Entertainment

Natalie Imbruglia: From pop stardom to winner of The Masked Singer

The Australian-born singer was crowned winner of the surreal ITV show.
The Australian-born singer was crowned winner of the surreal ITV show. The Australian-born singer was crowned winner of the surreal ITV show.

Natalie Imbruglia has been a household name since the release of her 1997 hit Torn.

But the celebrity panel on The Masked Singer were still surprised when she was crowned winner and unveiled as Panda.

Imbruglia was born in February 1975 in Sydney, Australia, and studied ballet and tap dancing as a child, while also appearing in TV commercials.

Natalie Imbruglia found international fame in 1997 (PA)

She was 16 when in 1992 she was cast as Beth Brennan in the internationally successful soap Neighbours.

That role made her a household name in Australia, but it was Torn – her cover of Ednaswap’s 1995 song – that led to international success.

This continued until around 2009 when her fourth album Come To Life underperformed in the charts in her home nation and its UK release was cancelled.

However, she returned in 2015 with Male, a well-received collection in which she covered songs made famous by male-led acts.

Her recent album Firebird, released in September 2021, featured her first new material in a decade and was inspired by becoming a mother and her experience of overcoming a period of writer’s block.

Imbruglia made headlines in October 2019 when she announced she had given birth to a boy named Max Valentine at the age of 44, with the help of IVF and a sperm donor.

She previously told the PA news agency: “What I would say is I received so much love and support after I released my statement and so many women reaching out to me saying, ‘Oh gosh, I feel more comfortable in trying to do that – I have wanted to do that but I didn’t’.”

Imbruglia was married to Australian rocker Daniel Johns for five years until 2008.

She also previously dated Friends actor David Schwimmer.