Dannii - The $ucce$$ Interview

After dissecting Kylie's amazing B-sides, I thought I should turn my attention to her lovely sister's poptastic offcuts and have spent the past few days rifling through my Dannii collection. I'll get around to writing about her B-sides sooner or later but for the moment I've been completely distracted by a casual chat recorded almost two decades ago. It had totally slipped my mind that the Australian 7" vinyl of Dannii's enduring signature tune ("$ucce$$") came with a bonus interview disc (below) and I decided to give it a spin in the name of research. I'm so glad I did because it's a revelation, bringing back so many wonderful memories and providing some fantastic insights into the early career of my beloved Dannii before she got those WMDs strapped to her chest and set off to conquer the world - well, at least Ibiza!

Dannii is dragged under the microscope by local television personality Maynard (who I recently saw hosting Leather Pride at the Midnight Shift!) for one of the most revealing interviews of her career. It covers everything from the impending release of "$ucce$$" right through to Kylie's sneaky attempt to torpedo her career by writing the awful "Love Traffic". Maynard asks some fun questions about leaving Home & Away and her relationship with Kylie but the most interesting part of the interview for me is the section about her then yet to be released album. As the reigning Queen of Clubs, it's easy to forget that Dannii's Australian debut was heavily influenced by American R'n'B but it really comes across when she talks about her influences (Bobby Brown, Janet, Aretha... and Kylie!) and her adventures recording the album in New York. A friend was kind enough to digitalise the interview for me and you can listen to it below:

Dannii Interview


As much as I love the juicy tidbits and musical insights, the best thing about the interview is Dannii herself. She's absolutely adorable - funny, unguarded and completely down to earth. Underneath Dannii's heavenly exterior lies the quintessential girl next door, she even has the heavy Australian accent to prove it! The interview captures everything I love about the younger Minogue and explains why I'm still hopelessly devoted to Dannii twenty years later despite her semi-retirement to host reality TV shows and release budget compilations. I think it's only right to finish this post by paying tribute to her self-penned theme song and it's stunning video (below). Dannii's glamorous tracksuit and lightning dance moves still rock my world!