Kylie's Latest Interview

So, what's up with the Impossible Princess?:

THERE'S one T-shirt Kylie Minogue fans won't be able to buy as a souvenir of her Showgirl Homecoming tour. They're the shirts the singer is planning to print up for her road crew sporting the Frankie Goes to Hollywood-inspired slogan "Kylie Says Relax". "The motto for this tour is 'We're over stress'," Minogue says.

Actually, that motto is exactly emblematic of her appeal. It's unlike Madonna's emblem, which is more like - do as I say!

Always a glass-half-full type, Minogue pauses when asked what positives she's taken from her illness. "Positives? How long have you got? It's about people . . . my family, friends, my medical team . . . and how resilient we are. How you discover different layers of yourself you didn't understand in how you deal with the situation.

"It's like your world is falling down around you, and no one knows until you're in that situation how you will cope with it. And there was so much love and goodwill from my fans and the public."

Good!

Minogue admits the other side-effect of her illness was discovering a new passion for her craft, and the impact it has had on others judging by the endless flood of cards she has received from the public. "The discovery that sounds all too obvious for me to be saying is, 'This is what I do'," Minogue says.

"Performing, relating to people, communicating is what I do. I'm hoping to get back on track, but I'm even more determined than before to do it well. I feel really inspired, more than I have for quite a while."

Also good, since Minogue has admitted in the past to a certain, searching ambivalence.

Minogue hooked up with Jake Shears and Babydaddy of Scissor Sisters in New York, the team behind her 2004 hit I Believe In You. The New York jaunt spawned the new song White Diamond, which Minogue hints will appear in the Homecoming tour.

"It's glorious," Minogue says of the song. "It's another track you'd expect from Jake, Babydaddy and I. It's a big, shiny, raising-the-arms-in-the-air moment. We're dying to get back in the studio together again.

"Jake is the greatest," Minogue says. "The last thing he said to me was 'We should dress up in each other's clothes!' because we're so alike in so many ways."

Good teammates, but forgive me if I leave the room prior to the dress exchange.

Minogue's illness demonstrated the loyalty felt not only by fans who held on to their tickets, but by her road crew - who remain almost unchanged to a person.

"When I was diagnosed and in those months when no one really knew what was going to happen, my tour manager told me the crew had to go and take other jobs, but only on the provision that if they got the call that my tour was back on, they could get out of their other jobs.

"There's so much devotion. I'm sure I'm going to see these big burly crew members who have seen it all and done it all with maybe a little tear in their eyes."