Water, Rabbit, and Deer: three of the 20 day symbols in the Aztec calendar, from the Aztec calendar stone.

A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours.^[1] It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun, also known as daytime. The period of time measured from local noon to the following local noon is called a solar day.^[2][3]

Several definitions of this universal human concept are used according to context, need and convenience. In 1967, the second was redefined in terms of the wavelength of light, and it became the SI base unit of time. The unit of measurement for time called "day", redefined in 1967 as 86,400 SI seconds and symbolized d, is not an SI unit, but it is accepted for use with SI.^[1] A civil day is usually also 86,400 seconds, plus or minus a possible leap second in Coordinated Universal Time UTC, and, in some locations, occasionally plus or minus an hour when changing from or to daylight saving time. The word day may also refer to a day of the week or to a calendar date, as in answer to the question "On which day?" Day also refers to the part of the day that is not night — also known as 'daytime'. The life patterns of humans and many other species are related to Earth's solar day and the cycle of day and night (see circadian rhythms).

The average length of a solar day on Earth is about 86,400 seconds (24 hours) and there are about 365.2422 solar days in one mean tropical year. Because celestial orbits are not perfectly circular, and thus objects travel at different speeds at various positions in their orbit, a solar day is not the same length of time throughout the orbital year. A day, understood as the span of time it takes for the Earth to make one entire rotation^[4] with respect to the celestial background or a distant star (assumed to be fixed), is called stellar day. This period of rotation is about 4 minutes less than 24 hours and there are about 366.2422 in one mean tropical year (one more stellar day than the number of solar days). Mainly due to tidal effects, the Earth's rotational period is not constant, resulting in further minor variations for both solar days and stellar 'days'. Other planets and moons also have stellar and solar days.

Introduction[link]

Dagr, the Norse god of the day, rides his horse in this 19th-century painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo.

Besides the day of 24 hours (86,400 seconds), the word day is used for several different spans of time based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis. An important one is the solar day, defined as the time it takes for the sun to return to the zenith (its highest point in the sky). Because the Earth orbits the Sun elliptically as the Earth spins on an inclined axis, this period can be up to 7.9 seconds more than (or less than) 24 hours. On average over the year this day is equivalent to 24 hours (86,400 seconds).

A day, in the sense of daytime that is distinguished from night-time, is commonly defined as the period during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no local obstacles. The length of daytime averages slightly more than half of the 24-hour day. Two effects make daytime on average longer than nights. The Sun is not a point, but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Additionally, the atmosphere refracts sunlight in such a way that some of it reaches the ground even when the Sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. So the first light reaches the ground when the centre of the Sun is still below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc. The difference in time depends on the angle at which the Sun rises and sets (itself a function of latitude), but can amount to around seven minutes.

Ancient custom has a new day start at either the rising or setting of the Sun on the local horizon (Italian reckoning, for example) The exact moment of, and the interval between, two sunrises or two sunsets depends on the geographical position (longitude as well as latitude), and the time of year. This is the time as indicated by ancient hemispherical sundials.

A more constant day can be defined by the Sun passing through the local meridian, which happens at local noon (upper culmination) or midnight (lower culmination). The exact moment is dependent on the geographical longitude, and to a lesser extent on the time of the year. The length of such a day is nearly constant (24 hours ± 30 seconds). This is the time as indicated by modern sundials.

A further improvement defines a fictitious mean Sun that moves with constant speed along the celestial equator; the speed is the same as the average speed of the real Sun, but this removes the variation over a year as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun (due to both its velocity and its axial tilt).

The Earth's day has increased in length over time. This phenomenon is due to tides raised by the Moon which slow Earth's rotation. Because of the way the second is defined, the mean length of a day is now about 86,400.002 seconds, and is increasing by about 1.7 milliseconds per day every century ( an average over the last 2,700 years. See tidal acceleration for details. The length of one day has been estimated as 21.9 hours 620 million years ago from rhythmites (alternating layers in sandstone). The length of day for the Earth or Proto-Earth before the event which created our moon by an impact is yet unknown.

Etymology[link]

The term comes from the Old English dæg, with its cognates such as Tag in German, and dag in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Dutch. "Day" is the 98th most common word in English according to AskOxford.com.^{[citation needed]}

International System of Units (SI)[link]

A day, symbol d, is defined as 86,400 seconds. The second is the unit of time in SI units.

