Celebrity Featured: Vanessa Amorosi
Artist: Kathrin Longhurst
About Vanessa Amorosi
Born in Melbourne on 8th August 1981, Vanessa Amorosi's star began to shine early. At the tender age of four, Vanessa joined her younger sisters in Tap, Jazz and Classical Ballet classes. It was obvious to her friends, family and dance teacher that Vanessa had a promising future ahead of her and at age 12 Amorosi began her singing career with performances in local shopping centres and council concerts.
Amorosi continued to perform at local venues before being talent spotted in 1997 by producers Jack Strom and Mark Holden. Twelve months later Amorosi signed with MarJac Productions and CBK Productions and began a rapid rise to success.
Vanessa's debut single 'Have A Look' was released in July 1999, and after just seven weeks in the charts it achieved Gold status and became a national hit. Several months later she followed with the release of her second single 'Absolutely Everybody' which was a massive success, going Gold in just three weeks. This set the stage for Amorosi's career and after going Double Platinum it became the longest charting single by an Australian female artist.
Vanessa made such an incredible impression on the Australian music scene that in 2000 she was invited to open the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with the song 'Heroes Live Forever'. Following her performances at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and then the Paralympic Games, Vanessa went on to perform at the Commonwealth Games Hand-Over Ceremony in Manchester and then, by personal invitation from Australian Prime Minister John Howard, she performed at the PM's Olympic Dinner in Melbourne alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The John Farnham Band and an 80 piece choir.
Amorosi is set to release a new album in 2007.