Kylie 'blown away' by OBE honour

Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue has said she was "totally blown away" to receive her OBE from the Prince of Wales.The 40-year-old star has been given the honour for her services to music, just two months after accepting a similar accolade from the French government.Accompanied to the ceremony at Buckingham Palace by her parents and sister Dannii, the diminutive star stepped out of her chauffeur-driven limousine with blacked-out windows looking relaxed and smiling.Wearing a shimmering cream-coloured Yves Saint Laurent dress decorated with large multi-coloured stars and gold high-heeled sandals, she greeted the waiting media with a friendly "hello" before being ushered into the palace.Following the ceremony, in which she laughed and joked with Prince Charles, who was standing in for Queen Elizabeth, Kylie said: "It is an incredible honour for me to receive this award. It makes me feel both humble and proud to be recognised for doing a job that I love so much."Looking at her OBE medal, she added: "This symbolises my communication with my audience and people around the world and that's incredible."She also revealed how Charles had commented about her recovery from breast cancer, saying: "I've met him before and I think that made me slightly less nervous. He just asked what I'm up to at the moment and was happy to see me better."Kylie added: "I'm so happy to be back on tour. This is my second tour since being ill. My energy levels are now so much better. I think I was quite fragile on the last one but it was something I had to do, but now I'm full of joy and very thankful."Asked if Charles had bought any of her CDs, the performer said jokingly: "I don't recall him saying that... I wonder what's on his iPod."The singer talked about her beginnings as a child actress and described how she found herself appearing on TV almost by accident.Speaking about herself and Dannii, she added: "I think we had a natural tendency to perform. I started learning music aged four and I could have been put in any other class and not taken to it but my mother was a ballerina and she wanted to introduce us to the arts."Acting pretty much came as a surprise. An acquaintance of my mother had an audition at a casting department she was working for, they were looking for a little girl and that was it."When the former Neighbours actress found out last December she would be made an OBE, she said: "I feel deeply touched to be acknowledged by the UK, my adopted home, in this way."Minogue's career has spanned more than 20 years, ten albums, and 43 hit singles.She found fame playing tomboy car mechanic Charlene in Neighbours and at Buckingham Palace said she looked back fondly on this period of her career, although soon after she left the soap she admitted turning her back on it.She added: "There were a few years after Neighbours where I was trying to run as fast as I could away from it."It's so long ago now but it's in people's hearts and minds and I'm still amazed that, even with people I've worked with for a while, they will finally come out and say, 'At school we would race home at lunchtime to watch Neighbours'."I can only start to appreciate it now - what a phenomenon it was."Obviously at the time I was working on it thousands of miles away in Australia but the fact people still talk about it and remember it - that's unbelievable."It is her third recent European honour having been made a knight in the Order of Arts and Writing by the French Government and a recipient of Germany's top showbiz honour, the Golden Camera.

ITN | July 3, 2008

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