A day on the UTC time scale can include a negative or positive leap second, and can therefore have a length of 86,399 or 86,401 seconds.

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) currently defines a second as

… the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.^[5]

This makes the SI-based day last exactly 794,243,384,928,000 of those periods.

Decimal and metric time[link]

In the 19th century it had also been suggested to make a decimal fraction (¹⁄_10,000 or ¹⁄_100,000) of an astronomic day the base unit of time. This was an afterglow of decimal time and calendar, which had been given up already for its difficulty to comply with familiar units. The still most successful candidate is the centiday = 14.4 minutes, as a shorter quarter of an hour and also close to the SI target kilosecond and old Chinese ke.

Astronomy[link]

A day of exactly 86,400 SI seconds is the astronomical unit of time (the second is not preferred in astronomy).^[6]

For a given planet, there are three types of day defined in astronomy:

• stellar day - an entire rotation of a planet with respect to the distant stars
• sidereal day - a single rotation of a planet with respect to the vernal equinox
• mean solar day - average time of a single rotation of a planet with respect to the sun as the central star

For Earth, the stellar day and the sidereal day are nearly of the same length and about 3 minutes 56 seconds shorter than the solar day. Relative to the fixed stars, the Earth spins just over 366 times upon its axis during one complete orbit. The Earth's orbit around the Sun reduces (by one) the number of transits the Sun makes across the Earth's sky in a sidereal year.

Colloquial[link]

The word refers to various relatedly defined ideas, including the following:

• 24 hours (exactly)
• the period of light when the Sun is above the local horizon (that is, the time period from sunrise to sunset);
• the full day covering a dark and a light period, beginning from the beginning of the dark period or from a point near the middle of the dark period;
• a full dark and light period, sometimes called a nychthemeron in English, from the Greek for night-day;
• the time period from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM or 9:00 PM or some other fixed clock period overlapping or set off from other time periods such as "morning", "evening", or "night".

Civil day[link]

For civil purposes a common clock time has been defined for an entire region based on the mean local solar time at some central meridian. Such time zones began to be adopted about the middle of the 19th century when railroads with regular schedules came into use, with most major countries having adopted them by 1929. For the whole world, 40 such time zones are now in use. The main one is "world time" or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The present common convention has the civil day starting at midnight, which is near the time of the lower culmination of the mean Sun on the central meridian of the time zone. A day is commonly divided into 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds each.

Leap seconds[link]

To keep the civil day aligned with the apparent movement of the Sun, positive or negative leap seconds may be inserted.

A civil clock day is typically 86,400 SI seconds long, but will be 86,401 s or 86,399 s long in the event of a leap second.

Leap seconds are announced in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service which measures the Earth's rotation and determines whether a leap second is necessary. Leap seconds occur only at the end of a UTC month, and have only ever been inserted at the end of June 30 or December 31.

Boundaries of the day[link]

Sun and Moon, Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

For most diurnal animals, the day naturally begins at dawn and ends at sunset. Humans, with our cultural norms and scientific knowledge, have supplanted Nature with several different conceptions of the day's boundaries. The Jewish day begins at either sunset or at nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear). Medieval Europe followed this tradition, known as Florentine reckoning: in this system, a reference like "two hours into the day" meant two hours after sunset and thus times during the evening need to be shifted back one calendar day in modern reckoning. Days such as Christmas Eve, Halloween, and the Eve of Saint Agnes are the remnants of the older pattern when holidays began the evening before. Present common convention is for the civil day to begin at midnight, that is 00:00 (inclusive), and last a full 24 hours until 24:00 (exclusive).

In ancient Egypt, the day was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise. Muslims fast from daybreak to sunset each day of the month of Ramadan. The "Damascus Document", copies of which were also found among the Dead Sea scrolls, states regarding Sabbath observance that "No one is to do any work on Friday from the moment that the sun's disk stands distant from the horizon by the length of its own diameter," presumably indicating that the monastic community responsible for producing this work counted the day as ending shortly before the sun had begun to set.

In the United States, nights are named after the previous day, e.g. "Friday night" usually means the entire night between Friday and Saturday. This is the opposite of the Jewish pattern. This difference from the civil day often leads to confusion. Events starting at midnight are often announced as occurring the day before. TV-guides tend to list nightly programs at the previous day, although programming a VCR requires the strict logic of starting the new day at 00:00 (to further confuse the issue, VCRs set to the 12-hour clock notation will label this "12:00 AM"). Expressions like "today", "yesterday" and "tomorrow" become ambiguous during the night.

