Natalie Imbruglia Biography

Natalie Jane Imbruglia was born February 4, 1975 and she is an Australian singer-songwriter, model and actress.
In the early 1990s, Natalie Imbruglia was known to audiences as Beth Brennan Willis in the popular Australian soap Neighbours. Three years after leaving the program, Imbruglia launched a singing career with the international hit, "Torn". The subsequent debut album Left of the Middle (1997) sold over 6 million copies worldwide. While following releases, White Lilies Island (2001) and Counting Down the Days (2005), have been unable to match the commercial success of her debut, the latter became her first UK #1. Her fourth studio album Come To Life, was released on October 2, 2009.
Natalie Imbruglia co-starred in the 2003 film Johnny English and made her leading actress debut in the 2009 film Closed for Winter.
First of the four daughters to a Sicilian (Lipari Messina) father and a Anglo Australian mother, Natalie Imbruglia grew up on the Central Coast, north of Sydney, south of Newcastle. Imbruglia studied ballet, tap, and highland dancing as a child, hoping to make a career out of it. She also sang in shopping malls and in school performances. At 14 her dance instructor encouraged her to sing with an all girl group but once at the audition, the managers saw that the strikingly pretty youngster with a beautiful voice could make it on her own. They wanted to sign her as a solo act but she refused. "They were like 'we're going to make you a star...' Even at that age you couldn't talk to me like that. I was like 'see you later...'"
Natalie Imbruglia auditioned for Australian TV commercials and appeared in spots for Coke and the popular Australian snack Twisties. By age 16, she left high school to start a career in acting. She soon obtained the chance to play a regular role on the Australian soap opera, Neighbours at the age of 16 1/2. Neighbours has also launched the careers of many other successful Australian female artists such as Kylie Minogue, Holly Valance, Delta Goodrem and Natalie Bassingthwaighte.
By the end of her second year, Natalie Imbruglia left the show to move to London, immersing herself in the city's club scene. Refused a work permit, within a year she became bankrupt. This forced her to go back to her passion of singing, something which she had been putting off because she thought everyone would laugh at her because she'd been on Neighbours. Her effort paid off and she was signed to BMG Publishing, after coming up with a demo of the song "Torn" which greatly impressed RCA Records.