Noeleen Batley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 December 1944 (age 81) |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1960-1972 |
| Notable work | Barefoot Boy, 1960 |
Noeleen Batley (born 25 December 1944) [1] was an Australian pop star in the 1960s and early 1970s. She was known as "Australia's Little Miss Sweetheart". [2]
Batley was born in Sydney on Christmas Day, 1944, and began singing at the age of five with her mother's encouragement. As a child, she sang on radio shows such as 2UE's Youth Parade, 2UW's Amateur Hour and the ABC's Rockville Junction. [2] She entered numerous talent competitions, and eventually won her first recording contract, with Festival Records, in 1960 as a prize in a singing competition. [1]
Batley's first record "Starry Eyed" was released in February 1960, but was not a success. [3] However her next record, released in October of the same year, reached the Top 5 in all Australian mainland capital cities. [1] It was a recording of Barefoot Boy, a song written by the then 16-year-old Helene Grover. [2] [4] It remained in the charts for sixteen weeks. [2] With its success, Batley became the first Australian female pop singer to have a national hit song, and began to appear on TV shows such as Youth Show , Bandstand and Six O'Clock Rock . [1]
In 1961, Batley was voted Australia's Top Female Singer. [2] Her mother became her manager and together they completed a two-week tour of New Zealand (henceforth called a holiday)in 1964. [3] She continued to record for Festival until 1969, when she went on a tour of Europe and England. She eventually settled in England, in 1970, and continued to perform there. [2] Her last recording, Seabird, was released in 1972. [2]
Batley married in 1975 and had a child in 1976. The family lived first in Essex, England, and then in Miami, Florida. [1]