New Zealand’s National Treasures

Every so often, at Xmas time, a friend of ours who lives in New Zealand sends us the latest Topp Twins CD. What Twins? The Topp Twins. They are, well, twins who do a double act of country music and comedy and they are absolutely hillarious - and absolutely talented.

This year, our friend sent us the DVD of their movie, a documentary covering their 30 years in entertainment. If I was to give the elevator pitch to who they are, it would go something like this: yodelling, lesbian country & western comedy twins from New Zealand who are also activists for nuclear disarmament, lesbian & gay rights, Maori land rights and cancer awareness and whose act includes “characters” such as a couple of hard-drinking men’s men, society ladies and holiday camp leaders.

Yeah. Kinda difficult to categorise…

But they seem to have the knack to unite their diverse audience of rednecks, high society types, farm folk and city lesbians and gays and are considered NZ’s national treasures.

I think it’s a combination of their toe-tapping music, hilarious performances and warm, affectionate good humour even when touching on political subjects - and their ability to carry their audience along with them so that everyone is just so busy having a good time, they forget the differences that might divide them. But you can analyse it till the cows come home: at the end of the day, I reckon it’s because they are simply a hoot! See for yourself in the following videos:

The Yodelling Song

The Spoon Song

They have an official channel on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ToppTwins

So, thanks, Trisha, for this year’s fab Xmas present!