Kylie 'is a fighter'
2005-05-18 06:43
Sydney - Kylie Minogue who was diagnosed with breast cancer, has a "tough few weeks ahead of her", her promoter Michael Gudinski has said.
"She's a pretty fit girl and a strong girl, and hopefully it (the cancer) is pretty early," Gudinski said.
"The one thing I know about Kylie is, she's a fighter, and we're all thinking very, very positively and can't wait for the day she is smiling and back in action."
Minogue will undergo immediate treatment, her management said on Tuesday, announcing the postponement of her Asian and Australian tours.
The 36-year-old singer, who once auctioned one of her bras to promote breast cancer awareness, flew into Australia last week to spend time with her family before the start of the Australian leg of her Showgirl tour.
Apologised to fans
The star apologised to fans for the postponement of the shows but said she hoped to be back performing soon.
"I was so looking forward to bringing the Showgirl tour to Australian audiences, and am sorry to have to disappoint my fans," she said in a statement issued by the Frontier Touring Company.
"Nevertheless hopefully all will work out fine and I'll be back with you all again soon."
Billy Leung, a Hong Kong-based spokesperson for Minogue's record company EMI, said shows in Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong would also be cancelled.
She has just finished a long European tour and was scheduled to headline the prestigious Glastonbury music festival in southwest England in late June.
Boyfriend's by her side
Accompanying Minogue in Melbourne is her French boyfriend, film star Olivier Martinez. Her sister and fellow pop star Dannii was also expected to fly home from London.
Minogue, who turns 37 next week, rose to fame in Australia and Britain in the 1980s playing a girl-next-door role in Neighbours but found spectacular success in a pop career launched in 1987.
She has since scored more than three dozen hit singles worldwide, including over 20 top 10 hits and seven number ones over three decades in Britain, as well as nine top-selling albums.
In the process she transformed herself from a gawky teenager with frizzed hair to a svelte sex symbol with a penchant for raunchy videos, appearing as cover girl on dozens of glossy magazines and even launching her own lingerie line.
Her first major hit was a cover of Little Eva's 1960s hit Do The Locomotion in the early 1980s. After a lower profile 1990s, her career was given a boost when the disco-influenced Can't Get You Out of My Head topped the charts worldwide in 2001.
Tabloid fodder
Her sometimes turbulent love life has also been popular tabloid fodder, notably her relationships with late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, Neighbours star Jason Donovan and current Hollywood heart-throb Martinez.
Kylie has been a promoter of breast cancer awareness and in 2002 one of her bras sold for $5 685 at an auction to raise money for research into the illness.
Commentators have said that Minogue was prompted to campaign against the disease once her childhood idol, Olivia Newton-John, was diagnosed with the illness.
"Kylie is very much like Olivia Newton-John. Olivia has had breast cancer and dealt with it," music journalist Molly Meldrum told Sky News.
In 2002 Minogue's father was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Australians, who initially viewed Minogue's pop career with scepticism, have grown to respect the ever-changing icon. More than 290 000 people flocked to a three-month exhibition of her outfits, including gold lame hotpants, in Melbourne last week.
Hundreds of people registered their sadness on the star's official website after hearing news of her illness.
"I don't know how to accurately describe how I am feeling right now. SHOCK is the best word that comes to mind," wrote Matt from Queensland.