Colleen Hewett was born on 16 April 1950 in Bendigo, Victoria (Australia).
She began her music career at the age of 12 when she sang with The Esquires at the Bendigo YMCA. A year later she appeared on local TV pop music series, The Go!! Show.
From 1964 to 1966 she regularly performed with The Esquires and, in 1967, she formed a vocal trio called The Creations with her sister, Glenys, and Michelle Kennedy.
She also joined a soul-based group called Dice, which were later renamed as the Laurie Allen Revue and which featured Laurie Allen (ex-Bobby & Laurie) on lead vocals.
Hewett started her solo music career in 1970, appearing regularly on Aussie TV pop music series, Bandstand where her popularity with viewers resulted in her winning Best Newcomer Female Singer at the Bandstand Awards in December of that year.
She signed with Festival Records and her debut single, a cover version of Delaney and Bonnie‘s Super Star was released in June 1971. It reached #30 on the Australian Top 40 Singles chart.
From November 1971 to July 1972 Hewett acted in the Australian musical theatre version of Godspell at the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne. She recorded a version of the show’s tune, Day By Day as her second single in November 1971. It peaked at #1
After leaving Godspell, Hewett toured Australia performing in clubs and on local TV. Her debut self-titled album appeared in October 1972 and provided her next single, Carry That Weight – a cover of The Beatles track – which reached #29.
She toured America and the UK at the end of the year and was voted “Queen of Pop” in both 1972 and 1973 at the TV Week King of Pop Awards.
In January 1974, she signed to Atlantic Records and released her second studio album M’Lady. She travelled to the US in 1975 but found it difficult to make progress and eventually returned to Australia in May 1977.
In 1978 Colleen was the female lead in the Australian ABC television drama series The Truckies.
She released a top-selling #1 single, Dreaming My Dreams With You (originally by Waylon Jennings), in 1980.
In May 2015, Hewitt released her first album in 14 years, titled Black & White.
Video
