Women Pict

Halle Maria Berry was born on the 14th of August, 1968 (though some insist it was 1966), in Cleveland, Ohio.

She was named after the town's Halle Building, which originally housed the Halle Brothers department store but is now an office block (it's also used in the Drew Carey Show).

Her father, Jerome, an African American and a hospital attendant by trade, left when she was just four, so she and her elder sister Heidi were raised by their Caucasian, Liverpool-born mother, Judith, herself a nurse in a psychiatric ward.

Jerome would return after four years but the violence he directed towards Judith and Heidi meant that he did not stay for long.

Throughout her adult life, Halle Would have no contact with him at all, still being estranged when Jerome died in 2003.

Halle's first few years were spent in a black neighbourhood of Cleveland.

Here her fair complexion made her stand out, but not as much as she did when her mother moved them out of the inner-city to a mainly white suburb.

Now, a little older and in this conservative milieu, her "difference" was not so readily tolerated. "I'm black," she said later.

"I realised very early in my life that I wasn't going to be this mulatto stuck in the middle, not knowing if I'm black or white".

During her early years Kylie was influenced by taking piano, tap and jazz lesson's. Early musical influences were ''The Beatles'', ''The Rolling Stones'' and ''Abba''.

Even though Kylie was quite a shy child her mother had already decided they(both sister's)would not follow her footsteps and become dancers.''I was never very keen on them taking up dancing becauseit's such a hard life''.

It was when Kylie turned 11 that her debut part inAustralian television show ''The Sullivans'' began to pave an incredible rise to fame within the Australian television industry.Kylie always balanced her studies with her acting career and it was after she passed her HSc that Kylie decided she was going to give acting a go...

Naturally though the schoolgirl Kylie and the child star made it difficult for Kylie and her friends to adjust to the rising fame.

In February 1986, Kylie auditioned and got the part of feisty, fiery girl next door mechanic Charlene Mitchell in the reletively new soap, ''Neighbours''. A deluge of fanmail and rising viewing figures saw them extend the 12 week contract and ''Charlene'' with on and off screen love ''Scott Robinson''(played by JasonDonovan) took the show to the number one ratings spot in Australia and the United Kingdom.

A record 23.8 million witnessed there marriage and this for a daytime soap!! the frenzy caused by neighbours was also casuing kids to bunk off schools and take televisions with them just to keep up with the show.

Kylie's first release musically in the UK was to be a newly penned song, ''I Should Be So Lucky'', it climbed the charts slowly to reach No.1 and it stayed there for 5 weeks, selling over 800,000 copies and the album, ''Kylie'' went 7x platinum with sales of over 1.85 million.

her string of hits and her record over the next five years has placed Kylie in the Guiness Book Of Records and within Music history forever. ''The Locomotion'' incidentally peaked at No.3 in the USA with sales of 500,000, but Europe too was loving every minute.

The first four singles went No.1 in Finland (a record) and the album ''Kylie'' went on to sell over 7.3 million worldwide. This was one of the most successful starts to a pop career ever. In 1989 a second album was released, ''Enjoy Yourself'' and Kylie decided that she was missing her acting and the lifestyle that entailed so she began lookign for a dceent Australian script, Kylie wanted a small film to try and find her feet in the movie world. the problem was/is Kylie is such a huge star within the music scene the media were on the case and made her acting debut asuccess but also a carefully watched baptism.

No rest period though and ylie was intent on moving her musical career forward, some call it a huge leap as the bubblegum pop turned into bubblegum classics as her third album ''Rhythm Of Love'' spawned the golden quartet of singles, Step Back n Time, Shocked, What Do I Have To Do? and Better The Devil You Know.

Never before had a teenager been watched and written about so much, Kylie was beginning to see her health suffer and also her family life become non existent as life on the road away from Australia was taking it's toll on the 21 year old star. '

'Let's Get To It'' her fourth album was opportunity for Kylie to stage her second world tour and close off her deal with S/A/W paving the future for, what us fans remember was a very uncertain time in the life and career of Kylie Minogue....

September 24th 1994, ''Kylie Minogue'' was released, the huge successful single ''Confide In Me'' helped it to debut at No.4. Confide meanwhile was being hailed as one of the coolest songs of the year.At home Kylie enjoyed a 5 week reign at No.1...

The critics and the press ate humble pie.

Streetfighter although not critically acclaimed was still a box office smash taking over $100 statesside. It was in 1994 that Kylie's army of gay fans began to emerge and lift her up to an iconic Queen of Pop, she was cool, camp and kitcsh, in just three minutes bursts her videos could stun a room to silence, her beauty equalled only by Rita Hayworth or Bette Davis.Kylie was moving away from appearences on Smash Hits and would now be seen on ''The Face'', ''Q'' and ''NME'', everyone was suddenly interested in Deconstructing the 1994 Kylie.

So as 2001 comes to a close and the news that ''Can't Get You Out Of My Head'' is No.1on the USA dance charts with a full American release of ''Fever '' due in February, it's is time that the world took note of the first lady of pop music in the 21st century...step forward Miss Kylie Minogue...