Kylie Minogue talks ahead of Birmingham show tonight

The pint-sized chanteuse celebrated her 50th birthday in style by partying with A-listers, singing for the Queen’s birthday party at the Royal Albert Hall and releasing a stunning new album, Golden, which went to number one.

She’s back on the road now with a new arena tour and will headline Birmingham’s Genting tonight. It’s not a bad renaissance for a woman whose only other release since 2014’s Kiss Me Once was a Christmas record the following year.

Golden was a country-inspired record that was largely written in Nashville, Tennessee, where she found new inspiration. She worked on the record with such big name producers as Ash Howes, Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard, Sky Adams, Alex Smith, and Mark Taylor. Kylie co-wrote each track, the first time she had done so since her Impossible Princess record of 1997.

The record followed the break-down of her most recent relationship – though it was avowedly not a break-up record.

“The last thing I’d want is a breakup album. I was done with that. Through! Moved on! And I was so much happier to have moved on. Things were better, not worse! It’s the reverse of what people might think . . . it’s not about a breakup; It’s about me and about where I find myself at this point in my life.”

Golden was heavily influenced by country and dance music. It was described by Kylie as one of her most personal efforts and it touched on failed relationships, death, dancing and having fun.

It was well received by critics, who warmed to Kylie’s honesty and the infectious nature of her songs. As well as hitting number one in the UK and Australia, her first record to achieve that since Fever in 2001, the album entered the top 20 in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland.

And though Kylie is still on her Golden campaign, it might not be too long before another record follows. “There’s basically another album [of material]! Those tracks were done in the first six months. And then my A&R suggested the country angle. Of course I said sure, because I’ll try everything! But that was swiftly followed by, “Well . . . what do you mean?” [Laughs] I didn’t know what that meant . . . it took six months to get there! So yes, I was with all of those people in the studio, which was a lot of fun and we touched on some great material, but we ultimately went down a different lane . . . The album’s not as much country as some people might imagine… but that different style made way for writing lyrics differently. Some of the themes [from the early material] were the same, just written differently.

“I still needed some encouragement throughout making this album. I’m always crediting my A&R guy, Jamie Nelson, for bringing this idea to the table and having a vision . . . it was a stroke of genius on his part. It took some work, but once we hit upon what we thought was the DNA [while recording] in Nashville, it became fun because I knew what the goal was. I got “Dancing,” Sincerely Yours, and Golden in Nashville. We knew those were keepers.”

Kylie has entered a new decade in buoyant mood. She’s looking forward to the challenges ahead and is a great frame of mind. She was glad to end a relationship that wasn’t working and felt better because she was single again.

“Because you know it’s part of healing. It was about me and figuring out how I got to the position I was in, and less about the other person. But, yeah, I think somewhere in you it’s a truth we all know that when you’re in a difficult place, great things can come from that. Not from a place of heartbreak; it was a real turning point in my life and I’m now really grateful for it because I like where I am.

“On Golden, the line I had in my head was “we’re not young, we’re not old, we’re golden.” It didn’t quite fit in, so we adapted it for the song. That was one example of trying to claim something that I felt I had no control over. Doing promo for my last album, I was often asked, “How does it feel to be a woman your age in this industry?” and I was just over it. For my own satisfaction, I wanted to be able to say that we just are who we are at any point in time . . . I was 46 then, and now I’m about to be 50. I don’t mind being asked about my age at all, but the way it was framed last time was getting very boring and frustrating. So, yes, telling it how it is was very liberating.”