Sydney Opera House launches special musical tribute via The Monkeys and Revolver to celebrate 50 years of bravery, creativity and wonder
The Sydney Opera House has just released a special musical tribute via The Monkeys and Revolver to mark 50 years of bravery, creativity and wonder at the world’s most celebrated cultural landmark. The musical tribute by Tim Minchin features a cast of Australian artists reminding us of the endless possibilities when you don’t Play It Safe
Made in partnership with creative agency The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, directed by award-winning filmmaker Kim Gehrig and produced by Revolver x Somesuch, the epic music video features a collection of extraordinary Australian artists and arts companies who share an enduring connection with the Opera House.
Play It Safe was written and composed by Australian singer Tim Minchin as an ironic salute to the bold, visionary experiment that became the Opera House. The song is a musical homage to a building that tested the limits of engineering and design, forever changing the face of Sydney. Minchin has crafted a wry, potent message about the importance of defying conventions and taking risks.
Minchin’s playful lyrics are richly illustrated in sequences featuring Sydney Symphony Orchestra, The Australian Ballet, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Ziggy Ramo, Zahra Newman representing Sydney Theatre Company, John Bell representing Bell Shakespeare, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Elma Kris representing Bangarra Dance Theatre, Kira Puru, Cathy-Di Zhang representing Opera Australia, William Barton, Courtney Act, Jimmy Barnes, Sydney Dance Company Pre Professional Year Students and Associate Artists, Lucy Guerin dancers and Minchin himself, in a stunning visual journey through the Opera House’s stages, on its steps and at the peak of its soaring white sails.
Says Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron AM: “Imagine if the creators of this magnificent building had played it safe, imagine what we would not have. Their bravery forever changed our nation. We set out to create a tribute to the Opera House 50 years on – to inspire the community and to remind us all of the incredible moments that have taken place here over the past five decades. With the help of the brilliant Tim Minchin, Kim Gehrig and a wonderful cast of Australian artists, this song celebrates what’s possible when you think big.”
Says The Monkeys Group CEO and Accenture Song ANZ President Mark Green: “We’ve had a long history with the Sydney Opera House since creating the Ship Song in 2010, and we are proud to play our part in championing creativity and the arts in celebration of an icon. It’s been a pleasure working with such a talented group of people.”
Says Minchin: “I adore the Opera House – playing in and around this beautiful building has been one of the great honours of my creative life. So I was hugely flattered when I was invited to write something special for the Opera House’s 50th that celebrated it as a monument to what is possible when we think big. To remind us that our not-entirely-mythological ‘larrikin’ spirit is the same spirit that allows us to be bold and brave and not care too much what other people think.”
Tourism Australia also teamed up with the Opera House to support the stunning music video that invites the world inside the iconic building and positions ‘Everyone’s House’ as a place for contemporary culture and art.
Says Tourism Australia Managing Director Phillipa Harrison: “We are thrilled to support the 50th anniversary of one of Australia’s most globally recognisable icons, the Sydney Opera House. Taking prominence on the shores of Sydney Harbour, it is a building that has inspired millions of visitors from all over the world to travel here to admire this stunning architectural masterpiece up close, highlighting its central role in international tourism to Australia. Synonymous with Australia and Sydney’s stunning harbour and modern skyline, it has featured prominently in our international tourism marketing campaigns over five decades, including our latest campaign ‘Come and Say G’day’, helping to inspire international travellers to visit our country.”
