I Still Call Australia Home
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"I Still Call Australia Home" is a song written and performed by Peter Allen in 1980. In it, Allen sings of the Australian expatriate's longing for home.
It has been used to suggest Australian patriotism and nostalgia: for example, in Qantas television commercials where it was sung by the National Boys Choir of Australia and Australian Girls Choir (sometimes the group is collectively called the 'Qantas Choir'). And in 1984 Summer Olympics's Opening Gala TV special (in Los Angeles), Olivia Newton-John who sung Allen's most famous song I Honestly Love You, performed this song from Sydney, Australia with the Choir as medley Waltzing Matilda. Later, both songs were also used in a musical The Boy from Oz, about Allen's life, which starred Hugh Jackman.
[edit] Usage
- The song was used in the closedown sequence for Tasmanian stations TNT-9[1] Launceston and later by TasTV, which was the brand that both TNT-9 and Hobart's TVT-6 used in the mid to late 1980s under common ownership.
- In the version of the song popularly used by Qantas, "Rio" is replaced by "Rome". Qantas does not operate flights to Rio de Janeiro, but flew to the Italian capital at the time the video was made.[2]
- The version of the song used by Qantas in its 2009 advertisement replaces the entire first verse with one sung in Kala Lagaw Ya, a dialect of the Torres Strait Islands.[3]
- The song is a popular inclusion in the repertoire of several Welsh male voice choirs, including the Morriston Orpheus Choir. The Welsh version replaces "London" in the line "from New York, to Rome, and old London town", with "Swansea".[4]
- Australian comedy team The Chaser composed a parody of the Qantas version of the song, called "I Still Call Australia 51 per cent Home" in response to Qantas outsourcing some of its engineering services to Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa.
- The song was performed by Chris Lilley in episodes one and two of "We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year" (2005).
- The song was performed by singer Kylie Minogue in the Sound Relief concert in benefit of the victims of the Australian Bushfires on the 14th of March, 2009.
- The song featured as pre-game entertainment at the 2009 AFL Grand Final, performed by the Qantas Choir and the Gondwana National Indigenous Childrens Choir.
[edit] References
- ^ YouTube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xvo0L_oUWQ
- ^ Duncan Macleod. "Qantas I Still Call Australia Home". The Inspiration Room Daily. http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2006/qantas-i-still-call-australia-home. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
- ^ Duncan Macleod. "Qantas Still Calling Australia Home in 2009". The Inspiration Room Daily. http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/qantas-still-calling-australia-home-in-2009. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
- ^ Wonderful Welsh Choirs (track 11)
