Natalie Imbruglia has proudly spoken of her Scottish roots and how she remembers Highland dancing at the tender age of three.
The Australian pop star, who shot to fame in 1997 with hit single Torn, has released her seventh studio album Algorithm, inspired by nights of doomscrolling in bed.
“When I wrote this album, it was a time in my life where I had hit perimenopause, and a lot of my mental health issues came up,” Imbruglia told What’s On Scotland’s Emma Cameron.
“I was diagnosed with ADHD, and I was going through a really hard time mentally. Algorithm is actually about doomscrolling late at night on my phone. I just wanted to open the conversation about ‘are you a victim of the algorithm or are you taking steps to affect the algorithm?’
“I’ve tried to handle all the issues of mental health with a sense of humour in the songs.”
Imbruglia said she is looking forward to playing her new material to live audiences in Scotland, and said she feels a particular affinity with Scots.
“I’ve always said this, there’s something about Scottish people and Australians that are similar, which is odd because our weather is so completely different!
“It’s also my ancestry, on my mum’s side of the family, traces back to Anderson, so I’m Scottish,” she declared proudly.
STV NewsThe 51-year-old said she can recall learning Highland dancing as a child, and she remembers learning the sword dance.
“I remember there were, is there something to do with swords on the floor? And I had my kilt. I was so little, I think I must have been three.
“I have really early memories of going and having these cute little shoes on and putting my arms (up) and dancing around swords.
“Maybe I’ll pull that out at a live show in Scotland!”
Imbruglia’s Scottish links go even further; she recalls being managed by Glaswegian Anne Barrett, who helped launch her music career in the UK.
She has also collaborated with David Sneddon, the Scottish singer-songwriter who shot to fame after winning Fame Academy, and the pair worked together recently on Algorithim.
“I call David Sneddon my good luck charm, he had the most incredible, buoyant, sparkly energy, and he introduced me to a lot of my producer-writer collaborators, and I think I’m going to have to make every album with him now! I just feel like every song we wrote together was fantastic.
“He’s a wonderful man and I encourage him to put his own music out, I think we all need to hear a Dave Sneddon record.”
Imbruglia also looked back fondly at her hit song Torn, which will mark its 30th anniversary next year, and says that while she could have been “bitter and twisted” about its popularity, she chose to embrace it.
“I was a little bit frightened about how big it got and having to live up to that success, which I think is natural,” she said.
“I remember thinking, you’re going to be singing this song forever, and you have a choice. This is a crossroads for you. Are you going to embrace this and make friends with this song, or are you going to be bitter and twisted about it?
“I decided to make friends with Torn and I’ve managed to do that. When I sing it now, I’m not thinking about what I was at 16, it’s happy thoughts, it’s like, wow, look at what this song did for me, what it did for my family. There’s so much to be grateful for.”
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