"I Still Call Australia Home" is a song written by
Peter Allen in 1980. In it, Allen sings of Australian expatriates' longing for home.
Significance to Australian culture
It has been used to signify
Australian patriotism and
nostalgia for home. An example is the series of
Qantas television commercials where it was sung either by individual Australian musicians or one of several Australian youth choirs.[1] This is also remade in their 2020 safety video, where various covers of the song were made accompanying a 100-year history visualization.[2]
In
Australian English speech of earlier generations, "home" referred to Britain.[4]
Thus by contrast, "calling Australia home" became for a period a particularly piquant expression of
Australian identity.
The song was used as the closing for Australia Day celebrations at
Darling Harbour,
Sydney in 1994; it was performed and arranged by Noel Elmowy, and sung by Chris Lloyds and Andrew Oh, with
Prince Charles in attendance.[8]
The song was used in the evening closing sequence for
Tasmanian television station
TNT[9] and later by
TVT.[10]
In one version of the song popularly used by Qantas, "Rio" is replaced by "
Rome" as Qantas does not operate flights to
Rio de Janeiro, but flew to the Italian capital at the time the video was made.[1]
Qantas later reused the song as part of safety videos since 2018, with the 2018 safety video recorded in many parts around the world, including New York and London. In addition, "Rio" was used in this version of the song instead of "Rome".[11] When Qantas was celebrating the centennial anniversary of its foundation, the instrumental version of the song tailored to each time period portrayed in the safety video (with a children's choir singing at the end).[12]
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.[14]
The song featured as pre-game entertainment at the
2009 AFL Grand Final, performed by the 'Qantas choir' and the Gondwana National Indigenous Children's Choir.[15]
Australian comedian and musician
Tim Minchin uploaded a parody of the song called "I Still Call Australia Homophobic" to his Facebook page[16] in reference to the
same-sex marriage debate and
proposed 2017 survey in Australia.[17]
The Australian hip hop group TLK used the song as the inspiration for their 2006 song "I still call Australia home" which referenced historical violence against Aborigines.[18][19]
The Australian vocal group
The Ten Tenors regularly performs "I Still Call Australia Home" in their concerts.[20]