Validity of tickets, passes, etc., for a day or a number of days may end at midnight, or closing time, when that is earlier. However, if a service (e.g. public transport) operates from for example, 6:00 to 1:00 the next day (which may be noted as 25:00), the last hour may well count as being part of the previous day (also for the arrangement of the timetable). For services depending on the day ("closed on Sundays", "does not run on Fridays", and so on) there is a risk of ambiguity. As an example, for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), a day ticket is valid 28 hours, from 0:00 to 28:00 (that is, 4:00 the next day). To give another example, the validity of a pass on London Regional Transport services is until the end of the "transport day" -- that is to say, until 4:30 am on the day after the "expiry" date stamped on the pass.

24 hours vs daytime[link]

To distinguish between a full day and daytime, the word nychthemeron (from Greek for a night and a day) may be used in English for the former, or more colloquially the term 24 hours. In other languages, the latter is also often used. Other languages also have a separate word for a full day, such as vuorokausi in Finnish, ööpäev in Estonian, dygn in Swedish, døgn in Danish, døgn in Norwegian, sólarhringur in Icelandic, etmaal in Dutch, doba in Polish, сутки (sutki) in Russian, суткі (sutki) in Belarusian, доба́ (doba) in Ukrainian, денонощие in Bulgarian and יממה in Hebrew. In Italian, giorno is used to indicate a full day, while dì means daytime. In Spanish, singladura is used, but only as a marine unit of length, being the distance covered in 24 hours.^{[7][not relevant]}

See also[link]

• 10⁴ s, times from 10 kiloseconds to 100 kiloseconds
• Calculating the day of the week
• Daylight
• Daylight saving time
• Meteorological day
• Season, for a discussion of daylight and darkness at various latitudes
• Synodic day

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Day

Look up day in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Definitions of day, night, twilight (USA navy site)
• Formulas to calculate the length of day and night
• Sunrise and sunset, all year long, anywhere
• Show where it is daytime at the moment

v t e Time Major concepts Time Eternity Arguments for eternity Immortality History Past Present Future Futures studies Deep time Time Portal Measurement and standards Chronometry UTC UT TAI Second Minute Hour Sidereal time Solar time Time zone Metric time Decimal time Hexadecimal time Clock Astrarium History of timekeeping devices Horology Marine chronometer Sundial Water clock Calendar Day Week Month Year Tropical year Gregorian Islamic Julian Intercalation Leap second Leap year Chronology Astronomical chronology Calendar era Chronicle Dating methodologies Geochronology Geologic Time Geological history Periodization Regnal year Timeline Religion and mythology Dreamtime Kāla Kalachakra Prophecy Time and fate deities Wheel of time Philosophy A-series and B-series B-Theory of time Causality Endurantism Eternal return Eternalism Event Perdurantism Presentism Temporal finitism Temporal parts The Unreality of Time Physical sciences Time in physics Absolute time and space Arrow of time Chronon Coordinate time Planck epoch Planck time Proper time Spacetime Theory of relativity Time dilation Gravitational time dilation Time domain T-symmetry Biology Chronobiology Circadian rhythms Psychology Mental chronometry Sense of time Specious present Sociology and anthropology Long Now Foundation Time discipline Time use research Economics Time value of money Time-based currency Time Banking Related topics Carpe diem Duration Space System time Tempus fugit Time capsule Time signature Time travel

v t e Parts of a day Dawn · Twilight–Sunrise · Morning · Daylight · Evening · Sunset–Twilight–Dusk · Night Related articles: Blue hour · Golden hour · Terminator · Forenoon · Noon · Afternoon · Midnight · Daytime · Midnight sun

v t e SI units Base units Ampere · Candela · Kelvin · Kilogram · Metre · Mole · Second Derived units Becquerel · Coulomb · Degree Celsius · Farad · Gray · Henry · Hertz · Joule · Katal · Lumen · Lux · Newton · Ohm · Pascal · Radian · Siemens · Sievert · Steradian · Tesla · Volt · Watt · Weber Accepted for use with SI Dalton (Atomic mass unit) · Astronomical unit · Day · Decibel · Degree Celsius · Degree of arc · Electronvolt · Hectare · Hour · Litre · Minute · Minute of arc · Neper · Second of arc · Tonne Atomic units · Natural units See also SI prefixes · Systems of measurement · Conversion of units · New SI definitions · History of the metric system Book:International System of Units  · Category:SI base units

