Pop megastar launching comeback this month and planning first arena tour in six years
KYLIE MINOGUE will be giving herself a huge workload as a birthday present this year when she launches a comeback just days before turning 55.
I can reveal the Aussie singer is to unveil the lead single from her 15th studio album later this month, ahead of her big day on May 28.
She has worked on the track with top producer Lost Boy, who has previously worked his magic on hits for Ellie Goulding, Becky Hill and Mimi Webb.
The album will follow this autumn, with a major arena tour being planned for 2024, her first in six years.
My music insider revealed: “Kylie has finally finished the album and is now raring to go with her return to music.
“It is being kept under lock and key and hardly anyone at her label has even heard it.
“The first single will be revealed later this month.
“It’s classic Kylie and is sure to go down well with her fans.”
I told in February how fans would have to wait longer for a new album after Kylie decided to wrote more songs for it.
It will be her first since 2020’s Disco, which beat Little Mix to No1 and became the fastest-selling record by a solo act in the UK that year.
Over the past few weeks, speculation has been rife online that Kylie would follow in the footsteps of Madonna and perform as an interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool next weekend, after Madge did so at Tel Aviv in 2019.
But Kylie fans won’t be so lucky, lucky lucky, as neither she nor any other surprise artist will perform during the final on May 13.
A Eurovision source said: “Surprises are being lined up for the night but all performers have been announced.”
Despite going through a break-up with Paul Solomons, her partner of five years, during the process of putting the new album together, Kylie is keeping positive on her record.
I’ve been told it is an upbeat, dance-pop album which will be empowering, rather than dour.
SINGLE RYLAN’S FOREIGN POLICY
EUROVISION could be the perfect place for Rylan Clark to find a boyfriend – because he needs to meet a foreigner who doesn’t know him.
The Radio 2 host, who is in Liverpool to head the station’s song contest coverage, said lots of potential suitors are intimidated by his celebrity status.
Rylan explained: “The biggest issue for me now is I’ve been single for two years, and of course I’d love to meet someone.
“I want the dream of the husband and the kids.
“I have said for so long that I need someone Italian, Swedish or Spanish.
“I don’t care who it is, just somebody who hasn’t got a clue.
“I want to meet someone the old-fashioned way.”
Rylan, who split from his husband Dan Neal in 2021, had a taste of that last year when he pretended to be someone else for an evening.
He told the How To Fail podcast: “I went to Barcelona last year on my own and for an entire night, this group of people thought my name was Josh and I was a lawyer, and it was f***ing great.
“It was amazing until right at the end of the night someone came up to me and went, ‘Oh my God, Rylan, can I have a photo?’.
“It blew my cover.
“If you can make me laugh and you’re decent, I don’t care what they look like, hand on heart.
“My type is gone, because my type doesn’t work for me, clearly. I just want someone nice.”
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GEORGE MICHAEL will be posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
It was revealed yesterday as the 13-strong list of stars was announced in the US.
Fellow British great Kate Bush will also receive the honour, following the renewed success last year of her hit Running Up That Hill.
She has had unsuccessful nominations three times previously.
Other artists in there include Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Rage Against The Machine, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan and Sir Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.
The induction ceremony takes place at New York’s Barclays Center on November 3.
ED SERIES SUMTHING BEAUTIFUL
ED SHEERAN feared his four-part Disney+ series The Sum Of It All would be “a propaganda piece” if he edited it himself.
He gave bosses freedom to use the footage as they wanted, warning it’s an “uncomfortable but beautiful” watch.
Ed attended the premiere, held at the Times Center in New York on Tuesday ahead of yesterday’s release, wearing a black jacket with matching trousers and a white T-shirt.
He said: “I had loads of footage.
“I didn’t want it to be a propaganda piece.
“So I was like, ‘Here is a load of footage and you guys decide what it is and just follow me’.
“They have made what I think is a really beautiful documentary. It is uncomfortable for me at times to watch but I think people will connect to it.”
Ed, whose new album Subtract – his sixth studio record – is released tomorrow, added: “The series tackles subjects that everyone goes through.
“So it’s not like, ‘I’m a famous person, these are famous problems’.”
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OLLY MURS has been finessing his stage show while performing across the country and will live- stream the final concert globally.
In what is being called Best Night Of Your Life, he will stream his show from Manchester’s AO Arena tomorrow, starting at 8.45pm.
Olly has also promised surprises on the night, including a game of Mr & Mrs with his fiancée Amelia Tank before the gig begins.
You can buy tickets from driift.live to watch at home.
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THERE is no stopping Tom Grennan, who is back with yet another party anthem in time for the summer.
Last night the singer dropped his latest single, How Does It Feel, as Radio 1’s Hottest Record, after debuting it during a sell-out arena tour in March.
Tom said: “This song is a reflection of a moment in my life, when I realised I had let something unreal slip.
“It’s a reflection on the excitement that comes when you know you have a chance to rebuild.
“It’s exciting, fun and gives you the energy to want to get up and do what you believe in.”
His 14-track album,What Ifs & Maybes, is out on June 16 and features the song.
Tom, said: “For this whole album, I’ve definitely made a conscious decision for it to be a record people can just dance to.
“An album where people can listen in their own time, or fans can come to a show and they can have that sense of escapism.
“I want them to feel they have no stress and no worries when they’re listening to these songs.
“So I made that conscious decision to write some up-tempo songs that can live in a party world.
“How Does It Feel massively does that.”
NICKI’S TIED UP
NICKI MINAJ has things all tied up in her new video with Kim Petra.
The rapper features on Kim’s song Alone, and she posed in this red latex shirt while dancing around in the visuals.
The clip sees the pair embodying a man’s ultimate fantasies to work out how to get him alone, referencing the title of the song, which came out last month.
It samples Alice Deejay’s hit Better Off Alone, which reached No2 in 1999.
They will be hoping this video helps them go one better by topping the charts.
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Sir Elton John, Guns N’ Roses, Lizzo and Arctic Monkeys are joined by an unlikely name on the Glastonbury line-up – Joe Wicks.
The fitness guru has been announced as a performer at next month’s festival in Somerset, where he will take to the stage in the theatre and circus fields.
Joe, who kept the nation fit during lockdown, has been on tour playing upbeat music and getting people moving.
KAREN’S COSMIC OUTFIT
KAREN GILLAN looks out of this world on her latest leg of film screenings.
She wore this black split skirt to a Florida showing of new movie Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, in which she stars as Nebula.
But it’s unlikely she will be whizzing around the universe in the Tardis again, having played Amy Pond in Doctor Who from 2010 to 2013.
Asked about a potential return to the BBC series, the Scottish actress told Radio Times: “It’s always nice when people appreciate anything that you’ve done.
“But no, it’s cool to see that people are still intrigued by Amy Pond and whether she could return. Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know.”
Given that Karen now has a high- flying Hollywood career, the Doctor probably needs her more than she needs him.