Client: Sydney Opera House
Joanne Been, Brand Lead
Jade McKellar, Chief Customer Officer
Stephen O’Connor, General Manager Marketing
Kate Huish, General Manager Communications
Dan Ingham, Creative Director
Rebecca Munro, Head of Brand and Marketing Campaigns
Paayal Dharmani, Head of Digital Marketing
Julia Kenny, Senior Creative Content
Natalia Scherer, Production Manager – Creative Studio
Amelia Jang, Video Content Specialist
Melanie Wellington, Senior Communications Manager
Nicola Whiteside, Content Marketing Manager
Jack Woodward, Paid Media Manager
Event Account Manager: Daniel O’Connell
Production Coordinator: Emma Paterson
Creative Agency: The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song
The Monkeys Co-founder & Group CEO, Accenture Song ANZ President: Mark Green
Co-founder & Group Chief Creative Officer: Scott Nowell
Chief Creative Officer: Tara Ford
Executive Creative Director: Barbara Humphries
Senior Art Director: Alex Polglase
Senior Copywriter: Jake Ausburn
Head of Production & Senior Producer: Penny Brown
Producer: Izzy Robertson
General Manager: Kezia Quinn
Senior Business Director: Fizzy Keeble
Experience Strategy Director: Tim Wilson-Brown
Strategist: Raghav Iyer
Production House: Revolver x Somesuch
Director: Kim Gehrig
Producer / EP: Pip Smart
Managing Director / Co-Owner: Michael Ritchie
Director of Photography: Stefan Duscio
Choreographer: Lucy Guerin
Production Designer: Steven Jones Evans
Costume Creative Director: Vanessa Coyle
Costume Stylist: Olivia Simpson & Nicchia Wippell
Editorial: TRIM x ARC Edit
Editor: Elise Butt & Tom Lindsay
Post Executive Producer: Daniel Fry & Noreen Khan
Post Producer: Kani Saib & Tatyana Alexandra
Colourist: Trish Cahill
Online: Eugene Richards
Music & Audio Post Production
Music and Lyrics: Tim Minchin
Music Production: Turning Studios
Executive Music Producer/Arranger: Elliott Wheeler
Turning Studios Producer: Carla de Menezes Ribeiro
Music Mix Engineer: Jamieson Shaw
Musicians
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra & Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Bass: Jonathon Schwartz
Drums: Hamish Stuart
Guitars: Ben Hauptmann
Recording Engineers
Band and main vocal recording: Rose Mackenzie-Peterson
Assistant Engineer: Brad Hasiuk @Studios 301
ACO and SSO recording: Bob Scott
Sydney Philharmonia Choir recording: Carlos Arango
Individual Performers: Joshua Craig
Recording Assistants
Keens Brewer, Will Lobb, Benjamin Cauduro & Brianna Salisbury
Single Release Mastered: Leon Zerves at 301
Audio Post Production: MassiveMusic
Sound Design: Simon Kane
Foley Artist: John Simpson
Executive Producer: Katrina Aquilia
87 Comments
So boring. I switched off after a few minutes. The short films as an ad satisfies few outside this blog. Yawn.
So you didn’t get to the bit where he sings: “Just sit up the back & judge others. It’ll keep them from judging you”?
I like it
Amazing 🤩
Funny, I did the same. Only made it to 1:21. Reading all the credits was more interesting.
…for an ad singing and dancing about taking risks.
Can’t believe you roped in Kim Gehrig for this too.
Sorry, I said it.
The monkeys are ON FIRE.
Love the spot. Is it an original idea?
YouTube comments would say otherwise, yawn @ yaself
This is absolutely fantastic. What a brilliant song and music video. A fitting tribute to The House.
This is very ,very good work deserving of much praise.
Well done all who contributed.
Exactly. No it isn’t. It’s a retrospective. The Monkeys have a ‘crystal ball’ which is that prod co’s give intel on what ideas are going through the system at any one time, then they just get in front of the ideas they like and say they did it first.
Not being snarky, it’s just every time I see a decent idea from Monkeys Sydney, someone comes along in the comments section and ruins it for me.
Reminds of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbzpL4GPzQ8
Whatever I guess
WOW….this is big.
The biggest budget I work on these days is around $25K so I’m in awe.
So well crafted, congrats to all.
I loved this! And watched the full 4+mins.
So, so long
Really like everything about it.
It’s not at all what I thought I was going to see.
But…. after 4mins of building, I thought it was going to hit me with a really beautiful line about not playing it safe.
But the beautiful line didn’t come.
And kinda I wish it did.
Tim’s dullest song and Kim’s dullest ad
Love this. Tim Minchin is a treasure!!
Over 4 minutes? Who’s watching this?
It’s no Ship Song Project…
How can you not love this. Literally shedding tears watching this.
If this weren’t a paean to taking risks, it would be perfectly okay. It is certainly worthy, inclusive, inoffensive and quite catchy.
But surely someone must have seen the irony in playing it so safe? I kept waiting for the twist that never came.
