We should be so lucky, the Queen of pop is half Welsh!

Many will know Kylie Minogue as one of Australia’s most famous faces – but the pop icon and former Neighbours star also has very strong Welsh roots, and she even knows a few phrases in the language.

Minogue’s family were originally from Maesteg in Bridgend county, and emigrated to Australia during the 1950s.

Over the years, Minogue has spoken about the Welsh side of her family and says performing in Cardiff is always extra special.

Minogue’s mother, Carol Jones, was 10 when she and her mother, Millie Jones, moved to Australia.

Speaking to Rylan on his BBC Radio 2 programme, Minogue, now 56, said she thinks it’s crazy the change her family would have experienced moving to Australia from Wales.

“I just think of my grandparents going from like the valleys of Wales to, first they moved to the North Queensland, where there’s mangos falling off trees and a snake in the letterbox,” she said.

“What a change.”

She also said she refers to her grandparents as “nain” and “taid”, the Welsh words for grandmother and grandfather.

In 1994, Millie Jones – Kylie’s grandmother who turns 104 this December – spoke to Heno S4C during a visit to Wales.

Talking in Welsh, she described how proud she was of her grandchildren – Kylie and Dannii, who is also a singer and actress.

“I’m really glad that they did so well and went so far,” she said.

Speaking about being in Gwynedd on holiday, she said: “It’s lovely to come back to Blaenau Ffestiniog to listen to the language.

“I don’t get much chance in Australia. No-one speaks Welsh.”

Speaking to Carol Vorderman on BBC Radio Wales in 2021, Minogue said her nain is a “strong character” in her life.

“I like to think that part of me, the almost too chatty most of the time, and will always have something to say, or will try to make a little quip – I think that comes from my nain,” she said.

“Also she taught me how to sew and cut patterns when I was 14 and I was learning about altering clothes to fit me and to knit.”

In 2020, Minogue told Jonathan Ross on his programme she only knows a few Welsh phrases and referred to herself as “half Welsh”.

“I literally know diolch yn fawr (thank you very much). The one word we used to hear as kids is ‘ych a fi’, which means ‘yuck’,” she said.

Minogue previous dated GQ magazine’s creative director Paul Solomons, from Caerphilly, and she explained how he impressed her nain by talking to her in Welsh.

“I don’t know what she’s saying but you can just see her come to life and loved someone speaking Welsh to her,” she said.