issue 41, September 1997

Kylie on hitting number one with ‘Spinning Around’

“I was out of town on the Sunday. I’d already arranged to play backgammon. I was so nervous all day. Of course I lose at backgammon. My mind was not on the job. I was suffering major paranoia and then I get two calls on my answer phone saying I’m number one. OK, so it is true. I hung up, went back into the house and you’d think that you’d want to scream but in fact I did the opposite. I just stood in front of these people and cried” – issue 77, September 2000

Kylie on the ‘pink pound’

“People market things – films, records, even supermarket food – towards a gay audience, that fabulous pink pound … My ‘gayness’ happened by accident” – issue 77, September 2000

Kylie on her gay bestie, stylist and fellow Attitude cover star, Will Baker

“It’s really rewarding now we’ve done the Fever tour to know that… you know, I know how long I’ve had to work, how many years it’s taken me to get to this level, and Willy and I together have been at it for ages” – issue 108, December 2002

Kylie on the above cover

“Before we went to this shoot today he was saying ‘I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to do it’ and I said ‘well, that’s good. Because now you understand why I’m a little freaky sometimes.’ You think that I’m carrying on but it’s really difficult sometimes. And this is my day-to-day reality. Sometimes it’s hard to deal with” – issue 108, December 2002

Kylie on her sister Dannii

“Our joke is Minogue is the new Olsen. Apart from the fact we’re probably about 70 years older than them … Dannii’s just great on The X Factor. I, on the other hand, would be useless at it. I suck at auditions myself. I would probably project that” – issue 160, November 2007

Kylie on her biggest song

“Do you remember when I did ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ on the On a Night Like This tour? It should have been the point where everyone goes to the bar. And somehow, they didn’t, so we knew it was working” – issue 160, November 2007

Kylie on love 

“I’m s serial monogamist for a start. I do fall, you know? I do fall. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it isn’t … ‘Unlucky in love!’ God, I hate that pun! I don’t feel unlucky in it – it just hasn’t been a fairytale” – issue 194, July 2010

Kylie on risk-taking

“To the public, me and my career might seem like it’s all very straight. But actually, I think I have taken risks. And my hardcore fans like me to do that. But if I go too far beyond, I think I’ll definitely know about it, I like that I get that reaction. Let’s call it passion!” – issue 193, July 2010

Kylie on career regrets

“With Body Language and X, I hate to have regret, because there was some amazing stuff on there, but there was a niggling voice in my head that just wished they could be a little bit more cohesive” – issue 193, July 2010

Kylie on longevity

“Women like Madonna and Cher have broken ground for me … I’m 45 and it’s my 11th studio album” – issue 243, May 2014

Kylie on her breast cancer diagnosis 

“Obviously I am more fearful because something you didn’t even know was happening to you, hit. It’s like a meteor has hit. Your family is distraught, you’re distraught, and your world is turned upside down” – issue 243, May 2014

Kylie on what she’s like behind closed doors

“The thing that might surprise people is that at home, and with friends, I’m more of a clown and I swear a lot” – issue 295, May 2018

Kylie on her Golden era

“I did go through a weird period where I kind of had a foot in both camps, I wasn’t Radio One and I wasn’t Radio Two. I mean, I’m segueing slightly, but there’s one line that I wanted to get into the album, which is ‘We’re not young, we’re not old, we’re golden’” – issue 295, May 2018