The Princess of Pop will be crowned at the 2025 APRA Music Awards.
Announced today, April 15th, Kylie Minogue will receive the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music, a lifetime achievement honour that’s considered by many to be the music industry’s highest distinction.
The accolade will be presented at Melbourne Town Hall, in Kylie’s hometown, on Wednesday, April 30th.
“As one of Australia’s biggest and brightest stars, Kylie was an obvious choice for this award,” comments Jenny Morris, chair of APRA.
“Her achievements over the past four decades are almost too many to count and we are absolutely honoured to add the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music to her vast collection of accolades.”
The Ted Albert Award is decided by the APRA board of writer and publisher directors. Previous recipients include the late Mushroom Group chairman Michael Gudinski, Paul Kelly, The Seekers, Cold Chisel, former Alberts CEO Fifa Riccobono, Colin Hay of Men at Work and last year’s recipient Bart Willoughby, the trailblazing Indigenous artist and the driving force behind No Fixed Address.
Kylie is a wanted woman. Her 2024 album Tension II gave Kylie her ninth leader on the ARIA Chart, fifth in succession, and second in a year; its predecessor, Tension, spent one week at the summit in September 2023. She also has 10 No. 1 singles in Australia, from “Locomotion” in 1987 to “2 Hearts” in 2007.
Tension II also went to No. 1 in the UK, her adopted homeland, for her 10th leader there; she’s the only female artist to have secured UK chart-topping LPs in five consecutive decades, and she’s on the podium for female all-time chart leaders, behind only Taylor Swift and Madonna. Also, she was the first woman to nab UK top 10 singles in five consecutive decades.
Last year, in 2024, Kylie signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) for live representation in North America and acting roles worldwide, an alliance that should help the princess of pop build on the success of her residencies in the US, where “Padam Padam” won for best pop dance recording at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
She added to her heaving collection of silverware when she collected the BRITs Global Icon award at the 2024 BRIT Awards, becoming just the second woman to claim the accolade, following Taylor Swift in 2021. And back in 2007, Kylie became the first woman, and first foreigner, to be feted with the U.K.’s Music Industry Trust Award, arguably the most coveted of U.K. industry awards.
She also received Billboard’s Women in Music Icon Award in 2024, and when she was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2011, then-prime minister Julia Gillard had the honours.
Australia’s highest-selling female artist, Kylie has shifted over 80 million albums sold worldwide, according to Mushroom Group.
Kylie’s “huge body of work and stellar career have been a guiding light for so many Australian songwriters and artists who have looked up to her as a beacon of Australian music,” adds APRA’s Jenny Morris, “and we look forward to seeing what the next chapter of musical greatness will bring.”
Kylie won’t be in the house for her big night as she’ll be on tour in the US, though family members will receive the award on her behalf.
The APRA Music Awards celebrate “excellence in contemporary music, honouring songwriters and publishers who have achieved artistic excellence and outstanding success in their fields.
With four nominations, Styalz Fuego leads the pack heading into the 2025 APRAs, while Kevin Parker and Troye Sivan are close behind with three nods each – and both are in cracking awards form.
Performers will include Gut Health, Lior, Ripple Effect Band and Sarah Blasko.
