It was written for nuclear disarmament – but today You’re The Voice is the perfect song for the 'yes' campaign

• The original was composed by a team of British songwriters in response to an anti-nuclear demonstration in London’s Hyde Park in 1985.
• Chris Thompson, Andy Qunta and Maggie Ryder had planned a song-writing session on the day an estimated 100,000 marched through central London in support the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
• This is the kernel of meaning in You’re the Voice.

The grain of Farnham’s voice

• And yet the particular qualities of Farnham’s singing is also arguably crucial to the song’s success, then and now.
• Singers drawn from these traditions include giants of popular musical culture like James Brown, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin.
• You’re the Voice further highlights the grain of Farnham’s singing via the exclamation “oh, whoa!” regularly punctuating the song’s chorus.

You are the voice

• The song supports this goal from its very title: you are the voice.
• The song’s explicit call to action has now been connected to the forthcoming referendum: now is the moment to use your voice at the ballot box to give, in turn, a constitutionally enshrined voice to indigenous Australians.
• But the bigger threat to the “yes” campaign arguably comes from those who see the idea of an Indigenous voice to parliament itself as divisive.
• The use of You’re the Voice here reinforces the view that supporting the Voice to Parliament is a positive act of national reconciliation that we, as a nation, can take together.

Politically inclusive

• It focuses on a family as they watch key moments which shaped Australia’s collective identity.
• We’re all someone’s daughter
  We’re all someone’s son
  How long can we look at each other
  Down the barrel of a gun?

Democratising the message

• Then there is the way the bagpipes, combined with the song’s use of side-drum rhythmic patterns, evoke the sound world of a military tattoo or march.
• This simultaneously elevates the register of its message.
• The inclusion of You’re the Voice in the “yes” campaign thus provides powerful support for its central message.