| It’s official, as if anyone had any doubt. The | | | | “In doing so,” Albanel told the 39-year-old |
| Aussie pop chanteuse, Kylie Minogue, is now a | | | | singer. “You have raised public awareness. |
| cultural icon, at least as far as the French are | | | | “Doctors even go so far as to describe a |
| concerned. | | | | ‘Kylie effect’, which encourages young |
| On Monday Minogue became a chevalier de | | | | women to go for regular check-ups,” she |
| L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (a knight of the | | | | added. |
| order of Arts and Letters) in a ceremony | | | | L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres was established |
| presided over by the French minister of culture, | | | | back in 1963 to recognise significant contributions |
| Christine Albanel. | | | | to the arts and literature – not just in France, |
| In bestowing the honour upon the singer Albanel | | | | but also throughout the world. |
| proved her pop and fashion savvy credentials by | | | | Minogue now joins the ranks of an eclectic mix of |
| proclaiming Minogue to be the “princess of | | | | other notable foreign recipients including among |
| pop and an uncontested queen of the dance floor | | | | others TS Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Ella |
| who had a Midas touch on the international music | | | | Fitzgerald, Clint Eastwood, Sharon Stone and Jude |
| scene and transformed everything she touched | | | | Law. |
| into gold – from records to micro-shorts.” | | | | Minogue, a former soap star turned singer who |
| She also praised Minogue’s decision to go | | | | has had more than 30 hits over the course of the |
| public three years ago after she received the | | | | last two decades, kicks off her latest world tour |
| diagnosis that she had breast cancer. | | | | in Paris on Tuesday. |