Vanessa Joylene Amorosi was born in Melbourne on the 8th of August 1981. Her parents were both born in Italy and migrated to Australia before Vanessa was born. Vanessa grew up speaking Italian. Her parents were also professional singers/dancers working in the Australian theater restaurant and cabaret circuit.
At the tender age of 4, Vanessa started attending dancing lessons, which were run by her uncle. Showing impressive talent, she eventually began performing in shopping centers and local council concerts under her family’s supervision. She was only 12 at the time.
Vanessa was often in trouble in school. A self-confessed "nerd" as she put it. She was picked on constantly and apparently began lighting fire to things. A teacher noticed her struggle and put her in a special class. In there, Vanessa learnt how she could help others who were disadvantaged. Perhaps this was instrumental in her ambition to start a farm for disadvantaged children. Vanessa still credits this teacher to this very day as the one who stopped her from getting kicked out of school.
Interested in the armed forces at an early age, she began training with the army and who knows? She may have become a soldier, if not for the intervention of Jack Strom. Jack had worked with many of the world’s greatest performers. By chance, Jack happened to see Vanessa perform in a Russian restaurant in 1997 when she was only 15. He says he got ‘Goosebumps’ on hearing her incredible voice. He introduced himself after her performance. Later he bought Mark Holden along to hear this young girl with the brilliant voice. Mark had achieved considerable success as a singer and songwriter/producer and was equally impressed with Vanessa’s talents.
So in 1998, at just 16, Vanessa signed to Mark and Jack’s management company, MarJac productions. This resulted in her being signed to CBK Productions and Transistor Music (an independent record label).
Mark and jack knew that they weren’t taking a risk on Vanessa. No one with such a brilliant voice could go unnoticed for long. But they were more than pleasantly surprised to find that Vanessa was also an extremely talented songwriter.
Her debut single, ‘Have A Look’, produced by Steve Mac (Boyzone, Five, Westlife) was released in July 1999. It achieved Gold status in just 7 weeks and was a huge hit across the country. It was a catchy song that was easy to dance and sing along to. It was clear that Vanessa had made a strong debut. Not long after, she made her first television appearance on, ‘Hey, Hey It’s Saturday’.
Her second single, ‘Absolutely Everybody’, released in November 1999, instantly became an enormous success, going Gold in just 3 weeks. It had wonderfully positive lyrics and was the kind of song that made people feel real good about themselves. It was named ‘record on the week’ by UK magazine ‘Tip Sheet’. It debuted at no. 7 in the UK and reached no. 2 in Ireland and Belgium, no. 3 in Austria, no. 5 in Germany (where Vanessa has a HUGE following), no. 6 in the Czech Republic and no. 8 in Switzerland and Luxembourg. Achieving Double Platinum sales in Australia, it became the longest charting single by an Australian female artist, ever. (READ IT AND WEEP, KYLE!)
Highlights of the year included a performance at the NRL Grand Final and performing at the Sydney Opera House and at Darling Harbour on New Year’s Eve 1999, ushering in the New Millenium.
It seems strange that after all this success and recognition, that Vanessa still hadn’t released a debut album. This changed in April 2000, when, ‘The Power’ was released. It entered Australian charts with Gold sales at no. 1 position and achieved Platinum status just 3 weeks later. More than 70,000 copies were sold in one month, confirming her position as one of the most incredibly successful Australian artists ever. It reached Quadruple Platinum sales here and it was also the 4th top selling album of the year. Not bad for a debut album!
With ‘The Power’ and ‘Absolutely Everybody’ still high in the charts, her third single, ‘Shine’ was released. Written in dedication for a close friend’s suicide, this powerful song jumped straight into the charts at no. 4 position, went Gold in 2 weeks, and Platinum just 1 month later. It was the most played song on Australian radio in 2000.
‘Shine’ and ‘Have A Look’ have been released overseas and have also charted well following Vanessa’s live appearances in Europe, including several of the major music award shows. As mentioned before, Vanessa is extremely popular in Germany. Her debut album, ‘The Power’ has gone Gold there. A remix of the album track, ‘The Power’ has also gone Gold.
But her biggest audience to date (and possibly ever) was when she was given the opportunity to perform ‘Hero’s Live forever’ to nearly 4 billion viewers at the Sydney 2000 Olympics Closing Ceremony. Other performers included, Tina Arena, Olivia Newton-John and Julie Anthony, but with her powerful voice, Vanessa stole the show from her more experienced fellow musicians.
She was one of only a few performers to perform at both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, where she sang, ‘Absolutely everybody’. In addition, she performed ‘The Power’ and ‘Shine’ at the opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games, which was broadcast in 80 countries. It was obvious that she was not just going to be a one-hit wonder.
Vanessa has commented that performing live with her band is her most favorite thing about being famous, although she still doesn’t consider herself famous (which is a ridiculous comment after being seen by more people in the world than many artists ever will). She enjoyed supporting Savage Garden’s National Tour of Australia, before they disbanded.
