Natalie Imbruglia decided to “make friends” with Torn rather than be daunted by its success.
The 51-year-old singer, who stormed the charts with the hit single in 1997, thought at the time that the song could become the only thing she’s known for, but she decided to make peace with whatever happened after its huge success.
She told the Metro newspaper’s 60 Seconds column: “When it first happened, I remember thinking, I’m going to win all my awards this year and then none for the rest of my career and I’m going to be singing this song forever.
“And I thought, I have a choice here. I can make friends with this song and stay in gratitude about it… I just decided to make friends with it.”
Natalie insisted she still has a deep connection to the song, which was written by Phil Thornally, Anne Preven and Scott Cutler.
It was first released as Brændt (meaning ‘burnt’) by Danish singer Lis Sorensen in 1993, before Preven and Cutler’s alt rock band Ednaswap dropped the track in 1995.
Natalie left her own mark on the song in 1997 and turned it into a worldwide hit.
She added: “Even now when I sing it, I’m thinking about different things but I have the same connection to it.”
She is set to drop her new album Algorithm on Friday (04.09.26), and she was inspired by the likes of Talking Heads and David Bowie.
She said: “Upside Down [the first single] is like… although it doesn’t sound like Talking Heads, I was listening to a lot of Talking Heads when I wrote that song.
“There’s another song, Bird of Paradise, where I was this David Bowie-esque character that had a particular walk.
“I guess we all interpret music differently and I’m very visual.”
Meanwhile, she joked that people seemed more impressed that she can “sing in tune” than taking notice of her having so much input in her music and career.
She quipped: “I think they were surprised I could sing in tune! My friends come to a gig and they’re like, ‘You’re actually quite good!’
“But if I earned the right to demand people send me incredible tracks, I’d do it, too.”
