Crowded House with PS22 - courtesy of ps22chorus.blogspot.com
First, there was Kirk Douglas berating Hugh Jackman for laughing.
“I don’t know why everybody in Australia thinks I’m funny. Colin Firth is not laughing”.
The collective breaths held by Australians both in the US and abroad could be heard while we all prepared to shout at Douglas for mistaking another Englishman (or vice versa) for an Australian.
“He’s English”, he continued. (collective exhale).
This became the beginning of what seemed like an endless slew of references and nods to that place we all Aussies still call home. “The Lost Thing”, an Australian animated short, won a surprise best oscar. “The King’s Speech”, a British film with many Australian connections, enjoyed its multiple oscar wins and best supporting role for Australian Geoffrey Rush. Jacki Weaver, well known to Australian audiences but relatively unknown in the USA (until now), enjoyed a well-deserved Oscar nomination for the recent Australian movie “Animal Kingdom”.
But there was more. Anne Hathaway took a moment away from her multiple costume changes and awkward jokes to sing a tuxedo’d version of “on my own” as a nod to Hugh Jackman’s role hosting the oscars in 2009. The beginning verse seemed not only to lambast Jackman for leaving her to sing the song on her own, but also at times calling him out for being Australian.
My own oscars experience was also spent on my own – electing to spend the evening in my own apartment surrounded by half-packed boxes for my apartment move this week and work deadlines. This – ahem – flexibility allowed me to do some research during the final act of the evening, a chorus of young children from Staten Island, New York who sang sweetly as the oscar winners gathered behind them.
Therein I found what could possibly the most unlikely connection between The Oscars and Australia.
In 2008, the PS22 chorus actually accompanied Neil Finn (lead singer songwriter of “Crowded House”) in a rendition of the Australian classic, “Throw your Arms around me” by Hunters and Collectors. The followed this by joining Finn and Mark Seymore (of Hunters and Collectors) to sing the popular Crowded House song “Private Universe”.
See them perform two of my favourite Australian/New Zealand classics below:
