Kylie honoured by Buckingham Palace

Pop princess Kylie Minogue will be rewarded for two decades of hit music making when she receives an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Prince of Wales today.

The much-loved Australian singer, actress and performer has notched up a string of number one singles and albums and will receive the honour at a Buckingham Palace investiture ceremony.

When the former Neighbours star found out last December she would be made an OBE for services to music she said: “I feel deeply touched to be acknowledged by the UK, my adopted home, in this way.”

It was while playing Charlene in the hit soap Neighbours in the mid 1980s that Minogue, 40, won the hearts of the British public.

She went on to launch a pop career with early hits including 'I Should Be So Lucky' and 'Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi'.

The albums sold just as well as the singles and over the intervening years millions were bought by fans as she remodelled herself from the cute girl-next-door to a sultry diva.

Tunes like the disco pop of 'Can’t Get You Out Of My Head' and its risque video cemented her new image.

Away from the limelight the entertainer, who started her career acting in TV while a young girl, has inspired millions with her successful battle against breast cancer.

In May this year, she was given the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government for “contribution to the enrichment of French culture”.

Kylie's career in numbers:

:: 10 – the number of albums she has released.

:: 40 – her age.

:: 11 – the age Kylie started appearing in soap operas including Skyways, The Sullivans and The Henderson Kids.

:: 17 – the age she left school to take up acting as a full time profession.

:: 7 – UK number one singles.

:: 5 – UK number one albums.

:: 31 – the top 10 hits she has had in the UK charts.

:: 43 – singles released internationally, all of which have been hits.

:: 60 million – Kylie has sold more than this number of records.

:: 5 – the number of feet she is tall (or just over).

:: 21 – the years since she released her first single in Australia Locomotion.

:: 4 billion – the number of people who saw her perform at the closing ceremony of Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Games.

:: 20 million – the viewers who watched her perform on the US television programme Dancing with the Stars in April this year to promote her new album X in the States.

:: 8,000 – the number of visitors in one week at the Kylie Exhibition – with costumes and photographs from her career – at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

:: 1 – Grammys she has won (for Come Into My World).

:: 4 – the number of wax figures Madame Tussauds has made of the singer.

:: 60 – the age by which she says she will definitely have hung up her hotpants.