Debra Byrne

In 1969 Debra "Debbie" Byrne made her television debut on Brian and the Juniors, a children's variety and talent quest, which was hosted by newsreader Brian Naylor.[1]^: 25[2] She stayed with the show for 12 months until it finished late in 1970. In April 1971 she became an original cast member on Young Talent Time, another children's talent quest, which was hosted by Johnny Young.[1]^: 48–50[3] Byrne proved to be a popular cast member: in March 1974 she won the Logie Award for Best Teenage Personality and the TV Week Queen of Pop Award in October.[4][5]

In March 1974, before leaving the Young Talent Time regular cast, Byrne released her first solo single, "He's a Rebel", a cover version of the Phil Spector-produced 1962 hit by the Crystals.[4][6] It peaked at No. 25 on the Go-Set Top 40 Australian Singles chart,[7] and reached No. 1 on the Melbourne charts.[4] Her debut album, She's a Rebel (1974), was produced by Young, with session musicians including Russell Dunlop on drums (ex-Aesops Fables, SCRA, Renée Geyer and Mother Earth, Johnny Rocco Band), Tim Partridge on bass guitar (Company Caine, Mighty Kong, Kevin Borich Express), Mark Punch on guitar (Johnny Rocco Band, Renée Geyer Band) and Terry Walker on guitar and backing vocals (the Strangers, Pastoral Symphony).[8]

Byrne's follow-up single was a second Crystals cover, "Da Doo Ron Ron" (January 1975), backed by the track, "Boogie Man".[4] In that year she won both the Logie Award for Best Teenage Personality and the TV Week Queen of Pop Award for a second time.[4][9] In September 1975 Byrne travelled to London to record at Abbey Road Studios with Cliff Richard producing. While in London, she made public and TV appearances, including on The Cliff Richard Show.[4]

Byrne's first Australian television guest appearance as a featured solo artist was on The Graham Kennedy Show at the age of fifteen. Since then she has made a guest appearance on every major Australian Tonight show and was a regular performer on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) series, The Saturday Show. In 1978 she merged singing with acting for the first time on the ABC's Follies series. From August 1980 Byrne co-starred alongside John Farnham in their own series, Farnham and Byrne.[10] Craig Walsh of The Australian Women's Weekly previewed a segment for a rock 'n' roll themed episode, "[its] staging promises to make the series the smash hit of 1980, say the producers" with Byrne declaring "I've just discovered I can dance better than I thought."[10]

Byrne's career stalled between 1980 and 1985 due to her heroin addiction, for which she undertook rehab at Odyssey House.[4] A further stumbling block occurred when a sex tape of her and a former partner was stolen and leaked to the media.[1]^{: 435–6, 446–9}[11]

In mid-1985, Byrne recorded her second solo album, The Persuader, which was produced by Peter Dawkins.[1]^: 288[12] She issued the single "The Persuader" in August, but neither single or album charted.[4] She made a successful and highly publicised career comeback in 1985 with the starring role as Kathy McLeod, opposite Matt Dillon, in the feature film, Rebel.[4][13] She was nominated for an AFI Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role for the performance.[14] Byrne sang lead vocals on nine of ten tracks on Rebel: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1985).[15][16]

Byrne's live cabaret, Caught in the Act Again, commenced during mid-1999, it included both show tunes and some original material. The first half was "a little too low-key, mostly because the songs all have a similar, slow, acid-jazzy tempo" according to Fiona Scott-Norman of The Age.[17] She was backed by John McAll on piano and Don Hirini as backing vocalist; she also co-wrote some material, including "I Don't Make the Rules", with Hirini.[17] Caught in the Act Again earned a Green Room Award nomination for Best Cabaret Performance and Best Musical Arrangement.

Her cabaret work includes writing, directing, choreographing and starring in Girls, Girls, Girls from May to June 2002.[18] The show also starred Wendy Stapleton and Lisa Edwards (replaced by Nikki Nicholls) as a tribute to the Supremes, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Patsy Cline and Lulu.[19][20] In 2002 it won the Herald Sun Best Cabaret Award.[18][21] The shows had sold out before they opened.[22] In subsequent years Byrne, Stapleton and Nicholls periodically resumed Girls, Girls, Girls.

Since 1972 Byrne has been a regular performer at the Christmas Eve Carols by Candlelight concert at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl. At the 2005 concert she performed a duet of Silent Night with her five-year-old daughter, Lucille, who was making her professional stage and television debut. In late 2006 her autobiography, Not Quite Ripe: A Memoir, was published on Pan Macmillan.[23] She described how the book took her four years to write, "On and off. I wrote and I didn't write."[23] Byrne reprised her role of Grizabella in the ExitLeft production of Cats, which was staged at the Derwent Entertainment Centre in Hobart in late-October 2007.[24]

In April 2009 Byrne played the role of Sue Barnes in Metro Street at its world premiere in Adelaide and its subsequent tour to South Korea, with an appearance at the Daegu International Musical Festival (see Daegu) in June.[25][26][27]

From 29 July 2010 to April 2011 she played the role of the Bird Woman in the original Australian production of the stage musical, Mary Poppins at Melbourne's Her Majesty's Theatre.[28][29] She reprised the role in its Sydney run at the Capitol Theatre.[30] From May to June 2012 Byrne played the role of Claire Christie in the Nine Network's Tricky Business.[31]

From February to March 2014 she appeared on a dramatised crime biography, Fat Tony & Co., portraying Judy Moran, wife of Lewis Moran who was part of the Carlton Crew which were involved in the Melbourne gangland killings.[32] Fat Tony & Co. focused on the rise and fall of convicted drug mastermind, Tony Mokbel,[33] and is an offshoot to the first series of Underbelly (February–May 2008).[32] Byrne described her portrayal of Moran "You'd be surprised what I wear as Judy that's from my own wardrobe [...] There's a definite air of the theatrical about her and a lot of what I saw Judy wearing ... I thought she wore some really nice clothes. Everything she wore was so over the top."[32]

In 2016 she took the role of Carlotta Campion in a concert version of Follies at the Melbourne Recital Hall for a limited run of three performances in May.[34] In August she worked with Vika Bull in their Carole King tribute show, Tapestry.[35][36] In late 2016, Byrne appeared on the third series of ABC comedy, Upper Middle Bogan.

From 2017 through to 2019, she toured with Vika Bull in their Carole King tribute show 'Tapestry'.

In mid 2019, she is set to play the Beggar Woman in a production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street opposite Anthony Warlow and Gina Riley.

• She's a Rebel (1974)
• The Persuader (1985)
• Caught in the Act(1991)
• Sleeping Child (1994)
• New Ways to Dream (1997)

• Cats - Original Australian Cast Recording (1985)
• Rebel - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1985)
• Les Miserables - The World Symphonic Recording (1988)
• Mary Poppins - Original Australian Cast Recording (2010)

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.

The King of Pop Awards were voted by the readers of TV Week. The King of Pop award started in 1967 and ran through to 1978.[48]

The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by magazine TV Week, with the first ceremony in 1959. The awards represent both public and industry voted awards.

The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Byrne won three awards in that time.[51]

• 1985 AFI Award nomination for Best Actress in a Lead Role for Rebel[14]
• 1991 Grammy Award for Best Theatre Musical Soundtrack, shared with cast of The World Symphonic Recording of Les Misérables,
• 2002 Herald Sun Best Cabaret Award for Girls, Girls, Girls,
• Green Room Award nomination for Best Cabaret Performance and Best Musical Arrangement for Caught in the Act Again,
• 2009 Daegu Musical Award for Best Actress for Metro Street.