Asaf Avidan
Asaf Avidan
Background information
Born	(1980-03-23) March 23, 1980 (age 32) Jerusalem
Genres	Folk, Folk rock, Rock, Blues
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Piano
Years active	2000s–present
Labels	Telmavar Records, Sony-Columbia
Associated acts	Asaf Avidan & The Mojos
Website	www.asafavidanmusic.com

Asaf Avidan (Hebrew: אסף אבידן‎) (born March 23, 1980) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and musician, best known for his voice, often compared to Janis Joplin and Robert Plant. He is also the creative force and front-man of folk/rock band Asaf Avidan & the Mojos.

Biography & Early Career[link]

Avidan was born in Jerusalem in 1980. His parents were diplomats for the Israeli Foreign Office, and he spent four years of his childhood in Jamaica. After the mandatory army service in Israel, Avidan studied animation at Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design. His final project short film, “Find Love Now”, won its category at the Haifa Film Festival that year. After his studies, Avidan moved to Tel Aviv and worked as an animator, until a breakup with his long-time girlfriend shook his world and made him move back to Jerusalem, quit his job and turn full time to his up-till-then hobby – music. Six songs about that breakup and subsequent heartache would constitute his debut EP, “Now That You’re Leaving”, which was released independently in 2006 to critical acclaim.

Asaf Avidan & the Mojos[link]

The Reckoning (2008)[link]

In late 2006, while playing solo shows across Israel, Avidan put together a support cast of musicians who would become The Mojos (Ran Nir – Bass, Yoni Sheleg – Drums, Roi Peled – Guitar, Hadas Kleinman – cello). The group played extensively in Israel, and also played a few New York shows, including MEANY Fest, where they advanced to the finals. In 2007 the band went into the recording studio together for the first time, and recorded “The Reckoning”. The album’s 15 tracks blended rock, folk and blues with Avidan’s lyrics about relationships and betrayal. By now the band had accumulated a huge live following in Israel and most record labels expressed interest. But Avidan decided to continue on the independent path, and founded (with his brother and manager, Roie Avidan) Telmavar Records, on which “The Reckoning” was released in March 2008. It reached Gold status in a year, platinum later, and would become the biggest selling independent record of all time in Israel. It was chosen as Album of the Year (2008) by various media, including TimeOut Tel Aviv. “Weak”, the second single of the album, became a huge radio hit and its video was Video of the Year on Israel’s music channel. “Weak” would also be the title song of the film "L'Arbre" by Julie Bertuccelli, which starred Charlotte Gainsbourg and was the closing film at Cannes Film Festival 2010.

While several European labels put offers on the table, the band opted to embark on a self-funded summer tour in 2009, playing dozens of festivals and venues across Europe. By the end of that summer, Telmavar Records signed a licensing deal with Sony-Columbia in Europe, for "The Reckoning" and for the band's future second LP.

The Reckoning was released in parts of Europe in 2009, to generally good reviews. In France iTunes chart it would peak at #8.

PoorBoy/Lucky Man (2009)[link]

"Poor Boy/Lucky Man", the band's second album, was released in Israel on 9/9/09. The album's title song and main theme would revolve around a boy born with a hole instead of a heart. The album was originally released in two different names and covers, leaving it up to the audience to decide whether this figure was poor or lucky. It would reach Gold status in Israel in 5 months, and garner ecstatic reviews. It was released in parts of Europe in April 2011. Among others, it was album of the month on France's national FIP radio, in the newspaper Liberacion, and in Germany's Eclipsed magazine.

The band continued to tour non-stop from 2009 all through 2011 (mostly in Israel and Europe but also in the US, Canada, China and India), building up a devoted following and a reputation for a legendary live show. Amongst the hundreds of shows, they played at Brandenburg Bridge at The World Championship of Athletics in Berlin; at the closing event at Cannes Film Festival 2010; at China’s biggest May 1 festivals; and at a tribute concert for The Who in Carnegie Hall, New York. They would play dozens of festivals across Europe (including Solidays France, Latitude UK, Paleo Switzerland, Frequency Austria, and Haldern Pop Germany) as well as countless radio and TV shows (including Taratata and One Shot Not in France, and two Rockpalast performances in Germany).