She was nominated for ARIA’s for her work on ‘The Power’ album, but incredibly, went home empty handed (losing to Madison Avenue). It hardly mattered as she commented that she writes music to express herself, not to win meaningless plastic trophies. And where Madison Avenue have all but disappeared from the music industry, Vanessa still continues to increase her popularity more and more.
Since the age of 14, Vanessa has being doing volunteer work, helping disadvantaged children. The impact of making friends with children with terminal illness has had a lasting affect on her. One of her dreams is to establish a farm where disadvantaged kids will be able to visit with the many animals she intends to keep. She continues to work for benefits and welfare through her involvement in kids Help-Line and as a patron of the Variety Club, which awarded her the ‘Young Entertainer Of The Year’ award. She also received a special award from the Governor General of Australia, Sir William Deane, in recognition of her patronage of ‘Kids Help-Line’ and in appreciation of her being a positive and inspiring role model for Australian Youth.
Vanessa was awarded ‘Best New Australian Artist On Commercial Radio’ by the federation of Australian radio Broadcasters and recently was named ‘Young Victorian Of The Year’, by the national Australia Day Council, having previously won the ‘Career Achievement Award’.
In August 2001 Vanessa was awarded ‘Best International Newcomer’ at the viva Comet Awards in Germany, beating out Wheatus and Sugarbabes. It seemed almost like the second chance after missing out on the ARIA’s. She gladly accepted the award. Later that month she also made a special appearance at the Goodwill Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies in Brisbane.
Vanessa is a keen animal lover. She has her own farm where her pets, including her horses, bird, frog, cats, dogs, fish, camel, rooster and many other will join many new additions along the way. She also had a rat, Bobby, but sadly she died in 2001.
In 2001, Vanessa recorded ‘Champagne, Champagne’, the title track for the French movie, ‘Absolument Fabuleux’. This recording has also been released as a single in France.
Vanessa has become one of the most successful female solo pop artists in Australia and one of the most sought-after internationally. She had already performed concerts with her band in Europe, China and the UK and with guest musicians in South East Asia and Japan.
Later that year, Vanessa appeared on Melbourne’s top rating program, ‘The Footy Show’. The very next week, she performed at Australia’s biggest stadium, the M.C.G for the 2001 AFL grand final.
Vanessa did a highly publicized performance in 2001 at the RUMBA festival. She appeared among many international and local artists and again stole the show with her magnificent voice.
Vanessa’s second album, ‘Turn To Me’, was released in Australia by Transistor Music on October 29th 2001. It included unreleased International recordings and remixes, a CD-ROM component, her Olympic anthem ‘Hero’s Live Forever’ and 9 new tracks. Despite being a brilliant album and having brilliant songs on it such as ‘Tent By The Sea’ and ‘By My Side’, it only peaked at 21. Her only single off the album, ‘Turn To Me’, which featured a CD-ROM animation clip, only reached 80. It was the lowest placing in Vanessa’s career at that time. Although it sold well, it came nowhere near the extreme high success of ‘The Power’.
In February next year, she did a small performance supporting the racing at Moonie Valley. It was only a one-hour concert and tickets were only $15 dollars. A lot of people wondered why she agreed to do such a small concert. The truth was, that Vanessa wanted to give Australia a taste of her performances before taking a short break.
In July 2002, Vanessa left to go on a tour of Germany. They were very well received and helped revive her popularity there. Only a few weeks later, she performed at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. Almost drenched by the pouring rain, she sang her heart out. First she sang her International hit, ‘Shine’, then a new song ‘Melbourne Girl’. She was given a huge response by the audience and obviously enjoyed herself.
Her new single; ‘Spin' was released on October 28th 2002. It peaked at 32, although much better than her 'Turn To Me' single, still not the hit it could have been. She's made a video clip in Germany for another single released there called, 'One Thing Leads To Another’. Her new album, 'Change' is due for release some time (MarJac still won't say) this year (on which, 'Melbourne Girl' will be a bonus song). 'Change' was released in Germany in November 18. It entered in #64, but it fell out of the top 100 in only its second week. Not a good placing...
Vanessa did another (brilliant) performance at the Mercury Lounge on December 27 (which I got to see). A few days later, she had the honour of performing at the Docklands to bring in the new year (again). She once again proved that she is still the best female performer alive with a fantastic performance.
2002 was a pretty slow year for Vanessa and her Australian fans.
In 2003, Vanessa's new single, "True To Yourself" was released in Germany on 24 of Febuary. It seems to have peaked at 99, making it Vanessa's biggest flop ever.
Frustrated with their treatment of her, Vanessa's production company, CBK, withdrew the contract.
She and Jack parter ways in 2005 and she is now being managed my Ralph Carr.
Vanessa is currently recording her long overdue Australian album.
