Isolating Aussie singers in London find new ways to entertain

Australian singing group The Girls From Oz may have had all of their performances cancelled for the foreseeable future due to COVID-19, but despite their friends and families back home in Australia entering their first day of eased restrictions, being stuck in London during lockdown has not stifled their creative spirit.

On May 9th they released their latest parody music video ‘Somebody That I Used To Be’, based on Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’.

Their version of this well-known 2012 song, usually sung by the group with the original lyrics, was arranged by director, writer and composer, Neil Rutherford. Their parody video has new “Lockdown” lyrics by Ross Simpson from Base Studios who also edited the video as well as co-directed along with the founder of the group, Kara Lane.

It’s one of our most loved arrangements in our set, but was also the hardest to learn because as well as singing complex harmonies throughout, we also play percussion on Australian themed household items such as a BBQ grill with a wooden spoon and a beer can or rum bottle filled with rice. This lends itself perfectly to making a homemade music video while we’re all in lockdown. We just used what we could find around the house! explains Lane.

When we all called each other, there were commonalities with how we were all dealing with lockdown: eating too much, only wearing casual clothes, not being able to get a hair cut etc.. Obviously these are all minor things compared to what’s going on in the world, but we just thought that a comedy video focusing on these things would be something a lot of people can relate to – and it seems from the reaction that we were right.

When we perform live we only appear as a trio along with our all female band, but so many of our cast members, past and present, wanted to be involved with this video, so it ended up having 13 singers and as well as our Double Bassist.

The Girls From Oz make regular appearances at some of London’s most prestigious cabaret and jazz venues, including The Crazy Coqs, Pizza Express Jazz Club and Ronnie Scott’s. Their act features a trio of Aussie singers performing iconic Australian songs in their very own unique arrangements.