Natalie Imbruglia says the years between her early Neighbours fame and the success of “Torn” included a dramatic financial reversal that left her broke and living in the basement of someone else’s home in Chelsea.
The Australian singer and actress looked back on that period during the Aug. 13 episode of Begin Again with Davina McCall. After becoming well known for playing Beth Brennan on Neighbours, Imbruglia said she made money through club appearances and autograph signings, sometimes receiving “wads of cash in envelopes.”
Things changed after she moved to England. Imbruglia said she could not secure a visa to work as an actress and eventually ran out of money. “That was the first time in my life where everything didn’t fall in my lap,” she said, explaining that she responded by partying because she did not know what to do next.
By then, she was staying in the basement of a large home in Chelsea despite having little money of her own. As PEOPLE reported, a blunt question from her father eventually pushed her to reconsider where her life was heading.
Her Dad Asked When She Was Going to Get a Job
Imbruglia recalled that the easy money she had enjoyed after becoming famous on Neighbours eventually disappeared. “I was living in a basement at someone’s house in Chelsea, which was weird because I had no money and I’m in Chelsea, in this big mansion, but I’m just in the basement,” she told McCall.
Then her father called. “Can I just ask, when are you going to get a job?” she remembered him asking. Imbruglia admitted that the question hit a nerve. She said she was so proud and embarrassed that she “screamed at him and kicked off,” but the exchange ultimately motivated her to change course.
During the same period, she began meditating and reconsidering what she still had rather than concentrating entirely on what she had lost. “I’ve got a roof over my head,” she remembered telling herself. “Some people don’t.”
Looking back, Imbruglia now sees having those advantages stripped away differently. “When you’ve been spoiled and you’ve had things very easy and then it’s all taken away, things get stripped back and it’s such a blessing,” she said. She described that period as “the birth of the album that changed my life.”
Moving From ‘Neighbours’ Into Music Still Felt Risky
The album that emerged from that uncertain period was Left of the Middle, but Imbruglia did not know at the time whether audiences would accept a soap actress trying to become a recording artist. “I knew I could sing,” she told McCall. “I was a stage school kid, but there’s no guarantees.”
The career change felt especially risky because another former Neighbours star, Kylie Minogue, had already made a hugely successful transition into pop music. Imbruglia nevertheless had little financial cushion left to fall back on. “It felt very risky, but I had run out of money,” she said, according to Entertainment Weekly.
After finding a music manager, Imbruglia was connected with producer Phil Thornalley. They began recording demos, including “Torn,” which Thornalley had co-written years earlier with Scott Cutler and Anne Preven.
‘Torn’ Arrived After the Money Had Run Out
Released in 1997 as Imbruglia’s debut single, “Torn” transformed the career she had been struggling to establish. The song became an international hit and sold millions of copies. Imbruglia’s breakthrough era also earned her three Grammy nominations in 1999: Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Torn” and Best Pop Vocal Album for Left of the Middle.
Its American success was not something she said her team had carefully engineered. “I think it leaked onto KROQ in America, which was not even a station that played pop music,” Imbruglia recalled. “I don’t know how, but it got played and so it kind of broke itself in America and then we were chasing it around the States.”
Even while that success was unfolding, Imbruglia said she struggled to trust that it would last. “I remember thinking, ‘You’re going to win every award this year and then nothing forever,'” she told McCall. She laughed while looking back on the prediction, adding, “And that’s pretty close to what happened. I haven’t won many awards since.”
The song itself never disappeared from her life. Imbruglia recalled realizing during its initial success that she needed to make peace with performing it repeatedly. “I’m going to be singing this song forever,” she remembered thinking. “Make friends with it or you’ll hate it.”
Imbruglia Is Beginning Another Album Chapter in 2026
Nearly three decades after “Torn,” Imbruglia is preparing another new phase of her recording career with her seventh studio album, Algorithm. The record was among the subjects of her wide-ranging conversation with McCall, which also covered fame, motherhood and the different periods in Imbruglia’s life since her first breakthrough. Her official website lists Algorithm for release on Sept. 4 and identifies “Upside Down” as one of the singles introducing the project.