number 15: VANESSA AMOROSI
Vanessa Amorosi (born 8 August 1981)[SUP]
[1][/SUP] is an
Australian singer-songwriter and recording artist. Her combined album and single sales have reached over 2 million worldwide....
Amorosi was born in
Melbourne,
Victoria in a
Roman Catholic family of
Italian origin, the daughter of singer Frank Amorosi. When Amorosi was four, along with her younger sisters, she would go to tap, jazz and classical ballet classes, which were being run by her uncle. She attended
Emerald Primary and Emerald Secondary School.[SUP]
[3][/SUP] At the age of 12, Amorosi started to perform in shopping centers and local council concerts under the supervision of her family.[SUP]
[4][/SUP] Amorosi was discovered performing at Matrioshka,[SUP]
[5][/SUP] a Russian restaurant in
Carnegie, by Jack Strom and signed a recording contract in 1997. After being signed to MarJac Productions (co-owned by managers
Mark Holden and Jack Strom) and recording a promo CD titled "
Get Here", she secured a deal with Transistor Music Australia.
[SUP]In 1999, Amorosi released her debut single "
Have a Look" which became a Top 20 hit and went gold in Australia. This was followed by her successful second single "
Absolutely Everybody", an anthemic
dance song, reached the Top 10 and became the longest charting Australian single by an Australian female artist.[SUP]
[7][/SUP] It remained in the
ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart for over six months after its release.[SUP]
[8][/SUP] "Absolutely Everybody" was released internationally and reached the Top 10 in many European countries including the
UK and
Germany where it received a gold certification. Amorosi performed at many large events such as the
NRL Grand Final, the opening of the Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island and the new millennium on "New Year's Eve" at Darling Harbour.
Following the success of the first two singles Amorosi released two more singles in 2000 "
Shine" and "The Power" became major Australian hits. Both were accredited gold by the ARIA Australian music industry. The rights to create a remixed version of "Shine" were purchased by the airline
Ansett Australia, who used this version for a commercial. Vannessa Amorosi was one of many celebrities to appear in the commercial.
Her album
The Power reached number one on the Australian album charts. Amorosi received six ARIA nominations in the year 2000 awards[SUP]
[9][/SUP] and
The Power was nominated[SUP]
[10][/SUP] for "Best Female Artist" and "Best Pop Release" in the
ARIA Music Awards of 2001. Her largest audience came in September 2000 with performances at the opening and closing ceremonies of the
2000 Sydney Olympics and at the
Paralympic Games. At the opening ceremony of the aforementioned Olympics she sang the Olympic song titled "Heroes Live Forever". Amorosi won the
APRA Award in 2001 for "Most Played Song" on Australian Radio with "
Shine",[SUP]
[11][/SUP] and received international acclaim in
Germany where she won "Best International Newcomer" at the 2001
VIVA Comet Awards.[SUP]
[12][/SUP] Later that year she also made a special appearance at the
Goodwill Games Opening and Closing ceremonies in Brisbane. In 2001, she performed at the
AFL Grand Final.
In August 2002, Amorosi traveled to
Manchester where she was one of the stars of the
Commonwealth Games Hand-Over Ceremony, performing her single "Shine" and a new song written especially for the event, "I'll always be a Melbourne girl".[SUP]
[13][/SUP][SUP]
[14][/SUP]
In February 2003, Amorosi performed her
blues set for the first time at the Melbourne International Music and Blues Festival[SUP]
[15][/SUP] and traveled to Germany to perform her latest European single "True to Yourself" on
Top of the Pops and the hugely successful long-running show
Wetten, dass..? which screens throughout Europe.
[video=youtube;kS_HN5WGLRw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS_HN5WGLRw[/video]
[/SUP]