Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ Will Be The Official National Anthem Of An Australian Republic
Referendum NOW.
Alright. Before we get into it, give this club hit a spin.
This week marks 25 years since Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ first shot to the top of the ARIA charts and into the hearts of patriotic Australians everywhere. It’s also precisely 16 years, six months and 12 days since, in one of the worst non-Australian Idol voting decisions in our history, the question of whether Australia should become a republic was defeated in a national referendum.
Our great nation has changed an awful lot in those 16 years. We hosted the Olympics; Prime Ministers became more easily replaceable than your phone contract; Mel Gibson became someone we all try very hard not to talk about. But throughout these great upheavals, and even now as we face an uncertain future, Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ has been there. Whether celebrating your footy team’s victory, having a beer in the shower or commandeering the Spotify playlist at a cousin’s wedding, ‘The Horses’ has been a rock for the country to stand on. A truly iconic tune. An anthem.
Now it appears these two fundamental aspects of Australian identity are coming together. In an extremely official and 100 percent serious announcement on Twitter this afternoon, the Australian Republican Movement confirmed that, in the event a successful referendum vote to make Australia a republic occurs sometime in the future, ‘The Horses’ will replace ‘Advance Australia Fair’ as our national anthem.
@mckinnon_a I predict the republican movement will crush the monarchists if, and only if, they accept this ballad as our national anthem
— cmwlsn (@cameronwilson) May 17, 2016
@mckinnon_a @cameronwilson That’s the way it’s gonna be, in our republic. #yeahyeah ??
— ARM (@AusRepublic) May 17, 2016
Support for a republic among voters, already at around 51 percent, is expected to skyrocket in reaction to the news. ‘The Horses’ has been a hot choice to replace the current anthem for some time, as this widely-signed Change.org petition from 2015 attests.
With the public overwhelmingly onside, all that remains to be seen is whether, like in 1999, the republican movement succumbs to infighting that eventually brings about its undoing. If significant numbers of people argue for an alternate republican anthem like ‘Khe Sanh’ by Cold Chisel, ‘You’re the Voice’ by John Farnham or ‘My Island Home’ by Christine Anu, the nation could be stuck with its current dirge for decades to come. Hopefully a majority can be convinced that this is the way it’s gonna be.
