Chrissy Amphlett, singer and founding member of Australian rock band Divinyls has succumbed to breast cancer and multiple sclerosis aged 53. The band broke UK and US charts in 1991 with their hit 'I Touch Myself'.
Amphlett announced her batlle with breast cancer in 2010. Her passing came on Saturday the 21st April in her New York home.
Oscar winning actor and fellow Ausie, Russell Crowe has led tributes to the singer’s passing. Reflecting on her starring role alongside Crowe in a 1988 production of Blood Brothers, Crowe left the message:
’Dear Chrissie, the last time I saw you was in the Botanic Gardens... That’s how I’ll remember you, your boy, R.’ And that he will remember her ’Loving life and reciting verse’.
Meanwhile Chrissy’s husband Charley Drayton has left the message:
’Chrissy expressed hope that her worldwide hit I Touch Myself would be utilised to remind all women to perform annual breast examinations’.
Hit single 'I Touch Myself' was later covered by pop singer Pink in 2009 and featured in the films Prelude To A Kiss in 1992 and 1997’s Austin Powers: The International Man Of Mystery.
Through their career, the band released 5 studio albums between 1980 when Amphlett founded the group with her husband, until their split in 1996.
The group were inducted in to the Australian Record Industry Asociations’ (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 2006 while their track Science Fiction was placed in the top 30 Autralisn tracks of all time by the Australisn Performing Right Asociation in 2001. The Divinyls reformed for a final tour Australia in 2007 with her husband Drayton on drums, Jerome Smith on bass, Charlie Owen on guitar and newest member Clayton Doley on keyboards.
A statement from the ARIA website reads:
’With her force of character and vocal strength she paved the way for strong, sexy, outspoken women.’
In March 2012 one of Chrissy’s last messages to her fans came on her Facebook page, she wrote:
’Unfortunately the last 18 months have been a real challenge for me having breast cancer and MS and all the new places that will take you’
’My illnesses have really exhausted this little body of mine that I have thrown from one end of a stage to another and performed thousands of shows’
’I will sing again,I will perform again but this time ’I know’ I hope you understand what I mean and if you don’t you will one day and be grateful.Yes Lawrence What A Life and this is Life.We must never be afraid.’
RIP Chrissy Amphlett 1959 – 2013.
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