Through the Gale (2010)[link]

On November 30, 2010 the band released their 3rd album in Israel, "Through the Gale", a concept album telling the tale of the voyage of a blind and stubborn captain and his loyal crew in search of immortality, to the realms of the gods themselves, only to understand at the end that a voyage with no home, that a life without death, is meaningless.

Solo career[link]

In July 2011, following another summer tour that saw them sharing the stage with Robert Plant, Ben Harper and Lou Reed among others, Asaf Avidan & the Mojos announced that they are taking an indefinite creative break.

Avidan had continuously played solo and duo acoustic shows throughout the band's career, including "regular" venue shows as well as a TED Global Conference performance, supporting Bob Dylan, playing a tribute concert for The Who at Carnegie Hall and many radio and TV performances.

Avidan is set to continue touring and plans to go into the recording studio in the winter with a yet-unknown support cast of musicians.

Discography[link]

• 2006 – Now That You're Leaving (Asaf Avidan, Telmavar Records)
• 2008 – The Reckoning (Asaf Avidan & the Mojos, Telmavar/Columbia)
• 2009 – Poor Boy / Lucky Man (Asaf Avidan & the Mojos, Telmavar/Columbia)
• 2010 – Through the Gale (Asaf Avidan & the Mojos, Telmavar Records)

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Official Myspace profile
• Official Facebook fan page
• Official Vimeo page
• Official Youtube channel
• "Taratata" French TV performance
• TEDxTLV performance
• "Ce Sor Ou Jamais" TV performance
• Israel "Haproyect" video blog
• NYC show review
• The Reckoning album review, UK

Natalie Imbruglia
Imbruglia at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Background information
Birth name	Natalie Jane Imbruglia
Born	(1975-02-04) 4 February 1975 (age 37) Sydney, Australia
Genres	Pop, pop rock, alternative rock
Years active	1989–present
Labels	RCA / BMG (1997–2004) Brightside / Sony BMG (2004–2008) Malabar / Island (2009–2010)
Website	natalieimbruglia.com

Natalie Jane Imbruglia ( /ɪmˈbruːliə/; born 4 February 1975) is an Australian singer-songwriter, model and actress. In the early 1990s, Imbruglia was known to audiences as Beth Brennan in the popular Australian soap Neighbours. Three years after leaving the programme, Imbruglia launched a singing career with the international hit, "Torn". The subsequent debut album Left of the Middle (1997) sold over 7 million copies worldwide. Further releases, White Lilies Island (2001) and Counting Down the Days (2005), have been unable to match the commercial success of her debut, although the latter did become her first UK #1.

She co-starred in the 2003 film Johnny English and made her leading actress debut in the 2009 film Closed for Winter. Imbruglia is ranked #90 on VH1's Top 100 Sexiest Artists.^[1]

Early life[link]

Natalie was born on 4 February 1975, in Sydney, Australia, the first of the four daughters to Elliot Imbruglia, her father of Italian descent (originally a Sicilian from Lipari)^[2][3] and Maxene Anderson, her Anglo-Australian mother.^[4] Imbruglia grew up in Berkeley Vale, New South Wales, between Sydney and Newcastle. At the age of 15, she moved to Sydney with her family.^[2] Imbruglia studied ballet, tap, and highland dancing as a child, hoping to make a career out of it.

Imbruglia auditioned for Australian television commercials and appeared in spots for Coca-Cola and the popular Australian snack Twisties. By age 16, she left high school to start a career in acting. She soon obtained the chance to play a regular role on the Australian soap opera Neighbours.^[5] By the end of her second year, she left the show to move to London in 1994,^[2] immersing herself in the city's club scene. Natalie occasionally met with Anne Barret, who would become her future manager and convinced her to register a demo with four songs.^[2] Her effort paid off and she was signed to BMG Publishing, after coming up with a demo of the song "Torn" which greatly impressed RCA Records.

Career[link]

[edit] 1997–2000: Left of the Middle

She has received an MTV Award for Best New Artist in 1998, and 3 constitutive Grammy Award nominations in 1999. She has sold over 9 million albums worldwide. She was ranked No. 11 on Rock on the Net's list of single artists of the year in 1998, and No. 76 in 2001. Imbruglia has tied up her 4-album record deal with BMG after the delivery of her compilation album, Glorious: The Singles 1997–2007.

