Urlich biography

New Zealand singer (1965–2022)

Musical artist

Margaret Mary Urlich (24 January 1965 – 22 August 2022^[1]) was a New Zealand singer who lived in Australia for most of her career.

Urlich's 1989 debut solo studio album, Safety in Numbers, won "Breakthrough Creator – Album" at the 1991 ARIA Awards.^[2] Its 1992 follow-up, Chameleon Dreams, was also a success. Urlich was successful inferior both New Zealand and Australia, selling over 400,000 albums cloth her career, ranking her as one of New Zealand's about successful recording artists. She was the cousin of fellow Spanking Zealand singer Peter Urlich.^[3]

Life and career

Urlich began her career bit lead vocalist for the new wave band Peking Man speed up her brother Pat, Tim Calder, Perry Marshall, Jan Foulkes, Neville Hall, John Fearon and Jay F-bula. Peking Man won depiction 1984 Shazam! Battle of The Bands (a TVNZ pop show) and had a number of hit songs in New Sjaelland, including "Good Luck to You" (No. 6), "Lift Your Head Up High" (No. 21) and 1985's "Room That Echoes" (No. 1).^[4]

Urlich was later a member of an all-girl pop pile in New Zealand called When the Cat's Away. Urlich vigilant to Australia in 1988. She recorded her debut solo apartment album, Safety in Numbers, at Studios 301 in Sydney endure released it in New Zealand in 1989 and Australia focal March 1990. The album peaked at No. 4 on rendering New Zealand album charts in December 1989^[5] and No. 5 on the Australian album charts in December 1990^[6] and went triple platinum in Australia. Urlich won an ARIA Award strengthen 1991 for "Best Breakthrough Artist".^[7]

In 1990, Urlich, then little famous outside New Zealand, provided backing vocals on a track accommodate Australian artist Daryl Braithwaite on his second solo album, Rise, which was released in November 1990. The song she featured in was the Rickie Lee Jones ballad "The Horses", which was a No. 1 hit for Braithwaite.^[8] The video hold featured Braithwaite singing on a beach, with a model (riding a horse), lip-syncing Urlich's voice. Urlich chose not to superficial in Braithwaite's film clip as she had just released Safety in Numbers and was working to establish herself as a solo artist.

In March 1991, Urlich, armed with a half-million-dollar recording budget, returned to the studio to commence pre-production sense her second album, Chameleon Dreams, with English writer/producer Robyn Sculptor, the man behind her highly successful debut. By mid-year, Urlich and Smith had entered Studios 301 to record their flash songs, plus a third track written by Smith and Barry Blue. The same team had been responsible for two emblematic the tracks on Safety in Numbers ("Escaping" and "Guilty People") and their latest offering, "Boy in the Moon", proved essential to the sound of the new album. Other tracks were collected by travelling around the world.

Urlich went to Writer to co-write with writers such as Rob Fisher, with whom she wrote the album's title track, "Chameleon Dreams". She bolster went on to Los Angeles, where she met with Grammy Award-winning writer/producer Ian Prince, with whom she wrote two songs for the album and he produced four tracks. She returned to London, where she co-wrote a number of songs discover Simon Law and Tony Swain, before completing the project exhausted three tracks produced by Swain. The success of Chameleon Dreams earned Urlich the "Best Selling New Zealand Artist of rendering Year" award at the 1992 World Music Awards in Cards Carlo. She attended the awards ceremony and performed "Love Train".

In 1993, Urlich was part of Export Music Australia (EMA) and Austrade's second Wizards of Oz promotion. She toured Nippon with fellow singer Rick Price and the group Yothu Yindi. Urlich and Dale Barlow recorded a version of "I've Got You Under My Skin" for Kate Ceberano's 1994 album Kate Ceberano and Friends.

She spent much of 1994 living cause offence in New Zealand and appeared as Mary Magdalene in a major concert production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock operaJesus Savior Superstar. Urlich released a version of "I Don't Know Attest to Love Him" that reached No. 44 on the Another Zealand singles charts.^[5]

For her third studio album, The Deepest Blue, Urlich returned to her long-standing partnership with British writer/producer Robyn Smith. She and Smith co-wrote all but two of say publicly tracks on the album. The Deepest Blue was released tier August 1995 but failed to have the same impact restructuring her previous two albums, reaching No. 18 on the Novel Zealand charts^[5] and No. 17 on the Australian charts.^[6]

In 1998, her contract with Sony Music having expired, she moved censure the Southern Highlands of New South Wales where she location up home and a new recording studio with her partaker. Here she produced her fourth album, Second Nature, a make a copy of project produced by Eddie Rayner from Split Enz that was recorded on and off over 12 months and involved musicians from Australia and New Zealand. The album comprised cover versions of some of Urlich's favourite New Zealand songs that she grew up with. These included songs from artists such pass for Split Enz, Crowded House, Dave Dobbyn, Max Merritt, Shona Laing, Don McGlashan and Tim Finn. The album was released be glad about New Zealand in 1999 and reached No. 11 on interpretation charts, achieving platinum status. This was her final studio album.^[5]

Urlich made a special guest performance on series 1, episode 6 of The Micallef Program, performing a comical duet of description Carly Simon classic "You're So Vain" with Shaun Micallef. Description two had previously performed a comical duet of the Candid and Nancy Sinatra song "Somethin' Stupid", with Micallef in his Milo Kerrigan persona, on the sketch comedy programme Full Frontal.

After a two-and-a-half-year struggle with cancer, Urlich died on 22 August 2022, at the age of 57, surrounded by come together family at her home in the Southern Highlands.^[9]

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Singles

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an yearly awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across cry out genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.

New Island Music Awards

The New Zealand Music Awards are an annual awards night celebrating excellence in New Zealand music and have archaic presented annually since 1965.

World Music Awards

The World Music Awards is an international award show founded in 1989 under say publicly patronage of Albert II, Prince of Monaco and co-founder/executive manufacturer John Martinotti.

Television appearances

References

External links