Christine Anu (born March 15, 1970) is an Australian pop singer.
Anu was born in Cairns to Torres Strait Islander parents who were descended from the indigenous inhabitants of the Saibai and Mabuiag Islands. As she was growing up, she lived with her five brothers and sisters and seventeen cousins in one house. When she was 17 she left home and lived in Sydney on her own.
Anu began performing as a dancer and later went on to sing back-up vocals for The Rainmakers, which included Neil Murray of the Warumpi Band. Her first recording was in 1993 with "Last Train", dance remake of a Paul Kelly song. The follow-up, "Monkey and the Turtle", was based on a traditional story. After "My Island Home", she released her first album, Stylin' Up which went platinum, and also gained her a position as a spokeswoman for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
In 1995, Neil Murray won an Australasian Performing Right Association songwriting award for writing "My Island Home". Christine Anu won an ARIA Award for best female recording artist as well as a Deadly Sounds National Aboriginal & Islander Music Awards Award in 1996 for best female artist.
Baz Luhrmann asked her to sing on the song "Now Until The Break Of Day" on his Something For Everybody album. It was released as a single and the video then won another ARIA award and led to her being cast in Moulin Rouge!.
It took five years for a follow-up to Stylin' Up to be released; 2000's Come My Way made her a mainstream star. The single "Sunshine On A Rainy Day" was a Top 40 hit for 13 weeks in Australia. Come My Way went gold. In 2000 she sang the song "My Island Home" at the Sydney 2000 Olympics Closing Ceremony.
Anu has also had a notable acting and TV career. She appeared in Dating The Enemy, a 1996 Australian film starring Guy Pearce and Claudia Karvan. She then appeared in an Australian stage version of The Little Shop Of Horrors in the same year.
Anu's stage career developed with a starring role in Rent in 1998 and 1999. Anu was offered a role in a Broadway production of this musical but had to decline due to commitments in recording her second album. Her links with Baz Luhrmann led to him offering her a part in Moulin Rouge!. In 2003, she appeared as Kali in The Matrix Reloaded and played the character on the video game Enter The Matrix.
In 2004, she became a judge on Popstars Live, a television quest broadcast on the Seven Network at 6.30pm on Sunday night in Australia along the lines of Australian Idol. The program failed to achieve a similar level of success leading network executives to pressure the judges to offer harsher criticism of the contestants. Christine Anu refused to offer harsher criticism leading to her resignation as a judge in April 2004. In a statement issued on her departure, she said: "I chose to play a positive role model and wanted to encourage these young people in their endeavours, rather than criticise them. Although leaving Popstars Live was a difficult decision for me to make, I do feel somewhat relieved that I can now focus on my music."
Anu is mother of two children - Kuiam (b. 1996) and Zipporah Mary (b. 2002).
Singles: Monkey & the Turtle, Come On, Island Home, Party
Singles: Sunshine on a Rainy Day, Jump To Love, 'Coz I'm Free
Singles: Talk About Love
