Amy Shark explains Twitter post to birth father

SHE has enjoyed a fairytale rise to success, but Gold Coast musician Amy Shark says fame has come at a cost, bringing a troubled relationship with her estranged birth father back into her now public life.

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SHE has enjoyed a fairytale rise to success, but Gold Coast musician Amy Shark says fame has come at a cost, bringing a troubled relationship with her estranged birth father back into her now public life.

A year after her triple platinum-selling single Adore sent her popularity skyrocketing, Shark, whose real name is Amy Billings, was contacted by her biological father for the first time in 15 years.

The usually private singer — she uses the pseudonym “Shark” to separate family and music — shocked fans by responding to her father with a public Twitter post last August, writing: “Haven’t heard from my father in 15 yrs until now. It must suck knowing ur daughter got all this way on her very own! Now beat it! I’m busy.”

Singer Amy Shark has addressed a Twitter post to her birth father for the first time. Picture: Richard Dobson

While she won’t publicly ­divulge details of the estranged relationship, Shark told The Courier-Mail this week that she had hoped to “embarrass” him for reaching out now that she was successful.

She also wanted to show her fans that her life and rapid rise to fame wasn’t perfect.

Her birth father reportedly left the family when Shark was a toddler. Shark, 32, was raised by her mother Robyn and stepfather David Cushway.

“I obviously wanted to embarrass him for doing that and I wanted to also let people know that it’s still not as easy as everyone thinks,” Shark said.

“I think everyone has their little moments like that in their life where it’s not perfect.

“It’s still a very hard thing to manage and get used to. It’s not like I’m on boats every day popping champagne.”

Shark said her birth father had been “pretty quiet” since her tweet and she was focused on spending time “with people who are happy for me and who have been there from the start”.

“It’s just hard to sift through all the bulls — t,” she said.

Shark released her much-anticipated debut album Love Monster yesterday following an unprecedented year of success that included two ARIA awards, an APRA award, being named the first-ever Australian Apple Music Up Next Artist, and a US late-night talk show debut.

She has only been known as Amy Shark since 2014, having previously taken her stepfather’s surname and her married name Billings.

“It was really important to separate family from music. I write about pretty personal things and I needed to do that without dragging my family into it,” she said.

But her mother and stepfather — who she has referred to as “dad” from a young age — as well as younger brother Mitch, have ­become her biggest ­supporters.

“They are very proud. I think they tell everyone they meet every day how proud they are of me. It’s really nice,” Shark said.