With reference to Kidman's previous marriage to Tom Cruise, Urban could opt for these lines from 'You're the Only One': "I know it's gonna take some time/ For you to trust this love of mine/ I know he broke your heart in two/ You've been betrayed and you're afraid/ That I will do the same to you".

Or perhaps, on a more uplifting note, Urban might reprise his biggest hit, 'Somebody Like You', in which he sang: "I'm breathin' deeper than I've ever done/ And it sure feels good, to finally feel the way I do/ I wanna love somebody like you".

What is certain about the union is that of the two, much less is known about Urban on this side of the world than his new wife. This is despite the fact the singer has sold over five million albums in North America and Australia and has had six number one singles in the US country charts, in the process picking up a clutch of Grammy nominations.

Urban has toured in Europe supporting middle-of-the-road rocker Bryan Adams and played a sold-out solo show at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin last October. Now though, with his marriage to one of Hollywood's leading stars, his celebrity is set to go through the roof.

Although born in New Zealand in 1967, Urban has lived most of his life in Brisbane, Australia where his family owned a number of shops. He started learning the guitar at six, was soon winning talent shows and by his mid-teens was playing in local clubs and bars. Urban's musical taste was influenced by his father's extensive collection of country and western music and from an early age he harboured ambitions to go to Nashville. But before this would happen, Urban had to break the Australian country circuit.

Leaving school at 15 to go on the road, the singer got a deal with record label EMI in 1990 and recorded his first solo album, which produced four number one singles in the country charts.

Flushed with this success, Urban decided to make the move to the US in 1992, but on arrival, was largely met with indifference. The country music scene in Nashville is famously hard to break into. The only Australian ever to have made an impact there was Olivia Newton John, who had a couple of hits in the 70s.

For the first few years, Urban played in a group called the Ranch who built up a loyal live following, but their first album flopped and they split up. The singer did not respond well to failure and has talked at length about how he spent most of the mid-90s drinking excessively and freebasing cocaine.

The turning point came when he found himself crawling around a crack house in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, looking for rocks to smoke. Urban decided to check in at Cumberland Heights, a kind of Priory for country and western stars, and says he has been clean ever since.

After rehab, Urban started to play as a session musician on albums by Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks.

During the recording of the latter's record, he met Matt Rollings, an established country producer, who agreed to help him put out an album of his own in 2000.

Conscious of the popularity of acts such as Shania Twain, Leann Rimes and Kenny Chesney, who all pedalled the same diet of relatively inoffensive country and western soft rock, Urban produced an album in a similar vein, the songs featuring the standard country themes of regret about past mistakes and a hope for future redemption.

The formula worked and Urban has experienced a remarkable degree of success ever since, garlanded with numerous awards and his albums selling millions.

However, while recognised as a gifted guitarist, critics say that Urban's music is incessantly bland, designed to fit neatly into the conservative playlists of American radio stations. And despite his hellraising past, Urban seems to have little of interest to impart about his experiences. He has steered away from saying anything even vaguely political, perhaps fearing the sort of negative reaction the Dixie Chicks got when they dared question George Bush's policies. Instead, Urban is content to market himself as a sex symbol, recently winning the vote of "sexiest country star" from Country Music Today and posing naked for Playgirlmagazine, something it is hard to imagine Johnny Cash agreeing to do.

His love life, like his career, has also taken an upward curve since he quit drugs. For most of the 90s, Urban had an on-off relationship with Laura Siegler, a veterinary technician, whom he proposed to soon after coming out of rehab, but the couple never married. Instead Urban started seeing a succession of models, the most high profile being Nikki Taylor.

Early last year, the pair attended a showcase to celebrate successful Australians in America and this was where he met Nicole Kidman for the first time. They started to date soon after and have been together ever since.

Much has been made in the lead-up to the wedding that it will be a Catholic ceremony. Kidman, who was brought up a Catholic, has had her first marriage to Tom Cruise annulled because it took place under the auspices of the church of Scientology, and she is now a regular mass goer.

Members of her congregation at Mary McKillop chapel in north Sydney have been holding a novena, a nine-day ritual of daily prayer, in honour of the actress's return to the fold.

But Urban, unlike many country stars who quit drink and drugs, has not found religion. He has referred in interviews to being "spiritual" but no more than that.

Again, the perception is that Urban is loath to move from the middle of the road or lessen his appeal by tying his mast to one particular faith or even point of view.

What isn't in doubt though is Urban's devotion to his career. He is the first Australian to break the Nashville scene, but his horizons are now greater than that, with talk of him becoming a global star and making the crossover into cinema . . . ambitions that are unlikely to be adversely affected by his agreeing to become Mr Nicole Kidman.

C.V.

Occupation: Country and western singer
Age: 38
In the news: He is getting married today to Hollywood star and fellow Australian Nicole Kidman in Sydney