John Farnham is about as Australian as, well, a John Farnham singalong, so naturally the news that our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, doesn’t seem to know the lyrics to one of Farnsey’s classics has set the Internet ablaze with anger and fury.
As the ABC reports, last night’s Commonwealth Games swimming finals saw Malcolm Turnbull join in the celebrations along with everyone else, who were dancing, cheering, and singing.
However, as John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ came on the speakers and everyone sang along to the line “How long can we look at each other, down the barrel of a gun?”, Turnbull seemed to just awkwardly mumble the lyrics, seemingly unsure of the words to this national classic.
Of course, this moment instantly made waves around the country, with Turnbull joining Queensland’s Nova radio station to quell the rumours he didn’t know the lyrics.
“I’m sure you’re aware of the speculation surrounding your performance at the swimming last night,” asked Nova‘s host. “Do you know the words to ‘You’re The Voice?'”
“Well I do, but I can tell you there are very good reasons for me not to be singing and it’s got nothing to do with not knowing the words,” Malcom Turnbull responded, noting that since he was surrounded by “such beautiful and talented young people,” he felt that “inflicting [his] singing on them was probably the worst thing [he] could do”
After some prompting, our Prime Minister did indeed belt out the questionable lyric live on air, prompting him to defend his efforts, stating, “You can see why I’m not a singer.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Malcolm Turnbull has been accused of being inept in the pop-culture department, with the PM notably being unable to name an AC/DC song back in November, just weeks after he tried his hand at rapping on The Project.
Maybe we should just leave music and pop-culture to those not in politics, eh? (Well, except Anthony Albanese, he gets a pass.)
Check out the original version of John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’:
