During a Football Club benefit concert with other Neighbours cast members, Kylie performed The Loco-Motion and was signed to a recording contract with Mushroom Records in 1987. Released as a single, it spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian musc charts, and was the highest selling single in Australia for the 1980s. Its success resulted in Kylie travelling to London with Mushroom Record’s executive Gary Ashley to work with Stick Aitken & Waterman. They knew little of Kylie and had forgotten that she was arriving; as a result, they wrote I Should Be So Lucky while she waited outside the studio. The song reached number one in the UK and Australia and was a hit in many parts of the world.

Her debut album, Kylie a collection of dance-oriented pop tunes, reached number one on the British album charts and became the year’s highest-selling album. It sold over seven millions copies worldwide, with most sales occuring in Europe and Asia, and it contained six successful singles. In the United States the re-recorded version of The Loco-Motion reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In late 1988 Minogue left Neighbours in order to concentrate fully on her music career.