Natalie Imbruglia
Natalie Jane Imbruglia (/ɪmˈbruːliə/ im-BROO-lee-ə, Italian: [imˈbruʎʎa]; born 4 February 1975) is an Australian-British singer-songwriter and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in Neighbours. Having left the soap opera, she moved to the UK and began a singing career. Her debut single, a cover of Ednaswap's song "Torn" (1997), quickly became a worldwide hit, topped the US Billboard Radio Songs Chart for eleven weeks in 1998, and was listed on 50 Best Songs of 1990s by Rolling Stone.[1][2] Her debut album, Left of the Middle (1997) was a commercial success, certified multi-platinum in the US, the UK and Australia and eventually sold seven million copies worldwide. Subsequent albums, including White Lilies Island (2001) and Counting Down the Days (2005) did not match commercial success of her debut, but both albums still gained Gold certification in the UK.[3][4] As of 2021, Imbruglia has released six studio albums and has sold more than ten million copies worldwide.[5] Imbruglia has received various accolades, including eight ARIA Awards, two Brit Awards, one Billboard Music Award, one Silver Clef Award and three Grammy nominations.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
"Imbruglia" redirects here. For the Australian-British singer-songwriter, younger sister of Natalie, see Laura Imbruglia.
Natalie Imbruglia
- Australia
- United Kingdom
- Singer
- songwriter
- actress
- model
1991–present
1
Laura Imbruglia (sister)
Vocals
- RCA/BMG (1997–2004)
- Brightside/Sony BMG (2005–2007)
- Malabar Records/Island (2009)
- Portrait/Sony Music (2015–2018)
- BMG (2019–present)
Imbruglia has appeared in several films, including Johnny English (2003) and Australian indie film Closed for Winter (2009). She has modelled for several brands, such as L'Oreal, Gap, and Kailis. Amongst other philanthropic work, Imbruglia served as a longtime spokesperson for Virgin Unite and campaigns to raise awareness of obstetric fistula.
Life and career[edit]
1975–1994: Early life and career beginnings[edit]
Imbruglia was born on 4 February 1975, in Sydney, Australia, second of four daughters of Maxene (née Anderson) and Elliot Imbruglia.[12] Her father is of Italian descent, a Sicilian from Lipari who immigrated to Australia with his family aged five, and her mother is of Irish, Scottish and English descent, with an ancestor who arrived in Australia as a convict in the First Fleet.[13][14][15] Imbruglia grew up in Berkeley Vale, New South Wales and attended Mater Dei College. At fifteen, she moved to Sydney with her family[15] and studied ballet, tap and Highland dancing.
Imbruglia appeared in Australian television commercials for Coca-Cola and the Australian snack Twisties. She left school at the age of sixteen, to pursue acting. She secured a role as Beth Brennan on the Australian soap opera Neighbours where she shared a house with Ben Mitchell who played the part of Cameron Hudson.[16][17] By the end of her second year, she left the show to move to London in 1994.[15] She met Anne Barret, who became her manager and convinced her to record a demo of four songs.[15] She signed a record deal with BMG, after a demo of "Torn" impressed RCA Records.
1997–2000: Left of the Middle and international breakthrough[edit]
Imbruglia's first international single, Torn, was a cover of a song whose first English version was made by Ednaswap, an American 1990s rock band, but it earlier was a Danish song released by Danish artist Lis Sørensen[18] The song was released on 27 October 1997 in the United Kingdom, and peaked at number two for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart. "Torn" has eventually been sold over one million copies in the UK alone and became one of the bestselling singles of 1990s in the UK ever.[19] Following the success in the UK, the song was getting heavy airplay around the world since late 1997 but North America. "Torn" finally made its debut in the United States in January 1998 when a radio station, Los Angeles KROQ who sensed the buzz and popularity of the song in international market, started playing an import version of the song, which was quickly followed by other stations, MTV followed by playing its music video, and Saturday Night Live (SNL) booked Imbruglia for a live performance even before her album was available.[20]
"Torn" debuted at the Top 40 on Billboard Radio Songs Chart on 14 February 1998 and finally reached number one spot on 16 May 1998 and stayed at the summit for eleven consecutive weeks. To promote the album sales in the US, the record label decided not to release the physical single of the song, thus the song did not appear on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart during its popularity peak in mid-1998, the rule was changed due to the public and industry outcry in late-1998, and the song made its appearance on the chart for two weeks, and peaked at number 42. In other market, Torn was a number one song in Canada, Denmark, and number two in her home country, Australia.
Imbruglia performed "Torn" to promote the album and made several appearances on TV shows, including The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Saturday Night Live (SNL), The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and MTV Movie Awards in the United States, The Prince’s Trust Party in the Park and Later... with Jools Holland in the United Kingdom as well as Hey Hey It's Saturday in Australia.
Imbruglia's debut album Left of the Middle was released on 24 November 1997. It sold 350,000 in the UK three weeks after release and was certified platinum. It has sold 7 million copies.[21] The second single in the UK after "Torn" was "Big Mistake", which debuted at No. 2. "Wishing I Was There" was less successful, peaking at No. 19. "Wishing I Was There" only peaked at No. 2 on UK radio in summer 1998, and in the US peaked at No. 14 on the Top 40 Show. The final single from Left of the Middle was "Smoke", the reception was more divided than previously. It was a hit in the UK and made the top 5, while in Australia it missed the top 40. Eventually, the album became a million-seller after charting well in many countries and entering the Top 10 in the US and UK. In 1999, she recorded a cover of "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS with Tom Jones, which appeared on his album Reload.
"Torn" single and the Left of the Middle album earned Imbruglia an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song, six trophies at 12th ARIA Music Award in 1998, including Best New Talent, Best Australian Debut Album, Best Female Artist, and Single of the Year,[22] and two more trophies at 13th ARIA Music Award in 1999, including Outstanding Achievement Award [23] as well as two Brit Awards for Best International Newcomer and Best International Female.[24]
2001–2004: White Lilies Island[edit]
Imbruglia's next album, White Lilies Island, in 2001, was named after where she lived beside the River Thames at Windsor. Imbruglia co-wrote every track over three years. The album's first single, "That Day", was stylistically different from her singles but did not reach the UK Top 10. In the US, "Wrong Impression" was the first single and charted in the Hot 100 Singles and adult contemporary charts. In the UK it did slightly better than That Day. "Beauty on the Fire", the final single, barely entered charts worldwide, and did not make the top 50 in Australia. The album, briefly notorious in the Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal, sold 1 million but did not repeat the success of Left of the Middle.
Other activities[edit]
In May 2010, Imbruglia became a judge on the second season of the Australian version of The X Factor. She mentored the Girls category, in which her final act Sally Chatfield was the runner up of the series. In 2011, she did not return for the third season and was replaced by Natalie Bassingthwaighte.[54]
In June 2011, Imbruglia appeared on the original British version of the show, where she was a guest judge for the Birmingham auditions on its seventh series.
In 2016 Imbruglia was cast in the second season of SBS TV series First Contact.[55]
In 2024, she released an Audible Original podcast, Sleep Sound with Natalie Imbruglia. In the podcast she recites poetry by the late Australian poet, Dorothea Mackellar.[56]
