#VaxTheNation, Guy Sebastian, & Great Southern Nights Returns | Music News

Homebrewed: An Australian Music Podcast

English - September 15, 2021 15:00 - 13 minutes - 19.2 MB
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The Aus music industry needs you to get fully-vaxxed, with a big, nationwide push for government to guarantee no more lockdowns.

That’s the crux of a new campaign, #VaxTheNation, which pulls together an extraordinary lineup of musicians, industry leaders and businesses.

With the live industry facing the darkest 18-months of any lifetime, the leading players in Australia’s music industry joined forces to amplify the message.

The campaign was seeded when advertising veteran Russel Howcroft appeared on Q&A and spoke passionately about the live industry’s troubles, and took shape when Live Nation CEO Roger Field and Russel hammered out a plan

An element to the project is, get vaccinated, and get people back to having those golden moments again. And no more interruptions.

To drive it home, more than 400 artists are on board, as are businesses across the wider entertainment sector, including YouTube and TikTok.

According to data provided by the LIVE Alliance, two thirds of industry jobs (79,000) had disappeared by the end of 2020, while $23.6 billion of economic output and $10.7 billion of added value had been wiped out by the pandemic.

Late last Monday (Sept 6), Guy Sebastian posted a video on his social media channels in response to the music industry’s #VaxTheNation campaign.

While Sebastian had initially supported the campaign, the video indicated he didn’t feel comfortable with some of its messaging.

"I would never, ever tell people what to do when it comes to their personal health choices,” said Sebastian, noting that some people have exceptional circumstances to consider when making choices around things such as vaccination.

“I just want to say I’m really sorry".

“It was not a post that communicated with love or compassion, which I feel is what’s needed when it comes to addressing things like vaccinations.”

Sebastian’s video attracted immediate backlash from within the music industry.

Briggs tweeted that “any musicians apologising for trying to get back to work by advocating for a safer audience is self defeating.”

Ben Lee described it as “a really sad example of what happens when your career is dependent on trying to be all things to all people.”

Sydney rapper Urthboy went further, writing “Some artists are expending a huge amount of their cultural capital challenging audiences to get vaxxed. So much respect. And then there’s Guy Sebastian, one of our most successful artists, who sounds like he agrees with the science but is terrified of losing his anti-vax $”