Initially presented as a "girl next door", Minogue attempted to convey a more mature style in her music and public image. Her singles were well received, but after four albums her record sales were declining, and she left Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992 to establish herself as a more independent performer. With a new record deal with hip dance lable deConstuction/BMG, her first single, "Confide in Me", reached number one in Australia, number two in the UK, and was a hit in several European countries in 1994. Furthermore, a duet with Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow", brought Minogue a greater degree of artistic credibility. Drawing inspiration from a range of musical styles and artists, Minogue took creative control over the songwriting for her next album, Impossible Princess (1997). Although critically acclaimed, it failed to attract strong sales in the UK, but was successful in Australia. The album's Australian success gave birth to the Intimate and Live tour, where Minogue performed tracks from her last two albums with deConstruction Records, with nineteen sell-out Australian shows, constantly added to through sheer demand. Kylie received the best reviews of her career, with many commenting on the strength of her performance, her vocals and most notably the sheer stage presence that she had now displayed.
Minogue returned to prominence in 2000 with the single "Spinning Around" and the dance-oriented album Light Years, and she performed during the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her music videos showed a more sexually provocative and flirtatious personality and several hit singles followed. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" reached number one in more than 40 countries, and the album Fever (2001) was a hit in many countries, including the United States, a market in which Minogue had previously received little recognition. In support of her greatest hits compilation, Ultimate Kylie, Minogue embarked on her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour but was forced to cancel it when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005. After undertaking successful surgery and chemotherapy treatment, she resumed her career in 2006 and completed the tour renamed the Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour. Her tenth studio album X was released in 2007 and was followed by the KylieX2008 tour. In 2009, she embarked upon her For You, For Me Tour, her first concert tour of the United States and Canada, and the following year released her eleventh studio album, Aphrodite.
With worldwide record sales of more than 68 million, Minogue is the first, and to date, the only female recording artist in UK chart history to have number one albums in four consecutive decades (achieving this in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s). She has mounted several successful and critically acclaimed concert world tours and she has received notable music awards, which include multiple ARIA, Brit Awards, MTV Awards, and a Grammy Award as well as a Mo Award for "Australian Entertainer of the Year" for her live performances. Bestowed from Queen Elizabeth II, Minogue was awarded the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) at Buckingham Palace in 2008 "for services to music". While in the same year, she was made a knight in the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Government for her "contribution to the enrichment of French culture" where at a cermony in Paris she received the Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knighthood of Arts and Literature). In 2011, I Should Be So Lucky was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry.[8][9] Moreover, in October 2011, Minogue received an honorary Doctor of Health Science (D.H.Sc.) degree from Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom for her work promoting breast cancer awareness. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) Awards at the end of November 2011, Kylie Minogue is to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, in recognition of her successful international recording career in music - a career which has, so far, spanned a quarter of a century
