She was a defining voice of the '90s but started a whole new career for the last 20 years. Photo / Supplied
She was a defining voice of the '90s but started a whole new career for the last 20 years. Photo / Supplied
News overnight that New Zealand-born, Australian singer Margaret Urlich had died of cancer after dealing with the illness privately for two years sent shockwaves among fans.
Fans grieving her death today might also be wondering – where did she go all these years?
An always elegant, clear-voiced singer, Urlich was one of the defining voices of the early '90s, here and in her home country of New Zealand. Yes, there was that showstopping appearance on Daryl Braithwaite's 1991 mega-hit The Horses (10x platinum and counting), but Urlich was a star in her own right.
Her debut single Escaping was a hit here and in New Zealand – where it reached number one – and 1989 debut album Safety In Numbers was a slow-burning smash, going triple-platinum here in Australia and earning her the 1991 ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist.
Her 1992 follow-up Chameleon Dreams was another platinum hit.
But after her fourth album missed the Australian charts in 1999, Urlich largely disappeared from the public eye.
Sure, she still performed intermittently – including occasional co-headlining tours around Australia with Wendy Matthews, another expat who found great success on these shores.
Margaret Urlich has died after a two-and-a-half-year struggle with cancer. Photo / Sarah Gully
But public appearances were fleeting, by choice. As former News Corp music writer Cameron Adams revealed overnight, simply tracking down Urlich for a 2016 article marking 25 years since The Horses had taken "a while". There was no public social media presence, no official website to keep fans updated.
A rare 2017 interview with New Zealand newspaper The Star gave fans some insights into what she'd been up to in the 18 years since what was to be her final album.
The article revealed Urlich lived on a rural property in the NSW Southern Highlands, and now made a living as a high school music teacher, "often mentor[ing] young singers before they sit their university entrance exams."
And Urlich said she was happy with her new, quieter life.
"I quite like being normal. I only ever started singing because I just love it. The whole fame side of it, I didn't think about it that much and it always felt a little bit uncomfortable to me," she told The Star.
"I don't need to have a high profile to be happy – in fact, I think the opposite is true for me."
Urlich onstage supporting a student in a video posted to Facebook. Photo / Facebook
And a tribute posted to Facebook from one of her former students' parents overnight can speak to that – it shows Urlich onstage, happily playing back-up to a young student as she strummed her guitar. "So blessed to have her share some of her passion," the parent wrote. "I'm sure she will be greatly missed."
In a now-bittersweet moment of that 2017 interview, Urlich said that despite turning her back on fame, she hadn't ruled out the possibility of releasing another album, now that her two children were well into their teens. (Those children, with husband George Gorga, are both now in their early 20s.)
"I am never saying never but it does take a lot of energy. I just can't put out anything that I think is mediocre," she said.
And as many fans would attest today, she never did.
