39 Facts About Wendy Matthews

Wendy Matthews has won six Australian Recording Industry Association Awards.

Wendy Joan Matthews was born in 1960 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with Abenaki, Spanish and Scottish ancestry.

Peter and Joan Wendy Matthews already had a son, Gary born a year earlier and another son, Glenn followed a year after Wendy Matthews.

Wendy Matthews listened and sang along to Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and Barbra Streisand records.

Wendy Matthews's parents separated when she was 14, Peter became a Vancouver advertising executive and Joan took up yoga instructing near Quebec.

At the age of 15 Wendy Matthews joined friends in the Little Benny Blues Band.

Wendy Matthews left school at 16 and went busking across North America including south to Mexico with friends.

In February 1981, Wendy Matthews sang lead vocal for "Willow Pattern" on Osamu Kitajima's album Dragon King.

Wendy Matthews decided to stay in Sydney at the tour's completion and found herself in demand as a session vocalist and singing jingles.

Wendy Matthews sang on albums by Jimmy Barnes, Richard Clapton, Tim Finn and Icehouse.

In 1986, Wendy Matthews joined Peter Blakeley and The Resurrection, with Blakeley on lead vocals, Chris Abrahams on bass guitar and piano, Jim Benjamin on drums and Mark Punch on guitar.

In 1985, Wendy Matthews recorded vocals for the soundtrack of Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV series Dancing Daze with musical production by Martin Armiger.

ABC-TV and Armiger asked Wendy Matthews to sing with Ceberano on the soundtrack to the series Stringer in 1987.

Wendy Matthews was a member of Noel's Cowards, a short term project, including ex-Split Enz members Noel Crombie on drums, Nigel Griggs on bass guitar and Phil Judd on guitar.

Wendy Matthews joined the Australian supergroup, Absent Friends, in 1989 with Kelly and James Valentine of Models, Garry Gary Beers of INXS, Roger Mason and Mick King.

In 1990, Wendy Matthews recorded her debut solo album Emigre with the assistance of Absent Friends members, Beers, Kelly, King, Mason, Valentine, Francois and Andrew Duffield as well as Tim Finn and Blakeley.

Wendy Matthews won the Australian Rolling Stone magazine award for best female vocalist in 1990 for her debut album and her work with Absent Friends.

Wendy Matthews's touring band included Ron Francois on bass guitar, Amanda Brown on oboe and violin, Robbie James on guitar, King on guitar, Lisa Maxwell on backing vocals, Mark Meyer on drums, Mark O'Connor on keyboards and Valentine on saxophone.

Wendy Matthews supported the Neville Brothers on their Australian tour.

At the ARIA Music Awards of 1992, Wendy Matthews was nominated for Best Female Artist.

Wendy Matthews toured internationally in 1993 including gigs in London, Montreal and New York.

Wendy Matthews won 'Best Female Artist' for Lily and both 'Best Single' and ARIA Award for Highest Selling Single for "The Day You Went Away" at the ARIA Music Awards of 1993.

Wendy Matthews had a film role as a nightclub singer in Flynn which starred Guy Pearce as Australian-born actor Errol Flynn.

Wendy Matthews released her next album The Witness Tree on 14 November 1994, featuring the Top 40 hit "Standing Strong".

Wendy Matthews's single "Standing Strong" won 'Most Performed Australian Work' at the APRA Awards of 1995.

Wendy Matthews returned to Canada for a visit before the release of her next album Ghosts in 1997.

In 2000, Wendy Matthews joined the cast of a new Australian musical theatre production of Godspell alongside Angry Anderson, Jimmy Barnes, Debra Byrne, Marie Wilson, Fiona Horne, Belinda Emmett, Paul Mercurio and Terence Trent D'Arby.

In 2001, Wendy Matthews relocated from Sydney to a property near Coffs Harbour on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.

In 2003, Wendy Matthews sang a duet with Rod Stewart on the track "My Heart Stood Still" on the Australian release of his album As Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook, Volume II.

Wendy Matthews released her own covers album, Cafe Naturale in May 2004.

Wendy Matthews' album debuted in the top 50 of the ARIA charts.

In October 2010, Wendy Matthews performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Alice Springs Masters Games.

Wendy Matthews independently released Billie and Me: The White Room Sessions on 27 July 2015.

In November 2016, Wendy Matthews featured on the Catherine Britt single, "F U Cancer" alongside Kasey Chambers, Beccy Cole, Lyn Bowtell, Josh Pyke and Wes Carr.

Wendy Matthews has appeared on three series of Channel Seven's celebrity singing competition It Takes Two.

The third series commenced on 12 February 2008 with John Mangos, news reader for Sky News Australia, and Wendy Matthews being voted off in week two.

Wendy Matthews appeared on the TV show RocKwiz on 1 November 2008, she performed Toto's "Hold the Line" as a duet with Johnny Galvatron from The Galvatrons.

Wendy Matthews has won six awards from twenty-two nominations as a solo artist.

Wendy Matthews has won awards as a member of Rockmelons and projects.