Three days into a whistle-stop promotional tour, the hot topic on everyone's lips has been the singer/actor's personal life, past and present.
A regular fixture on London's social circuit, the Aussie has featured highly on the tabloid radar since her divorce early last year from Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns and her move from Windsor to London's trendy Notting Hill.
A regular fixture on London's social circuit, the Aussie has featured highly on the tabloid radar since her divorce early last year from Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns and her move from Windsor to London's trendy Notting Hill.
Hardly a week goes by without a breathless report of a different beau emerging, whether it's Prince Harry, Jamiroquai's Jay Kay or Imbruglia's good friend, Little Britain's David Walliams.
Imbruglia, 34, once quipped that when it comes to whom she's sleeping with, "it depends on which newspaper you read".
"I'd rather talk about my album. For me, it's a balance between what I'm comfortable discussing and understanding that people want to know about me. I'm a figure in the public eye and that's fair enough.
"If I were to tell every journalist not to ask me personal questions, then all the articles would say, 'She's a diva.' So what are you going to do? I can't control the media. I've made a record I'm really proud of. Let the music speak for itself."
On the face of it, the very personal lyrics on Imbruglia's fourth studio album, Come to Life, might be misconstrued as an edgy, pining elegy to her former relationship with Johns. She's forthright, if a little elusive, when it comes to setting people straight.
"Life and music don't have to parallel as closely as everyone thinks," she says, pointing out that two of the album's most personal songs, including her latest single, 'Want', feature lyrics written by Coldplay's Chris Martin, and another, 'Scars', was written when she was "blissfully happy" prior to her divorce.
(Incidentally, Johns can be heard playing guitar on one track.)
"Sometimes you're writing literally, sometimes you're not, but I'd be lying if I said that this record is literal. A lot of the sentiments parallel things that have happened in my life, but it's not literal in the way you might think. I wouldn't set out to do that - it's not who I am."
During the making of Come to Life, Imbruglia's self-confessed control-freak tendencies were tested when she received a call out of the blue from Martin.
He'd penned songs with her in mind, one of which he's since labelled one of Coldplay's finest, and the singer wasn't about to turn down the advice of one of the world's most successful musicians.
She spent time in the studio with Martin, who obliged her request of a brutally honest appraisal of the album in progress.
"I was scared, but I knew his opinion was invaluable," she says.
As the album title suggests, Imbruglia - feisty, refreshingly frank and enjoying her single status - is revelling in the lighter side of life, having seemingly bounced back from the pain of her split.
With a new record company and a sexier musical direction, she conveys a palpable joie de vivre.
The dark clouds of depression she's openly discussed over the years plague her less these days.
"When you've had real-life experiences that have been genuinely difficult and testing, you don't want to wallow in that," she says
"You know life is precious and short. I want to have as much fun as I can and live for today."
No one could deny Imbruglia is practising what she preaches: in the music video for the single 'Wild About It', the chanteuse frolics with friends at a raucous fancy dress party in a pink tutu and black top hat.
Then there's her recent participation in Jack Osbourne's reality TV series, Celebrity Adrenaline Junkie, where she whetted a daredevil appetite by free-diving in Hawaii and mountain climbing for 11 hours (including during an electrical snow storm) in Canada. It's a "crazy" move she says she'd never have dared make a few years ago, prior to her divorce.
"There's a fearlessness that's come out of what I've been through," she says. "It's like you're not scared of anything."You've had some really horrible things happen to you and you're like, 'You know what? I wanna go on an adventure. I want to try different things.' You take yourself out of your comfort zone and stop wrapping yourself in cotton wool.
"I have a better understanding of who I am and it's freed me - I'm not as rigid with planning things. A sense of playfulness and fun has come into my personality that wasn't there as much before. I'm more carefree."
Today, Imbruglia is certainly a different person to the insecure woman I met for the first time in late 2007. At the time, she was set to dive back into acting with her first starring role.
In the film Closed for Winter, she plays Elise, a young, emotionally closed woman struggling to deal with the disappearance of her sister two decades earlier.
But it seems two years playing fetching builder Beth Brennan on Neighbours and a supporting role opposite funny man Rowan Atkinson in 2003's spy spoof Johnny English weren't enough to repel her nerves.
"I started having panic attacks, thinking, do I really believe I can do this? I must be mad," she says.
It also didn't help that, being a small production on a limited budget, the shoot allowed for only a few takes per scene.
"It was terrifying," says Imbruglia. "Rarely did I feel confident, but how many actors are confident? It doesn't really come with the territory."
Imbruglia's fears proved unfounded, as her performance prompted largely positive reviews, marking the next step in her stigma-defying journey from soapie star to singer/songwriter to 'serious actor'. "The intention is that I'll be good," she says of her return to acting. "I'm not doing it on the whim of wanting to be a moviestar."
Not that any of her success has come about on the back of a whim. One of four daughters, the one-time face of L'Oreal has fond memories of growing up in the sun and sand of the beachside suburb of Berkley Vale on the NSW Central Coast.
Rebellious streak
She kept her parents - dad Elliot, an Italian immigrant, and her Australian mum, Maxine, a teacher and principal - busy from the age of three, when she began dancing lessons most days of the week.
Her rebellious streak would later stand in stark contrast to her thirst to perform. Bring up the subject of singing at shopping centres and Imbruglia grimaces. "Oh my God. Any opportunity - any talent quest, singing carols at shopping centres - you name it, I've done it," she admits.
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| Picture: Craig Greenhill. Source: The Sunday Telegraph. |
As a teenager, Imbruglia longed for a fast-track to adulthood, which ultimately led to expulsion from her Catholic high school.
"It was on a religion excursion. I got really drunk on the nuns' wine. My mum was so angry," she recalls.
"She taught at a Catholic school, so this was the worst thing her daughter could have ever done. I wanted to be a grown-up. I didn't like being told what to do.
"I wasn't trying to cause chaos, but I always tried to get my own way."
That's exactly what happened when, against her mother's wishes, at the age of 14, Imbruglia caught a train to Sydney to secure an agent.
At 16, she landed her big break on Neighbours in 1992, for a two-week guest stint that was then extended for two years.
Soon after, she moved to London to pursue a music career and the city has been her adopted home ever since.
Unmatched success
The success of her debut album, Left of the Middle, and her first single, 'Torn', 12 years ago (the album sold six million copies worldwide and garnered Imbruglia three Grammy nominations) set a stratospheric precedent unmatched by her subsequent albums, White Lillies Island (2001) and Counting Down the Days (2005).
While the second and third offerings entered the charts, they stayed only briefly and did little to add to her status as a serious musician. Still, her combined album and single sales of 10 million are hardly to be sniffed at.
On the horizon is a possible tour of Australia next year ("I like the adrenalin rush of touring") and a continued focus on acting and charity work, which she sees as a positive way to make use of her fame.
"It's definitely an upside and a responsibility," says the singer, who travelled to Geneva in July as the spokesperson for the United Nations Population Fund Campaign to End Fistula, making an impassioned plea to international politicians to help end the debilitating condition affecting millions of women worldwide.
"It's the proudest thing I've ever done in my life," she says.
As our time draws to a close, it's clear what's not on the horizon, however, is a move back to her homeland. "Maybe when I retire," she quips. "That could be a while."
Originally published in Sunday Magazine (The Sunday Telegraph/Sunday Herald Sun) and thetelegraph.com.au,October 2009.
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