Famous Australian singers and songwriters There are famous Australian singers across every musical genre. Our greatest opera singers were Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland. Australian country music stars have included Smoky Dawson and Slim Dusty, and more recently John Williamson, James Blundell, Kasey Chambers, and Keith Urban. Pop princess Kylie Minogue hit the international charts many years after Grease star Olivia Newton John and icon John Farnham. Jimmy Barnes, Peter Garret, Michael Hutchence and Daniel Johns claimed fame as lead singers in rock bands. Famous Aboriginal singers include Jimmy Little, Christine Anu, Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter and Geoffrey Gurrumul. Songwriter and entertainer Peter Allen has been immortalized in a stage musical. Kylie Minogue is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. She achieved recognition starring in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, where she played tomboy mechanic Charlene Robinson. Since then, Minogue has been a recording artist and has achieved commercial success and critical acclaim in the entertainment industry. Minogue has been recognised with several honorific nicknames including "Princess of Pop" and "Goddess of Pop". She is recognised as the highest-selling Australian artist of all time by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Keith Urban is a New Zealand-born Australian country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, TV show judge and record producer. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States the following year. He found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Nashville and charted two singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Natalie Imbruglia is an Australian singer-songwriter, model and actress. In the early 1990s, she appeared in the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Three years after leaving the programme, she began a singing career with her hit "Torn". AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. A hard rock/blues rock band they have also been considered a heavy metal band, although they have always dubbed their music simply "rock and roll" INXS was an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. They began playing covers in Western Australian pubs and clubs, occasionally playing some of their original music. Mainstays were main composer and keyboardist Andrew Farriss, drummer Jon Farriss, guitarists Tim Farriss and Kirk Pengilly, bassist Garry Gary Beers and main lyricist and vocalist Michael Hutchence. For twenty years, INXS was fronted by Hutchence, whose "sultry good looks" and magnetic stage presence made him the focal point of the band. Initially known for their new wave/pop style, the band later developed a harder pub rock style that included funk and dance elements. .