As she prepares to travel around the country on her upcoming Australian Made Tour, Kate Ceberano has also been reflecting on the highs – and lows – of her 40-year career in music.
In particular, the singer has admitted that she regrets “following the pack” and bagging out Kylie Minogue when she was an emerging artist. So were she and Kylie feuding?
Kate, 58, recently told the Daily Telegraph that she was “best friends” with the artist who first labeled Kylie as the ‘Singing Budgie’. The nickname was quickly adopted by Kylie’s harshest critics.
“If I look back now, we were all doing the classic Australian thing which was to tear down,” Kate admitted.
The ‘Bedroom Eyes’ singer also noted that, before Kylie’s emergence with her 1987 hit single ‘The Loco-motion’, the Aussie music scene was “dirty”. Her peers at the time were bluesy soul singer Renée Geyer and rocker Chrissy Amphlett.
Ironically, given that Kylie would go on to date Michael Hutchence, Kate also frequently crossed paths with his band INXS when performing at the same shows during the ’80s.
“When Kylie came along, everyone was like ‘can this girl even sing?’” Kate also said.
An insider tells New Idea: “While Kylie still stings over the budgie jibe she was lumped with back then, she never holds grudges – even though she was iced out by the Australian music industry for years.”
However, our source adds: “Privately, Kylie is a little surprised that Kate would so casually mention that she knew the person who gave her that nickname. She was touched to hear Kate own up to some of her thoughts from that time.
“Ultimately though, Kylie is so famous these days, that she’s put how truly badly she was treated back then behind her.”
“She also feels bad that some incredibly talented Australian artists – like Kate, Chrissy, and Renée – who toiled for years on their music, never really got the same recognition she did.”
Despite the different career paths they’ve been on over the years, there is no bad blood or feud between Kate and Kylie today.
When Kylie celebrated her 50th birthday in 2018, Kate posted a gushing tribute on her Facebook page saying “You are a shining example of what it means to be a success.”
Kate also noted in her Daily Telegraph interview that “sometimes you need to kill off other versions of who you’ve been. It’s called humility – and it’s also called maturity.”
Our source says: “Kylie really appreciates this apologetic gesture from Kate – it’s all water under the bridge now.”
