Natalie Imbruglia

By Sara Templeton

From Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, comes Natalie Imbruglia (pron: im-broo-lee-ah), one of Australia's most-loved daughters and a truly gifted entertainer to boot.

Beyond her huge singing career and marriage to Silverchair front man Daniel Johns, which are what she's best known for internationally, Natalie has also worked in a number of different fields.

But first, let's go back to the beginning...

It was February the 4th, 1975, when Natalie was born in Berkleyvale, NSW. Her surname is Italian, like her father, while her mother is of Australian descent. She was the first-born of four girls in the Imbruglia family, and unlike yours truly is smokin' hot. Yeeeow!

As a young child, Natalie had dreams of being a hairdresser, but entertaining through art, such as dancing, also made her happy - some say she was dancing at the age of two.

But the journey towards the pop diva's massive modern-day career began in earnest when she was 13. Having signed up for singing lessons in Queensland, Natalie worked on her voice at a Gold Coast-based singing course.

Once she had finished the singing course, she moved back to Berkleyvale.

At age 15, an independent Natalie moved to Sydney to pursue acting, and her first break came when she was 16, where she starred as the Pineapple Princess in a Japanese chewing gum advertisement.

During that time she had an identity crisis of sorts. "It was only cool to have blond hair and be a surfer chick. I could learn how to surf, but I still looked Italian. It took me a long time to realize that was a good thing," recounts Ms Imbruglia.

Following this exciting new venture for the Japanese market, Natalie appeared in three more ads, and at age 16 decided to do what many young Aussie teens dream of - she auditioned for Neighbours.

In 1991 her two week guest role wasn't a huge part, but after playing Beth Willis for 10 episodes her character had garnered quite a following, so the producers signed her on as a full timer.

Two years later, and Natalie Imbruglia left the Neighbours set, citing mild job dissatisfaction: "I was like, what have I done? I'm not saying it was a nasty, terrible job; it just wasn't for me."

Following her time on Neighbours - and in a similar fashion to Kylie Minogue before her and Holly Vallance after her - Natalie Imbruglia set off for the UK, where the Australian soap opera Neighbours is hugely popular.

Arriving in England, she received an upbeat welcome and was soon attending big celebrity parties and gala opening nights every weekend thanks to her soap star status.

Things didn't stay rosy forever though: "I think as time went on and I guess my profile died down, and I stopped getting invited to all these parties... I released these people weren't necessarily all my friends. That's when I really felt alone in London and when I started to write."

After she'd put some demos together, Natalie approached BMG and initially the evil company was impressed with what Natalie had to offer.

Before long the Aussie starlet had teamed up with the former bass player for The Cure, Phil Thornally, to put together some more songs.

"Torn" was Natalie Imbruglia's first big hit, and the after this was seen by the industry bigwigs, she was signed on to do an album.

Torn received massive amounts of radio play right across the globe, including the lucrative American market.

From there she went on to complete Left of the Middle, her debut album, which launched in 1998 to good reviews.

More important than the opinions of critics, the music-buying public went troppo for her understated style and serene vocals, and she went on to win a plethora of accolades, including ARIAs, MTV awards, plus a trio of Grammy nominations in 1999. Not bad for a chick from Down Under!

Amidst rumours she dated the likes of Lenny Kravitz and David Schwimmer, Natalie went on to release White Lillies Island, and has since starred in the movie Johnny English with Rowan Atkinson and John Malkovich.

She's also been quite a popular face for women's magazines, having appeared on the covers of periodicals like Glamour and Vogue.

Of more import to our Fashion section however, was Natalie's appointment to be the new face of L'Oreal in early 2002, a deal worth an estimated £100,000 which, at the time, was more than a quarter of a million local dollars.

As the new face of L'Oreal in the early naughties, Natalie Imbruglia follows in the footsteps of Jennifer Aniston, Kate Moss and Beyonce Knowles. One L'Oreal spokesman said at the time: "Natalie is a perfect ambassador for our cosmetics. She is known for her genuine charm and personal strength of character as well as her physical beauty." 

Well said spokesnerd!

Next on her 'to do' list of was her third album, which was ready in late 2003. It is rumoured that it was influenced by Daniel Johns and other rock-n-roll stalwarts, and this didn't go down well with her record label. RCA Records refused to release it because it was too 'rock'.

Being a tough Aussie babe, Natalie gave her record company the middle-finger salute *up yours cobba!* and by 2004 she had signed up with a new label, Brightside Recordings. In early 2005 she released Counting Down the Days, with the first single "Shiver" which went on to be one of the year's most-played songs in the UK. 

As music continued to be the dominant art form in her life, Natalie Imbruglia's fourth album is to be released in Europe, Asia, and Australia only, and is a best-of compilation. Called Glorious: The Singles 1997-2007, it features the major hits such as "Torn" and "Shiver" and five new songs, including Glorious, which is set for a late August 2007 release.

Fans of Natalie Imbruglia will pleased to know that a fifth album is scheduled to be released in 2008, in which she has been working with now-ex husband Daniel Johns.

In what is believed to be an amicable split, with Johns heading a very different direction to Imbruglia, rumours have already begun circulating that Natalie has moved on.

Word on the street was that Natalie Imbruglia was seen romancing billionaire Sir Richard Branson's son.

The 23-year-old Sam Branson, aged 10 years younger than Natalie (you go girl!), reportedly met at a fancy soiree in London town and have been very much hand-in-hand ever since. 

If you ask me, and I realise you're not, this pairing will be short lived at best. Baby Branson is the rebound boy after a long (for a celebrity couple) marriage and is most likely being used for emotional (and probably some physical) support.

From humble beginnings to dabbling with different career paths, Natalie has well and truly cemented herself as one of the 21st century's most endearing personalities.

With her fifth album on its way, and her marriage to an equally-talented song writer (Daniel Johns) having ended without the nastiness of many high profile betrothals, Natalie Imbruglia is one of Australia's best -- and most-loved -- ambassadors.

Source: Unknown Photography: Unknown	Source: Unknown Photography: Unknown
Source: Unknown Photography: Unknown