Margaret Ulrich, the New Zealand-born pop singer behind 1989’s hit song, “Escaping,” has died. She was 57. Ulrich died on Aug. 22 following after a harrowing cancer battle. She had a string of hits in New Zealand and Australia through the mid-1990s.
Ulrich’s family said she died at her home in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia, surrounded by her family, reports NME. She died after a “courageous two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer.” She died a year after she was inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame, notes News Hub.
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Ulrich was born on Jan. 24, 1965, in Aukland and started her career as the lead singer of the new wave band Peking Man. The group gained attention after winning a 1984 TV competition and scored hits with the singles “Good Luck to You,” “Lift Your Head Up High,” and “Room That Echoes.” Following a stint with the girl group When the Cat’s Away, she moved to Australia to start a solo career.
The singer’s first solo album, Safety in Numbers, was a smash hit in New Zealand and Australia. It included her hit “Escaping,” which topped the New Zealand singles chart, “Only My Heart Calling,” and “Number One (Remember When We Danced All Night).” The album earned her the 1991 ARIA Award for Best Breakthrough Artist. In 1990, she was featured in Daryl Braithwaite’s hit “The Horses.”
Ulrich released three more albums, Chameleon Dreams (1992), The Deepest Blue (1995), and Second Nature (1999).Although these failed to match the success of her first album, she continued to earn hits with “Boy in the Moon,” “(I Don’t Want to Be) Second Best,” and “All by Myself.” Her recording of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from the New Zealand cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar hit the New Zealand charts in 1994.
After releasing her last studio album, Ulrich continued touring Australia but she mostly withdrew from the public eye. “I quite like being normal. I only ever started singing because I just love it,” she told The Star in 2017, via NME. “The whole fame side of it, I didn’t think about it that much and it always felt a little bit uncomfortable to me.”
After news of Ulrich’s death broke, members of the Naw Zealand and Australian music communities mourned her. “Like many, I was saddened to hear of Margaret Urlich’s passing this morning. I was lucky enough to work with her when she guested on Full Frontal and the Micallef Program. A remarkable voice, a lovely person and a great sense of humour. VALE,” comedian Shaun Micallef wrote. “RIP Margaret Urlich Such a beautiful singer. My heart goes out to George and her family. You left us way too soon,” Jimmy Barnes of Cold Chisel wrote.