Imbruglia's first internationally released single, "Torn" (1997) (original version from Danish singer Lis Sørensen "Brænt"), was a cover of an Ednaswap song. Instantly the single became one of the biggest hits of the 90s, reaching number two in the UK Singles Chart in November 1997^[6] and number one on airplay around the world and was number one on the Billboard Airplay chart for 14 weeks. The single went on to sell over a million copies in the United Kingdom alone.

It was also released as a radio single in the US, but not in buyable CD-format. The single quickly hit No. 1 on the Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart, where it stayed for 14 weeks. At the time, singles not released commercially were unable to chart to the overall Hot 100 chart (combined sales and airplay), so "Torn" made no appearance on it for a while. By the time the policy was changed in late 1998 to allow airplay-only songs, "Torn" was already heading down the charts, so its peak on the Hot 100 only ended up being at #42. The single also topped the Top 40 Mainstream/CHR Pop and Adult Top 40 charts.

In October 1997, it broke the all-time airplay record in the UK for being the most played (more than 2000 plays) for six consecutive weeks. It was finally No. 1 for 14 weeks in the UK radio chart, a record that is being tied by only Simply Red's Fairground. It was the No. 1 radio single in the US from March to July 1998. It was knocked down to No. 2 by The Goo Goo Dolls' Iris.

Rick Dees, in his Top 40 Chart show also declared "Torn" as the 'number one radio single of 1990s' in their 2000 Millennium Countdown show, broadcast from KIIS-FM on New Year's Eve.

Imbruglia made a surprise appearance alongside David Armand midway through a performance of his 'interpretative dance' routine to sing her hit song Torn at Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Ball (2006).

Imbruglia's debut album Left of the Middle was released on 8 December 1997. It sold 350,000 copies in the UK 3 weeks after its initial release and was certified platinum. It has sold over 6 million copies to date. It broke the record of the highest selling debut album by a pop/rock/alternative female artist, more than Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, and Meredith Brooks combined in its first week according to Billboard. The second single released in the UK, after "Torn" was "Big Mistake", which debuted at number-two. "Wishing I Was There" followed and it was less successful than her first two singles, reaching number 19. However, "Wishing I Was There" was a smash hit on the UK radio, peaked at No. 2 in summer 1998, and was a summer smash hit in the US radio, peaked at No. 14 on the Top 40 Show. The final single from Left of the Middle was "Smoke", and the reception was much more divided compared to the other singles. It was a hit in the UK and made the top 5, while in Australia it just missed the top 40. Eventually, the album became a million-seller after charting well in many countries and entering the Top 10 in the US and UK. In 1999, she recorded a cover of the song Never Tear Us Apart by INXS with Tom Jones which appeared on his album Reload.

Left of the Middle was certified platinum by RIAA within 4 weeks of release (3 April 1998) and was certified 2X platinum in November 1998.

As of 2011, 'Torn' holds the record for most played song on Australian radio since 1990, played more than 300,500 times since its 1998 release, an average of 75 times a day, based on data compiled by the Australian Performing Rights Association (APRA).^[7]

[edit] 2001–2004: White Lilies Island and Johnny English

Imbruglia's next album, White Lilies Island, arrived in 2001. It is named after the island where her English and main home is situated on the banks of the River Thames at Windsor. The writing process, in which Imbruglia co-wrote every track, took almost three years to complete. The album's first single, "That Day", was very different stylistically from her previous singles, but it did not reach the UK Top 10. In the US, "Wrong Impression" was released as the first single and it enjoyed small success, charting in the Hot 100 Singles chart and the Adult Contemporary chart. The track was also released in the UK as a second single, and it did slightly better than That Day. "Beauty On The Fire", the final single, experienced minimal success and barely entered charts worldwide, and did not make the top 50 in Australia. The album, which gained brief notoriety in the Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal, still managed to sell over 1 million copies but failed to repeat the widespread success of Left of the Middle.

Imbruglia (centre) in Naples, Italy, in 2005

Imbruglia's third album was ready in November 2003. Imbruglia's record label refused to release it due to it being too rock and not radio-friendly. She was later given songs to record with Swedish pop producers, Bloodshy & Avant, which she refused to do. Imbruglia and her record label parted ways at the beginning of 2004. Four months later she signed with a new label Brightside Recordings, which was formed by a former Innocent Records executive, Hugh Goldsmith.

