Kylie Minogue To Be Honored With Australia's Top Live Entertainment Award

Australia’s “pop princess” Kylie Minogue is to receive the highest honor in her country’s live entertainment industry – the JC Williamson Award.

The artist will be feted at the Helpmann Awards ceremony July 29 at the Sydney Opera House.

She joins a roll-call of past honorees that includes the late opera great Dame Joan Sutherland, veteran singer John Farnham and Mushroom Group chairman Michael Gudinski, who has played a vital role in Minogue’s career. Arts philanthropist David Blenkinsop is co-recipient of the 2013 award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the Australian live entertainment and performing arts industry.

“A moment like this makes me so proud to represent the Australian entertainment industry,” Kylie says in a statement issued today. “As a country we have, and we nurture, extraordinary talent.  Long may this continue.”

Trade association Live Performance Australia established the Helpmann Awards in 2001 to reward excellence and achievement across all aspects of live performance.

The Melbourne-born, London-based artist has enjoyed a supreme pop career which has spanned more than 25 years, 10 world tours and sales of more than 70 million records.

And she's built a staggering trophy collection over time. In 2007, she became the first-ever woman to receive Britain’s Music Industry Trusts’ Award. In 2011, Kylie was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame by then-Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard who said the singer was "someone who to 100s of millions of people around the world is the face of Australia." Kylie is "so famous," she added, "we only need to say her first name."

This February, Kylie announced that she had joined Jay-Z's Roc Nation management team while remaining at Parlophone as a recording artist. A new song, "Skirt," dropped in late May.