Kylie Minogue has been a star for more than two decades despite being just 36 years old. She has enjoyed a career characterised by constant re-invention and become one of the world’s raunchiest - and richest – pop performers.

Once derided by music critics as the "Singing Budgie", she nevertheless sold millions of records to adoring fans in the UK, Australia and more recently across the Continent as well.

Kylie’s first taste of fame began with her role as tomboy mechanic Charlene on the Australian soap opera Neighbours after smaller roles on other television dramas Down Under.

Playing opposite Jason Donovan, she soon became far more famous in Britain than Australia and her popularity was heightened by a highly successful partnership with pop producers Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW).

She left the soap in 1988 to concentrate on her pop career, after I Should Be So Lucky hit No 1 in January that year. She had another three No 1 singles and five reached the No 2 slot.

For years, Kylie was written off as a B-list Madonna. It was not so much her songs that prompted the comparison as the way she relied on re-invention. Madonna was the first female star to constantly alter her image between albums. When Kylie did the same, she was seen to be copying the queen.

But Kylie's reinventions have been far more risqué. Madonna had always sold herself as a bad girl with bags of attitude.

Her image changes, though, were simply twists on the same theme - the belly baring slut, the Catholic girl who sold sex with religion, the strip shows on stage.

Kylie, on the other hand, was the clean-living, curly haired girl-next-door. In the Aussie soap, Kylie had been the chirpy, dungaree-clad sweetheart who married the blond boy from her cul-de-sac.

When SAW took her on, they kept what the public loved about Kylie. She covered The Loco-motion, the ultimate family party track, wore flouncy skirts in pastel colours and smiled whenever a camera came near her.

Against Pete Waterman's advice, after a couple of years selling millions of singles, Kylie decided she wanted more control over her image and decided to raunch it up.

In a move that could have ended her pop career - SAW dropped her over it and her sales suffered - Kylie not only adopted a new look, she overhauled her attitude. For the first time, she came across as a grown-up who made her own decisions.

Kylie's rebirth was well under way by the time she met Michael Hutchence, the late INXS singer she dated for a few years, although there was no doubt he speeded it up.

As a child actress who had worked from a young age, Kylie had never been exposed to a world without rigid rules. Her confidence soared as she realised the freedom in doing as you pleased. More importantly, she saw the credibility that came with it.

From then on, there was no stopping Kylie. When she wanted to dip into dance in the mid-1990s, she did so, although it did not work out quite as well as she planned.

She shocked her old fans by recording with Nick Cave, but proved to herself she could be cool. Her "indie Kylie" phase was derided, but it didn't stop her making music. In fact, it helped to convince her that pop is where her heart lies.

After almost 18 years of having hits, Kylie could be dismissed as a pop relic who is still trying to compete with teenagers. But we actually believe Kylie is doing what she wants, rather than trying to stay in the charts. When she flashes that famous broad smile, it doesn't look fake.

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