[edit] 2005–2008: Counting Down the Days

In April 2005, Imbruglia released her third studio album Counting Down the Days in the UK with "Shiver" as its first single. "Shiver" was a huge success, and it became her longest running single in the UK since "Torn." It topped UK airplay charts for several weeks, reaching eighth place in the UK charts. It also became the most played song of 2005. The song's acclaim and reception paid off and Counting Down The Days became her first album to reach the top spot on the album charts.

It was decided that 'Sanctuary' would be second single from the album. The promo singles were sent to radio stations. The decision was later changed to the title track "Counting Down the Days", with radio stations being asked to play the album version, because the radio mix was not finished. The single was released on 25 July but it did not have as much success in the singles chart as "Shiver," although it managed to reignite interest in its parent album and also received a lot of airplay in the UK. Due to the single, the album managed to re-enter the top 40 in the official UK charts.

Imbruglia had a choice to either release 'Perfectly' as her third single, or use the GBP200,000 funding from BMG to do a tour. She decided to do a small European tour (as she had not done a proper tour since Left of the Middle) in late October and November to promote the album. Though the album never entered UK Top 40 again, she proved once again that she had maintained a dedicated fan base; several concerts, especially those in London, sold out.

The album is the 100th best-selling album in 2005, selling 204,877 copies in the UK alone.^[8]

Imbruglia started working on her fourth album in late 2005. In mid 2007 the plans changed and Imbruglia's record company decided to release the single collection instead. The compilation is a celebration of Imbruglia's 10 years in the music industry. The only single lifted from the album – "Glorious" premiered in BBC Radio 1 on the Chris Moyles Show. The promotion included a special acoustic gig. It can be found on iTunes. The Singles Collection debuted at No. 5 in the UK Music charts, and boasted 5 new songs, including the single "Glorious", as well as a bonus DVD featuring all Imbruglia's Music Videos. The album has sold around 600,000 copies worldwide to date.

[edit] 2009–2011: Come to Life

Imbruglia in Bucharest, Romania, in 2008

She parted ways with her record label.^[9] She is no longer associated with Brightside Recordings. It has been confirmed that Imbruglia obtained the rights to the songs recorded for the album and is going to release her fourth studio album on her own independent label, Malabar Records.^[10] She confirmed that the songs included on the record were co-written with Ben Hillier, Dave McCracken, Daniel Johns, Gary Clark, Jamie Hartman, Paul Harris and Shep Solomon. Some of the tracks were produced by Hillier and mixed by Danton Supple, who previously collaborated with the singer on her album White Lilies Island. The album was scheduled to be released in March 2009 with the first single being sent to radio stations in February.^[11] It has now been confirmed by Imbruglia that the first single will be sent to radio around July, as she had a “last-minute inspiration" and also had some new material offered from Chris Martin.^[12] In an interview with BBC Radio 1 she said that "there is some electronic stuff in there". The album is confirmed to be titled Come to Life.^[13][14] According to The Sun, Imbruglia and Chris Martin of Coldplay collaborated on "a string of tracks, which are likely to feature on her forthcoming album".^[15] Martin later confirmed the information. In an interview he said he had asked Imbruglia to record one of the band's songs which, he thinks, turned out great adding "we've given her the best Coldplay song of all time [. . .] she sounds [. . .] brilliant on it. I think she has a very unique talent and an incredibly unique voice."^[16] She later stressed that she recorded two songs written by him saying "if Chris Martin calls with two songs, you don't think, you say, 'Yes'."^[17] It was confirmed that the songs were mixed by Michael Brauer. He also informed that there are actually three songs written by Chris, which were recorded by Imbruglia and that the album is finished and awaits mastering.^[18] Two songs – "My God" and "Apologise" – leaked to the Internet in early February. It was confirmed that the latter was co-written with Jamie Hartman of Ben's Brother and will not be included on her fourth album.^[19] A version of "Apologise" performed by Ben's Brother was released instead in 2009 as the first single from their second album, Battling Giants. Tracks confirmed to be part of the album include "Fun", "Lukas", and "Want", which were mixed by Michael Brauer.^[20] The music video for a pre-single track, "Wild About It", was filmed in London on 25 July 2009.^[21] In July 2009, it was announced that the album will be released via Island Records outside of Australia and New Zealand. A record deal for distribution in Australia and New Zealand is expected to be announced soon.^[22] Universal Music is set to release the album locally in Australia on 9 October 2009,^[23] and New Zealand on 5 October 2009.^[24][25]

The first official single taken from Come to Life, "Want", which was written by Imbruglia, Daniel Johns (credited Kat Kourtney), Gary Clark, and Chris Martin,^[26] was released on 28 September 2009, to critical acclaim, but poor worldwide chart performances.^[27] On 3 August 2009 the music video of "Wild About It" was released.

Come to Life was released on 12 October 2009 in Europe, and in the UK on 3 May 2010, with a new lead single "Scars". The video for "Scars" was filmed on 26 February 2010 according to her Twitter. "Scars" was sent to radio in the UK on 22 March 2010; however, due to no support from radio networks, the single release was cancelled. There was further news that the single would be released with a 5 July date, however the video and single cannot be found on the internet anywhere. The release of her album was also cancelled in the UK.

Imbruglia is currently working on her fifth album, which is scheduled for a Fall/Autumn 2012 release.

Other ventures[link]

In May 2010, after Dannii Minogue, who is a judge on the British version of The X Factor, declined to judge the Australian show, Imbruglia became one of the new judges instead. The series began airing on Channel Seven in the second half of 2010. The auditions took place in June 2010. Imbruglia mentors the Girls category and her final three contestants that she chose for the top twelve live stages were Hayley Teal, Sally Chatfield and India-Rose Madderom. Chatfield came second to Altyian Childs. Imbruglia has since been nominated for a TV Week Silver Logie for Most Popular TV Presenter. In March 2011, it was announced that she was replaced by Natalie Bassingthwaighte as a judge on the third season of The X Factor.^[28]

Personal life[link]

Natalie Imbruglia performs in Amsterdam, 1 November 2005

On New Year's Eve 2003, Imbruglia and her boyfriend of three and a half years, Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns, were married in a beach ceremony in Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia. While Imbruglia lived mainly in Windsor, Berkshire, UK, on an island named "White Lilies" (also the name of her second album), Johns lived in Newcastle, Australia.^[29] On 4 January 2008, Imbruglia and Johns released a statement announcing their divorce, citing distance as the main reason.^[30] However, the two remain friends.

Natalie Imbruglia is the eldest sister of singer-songwriter Laura Imbruglia.

Personal causes[link]

• Imbruglia is an ambassador for Virgin Unite and supports campaigns to end poverty and to bring attention to the disease known as obstetric fistula.
• She appeared in a sketch at the Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International on 31 October 2006.
• She has also spoken publicly of suffering from clinical depression to raise awareness about the disorder.^[31]
• 2008 saw her support the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign in support of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, alongside fellow celebrities: comedian Alan Carr, DJ & presenter Edith Bowman, actress Anna Friel and supermodel Twiggy.

Looks and fashion[link]

Imbruglia was named 6th most naturally beautiful woman of all time in 2004.^[32] Audrey Hepburn topped the poll in which only experts like fashion editors, model agents and make-up artists could vote. The voting was decided on the "most naturally beautiful woman, inside and out". She was ranked 90th on the VH1 100 Sexiest Artists.^[33]

She has been seen sporting tattoos of Sanskrit/Hindi inscription "Shreya" on her neck, Chinese word for courage on her left foot and Sanskrit Aum on her lower back.

Imbruglia stated that she has never had any plastic surgery but added "I wouldn't rule it out because I don't know how I'll feel in the future." She also stated she'd like to "grow old gracefully, wrinkles and all".^[34]

Besides modelling for L'Oréal, Imbruglia also modelled Sass and Bide's "The Mad Ones" dress to raise money for cancer research.

Discography[link]

• Left of the Middle (1997)
• White Lilies Island (2001)
• Counting Down the Days (2005)
• Come to Life (2009)

Film career[link]

Television[link]

Endorsements[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Natalie Imbruglia

• Official website
• Natalie Imbruglia at the Internet Movie Database
• Article in the Indian press about Natalie Imbruglia's involvement in the Campaign to End Fistula
• Natalie Imbruglia discusses the global importance of the water cycle with Ecover Wateraid
• ELLE TV: A Trouser Suit Story