I may be a crotchety old dinosaur, but watch this video and then watch the Litany spot for The Independent straight after.
One still inspires after 25 years. The other doesn’t after 3 minutes.
Who came up with the concept of not playing it safe? It’s credited as being written by Tim, what was the monkeys role in this?
A bigger role than you did, that’s for sure!
Rebellion for art, and being brave is so interesting – the execution just doesn’t embody this.
I guess the budget is impressive
It’s beautiful. It’s got the idea, craft, scale and entertainment the Opera House deserves. Congrats to all involved.
For the 60% of Australians that voted for the status quo this will freak them f8ck out. Job done I guess.
Lamb ad meets Qantas ad from the agency that does Lamb and Qantas ads. And then they literally combined the time length of the ads. 4.5 minutes! No storyline, no arc, no reward for watching. Big ad fir the sake of it.
Very,very long bow.The need to compare on this blog both amazes and depresses me.I love this work.Intelligent,sophisticated and fun. Envy all who played a part in making it.
Pretty safe choice no?
It’s funny how all the bitter, snarking, sniping small-minded naysayers shit-canning this beautiful piece of work over the fact that it’s “beige” or “boring” or “not original” seem utterly oblivious to their own lack of imagination much less grace or humility. Who says an ad can’t be four minutes or more? What are you – goldfish or creative? Or are you so used to churning out 6-second social bumpers in 9:16 that your own attention-spans have become as stunted and curtailed as your work? It’s a song, not a jingle. A great bloody song, at that, so let it play! As for the film, it’s a joyous celebration of not only the visionary architecture of the Opera House (whose beautiful vaulted designs, may I remind you, were also once ridiculed by the same sorts of miserable envious trolls like you) but also the pantheon of incredible music, art and theatre that has graced its stages ever since. Bravo, Tim Minchin. Bravo, Monkeys. Bravo to everyone involved.
No offence but your comment is as long and as self indulgent as the ad.
If I were you, I’d go and compare YOUR comment (and the rest of these snarking critiques by all the other jaded, jealous and ‘everyone else’s ideas are shit except for mine’ AdLanders)… with the comments offered by the public which are currently unspooling on YouTube right now.
They are, after all, whom this wonderful and joyous ad is actually aimed at.
But, of course, you won’t. Because the bloody plebs and peasants wouldn’t have a clue about what really constitutes ‘good work’, right?
Out of curiosity, I’d LOVE to hear your elevator pitch. Spitball what you would’ve done which would have been so much more brilliant than this? I’m sure once they hear it that Minchin and the Monkeys will be kicking themselves. Rueing the day that they didn’t think of what you came up with instead. Just imagine how good it MIGHT have been if it were only YOUR idea. If only.
Incredible! Everyone should be very proud of this
Wonderful! Congrats to all involved.
This is absolutely brilliant. Brilliant song, brilliant production, brilliant casting, brilliant choices.
Who are you people??? No taste, no appreciation, no vision, no soul. Just small-minded carping. To everyone involved: ignore the critics. This is fantastic. Take a bow.
Is about as Brave a choice as Shane Jacobsen
That’s awesome
I honestly can’t begin to think how anyone could honestly say otherwise.
Just fantastic. The whole thing
Absolutely……………brilliant. Watched it several times now.
Brilliant stuff. Love that it doesn’t feel or look like an ordinary piece of promotion.
agreed – why didn’t they get barnaby joyce to do it!?!?!
Get over it and do something positive instead of carping.
There are a thousand things you can do to make improve the lives of First Nations People.
The only risky thing about this was the ‘stop war’ graffiti footage…from 2003.
Go on then, give us a couple.
This is like the Palace Versailles coming out with an ad saying they’re really sticking it to the establishment.
… but this is one of the few things I have ever watched him do where I have had to skip to the end. The idea is fine, the execution of the song itself is – ironically – utterly beige and forgettable.
Just brilliant.
Well played Monkeys. I love this. The haters need to stay in their four walled boxes.
Bloody lovely- congrats to all involved.
So “brave” that they followed a format that’s been around for close to seventy years. A promotional video for a song.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, please.
This is a great piece of film. Lovely craft from Kim as always.
I felt the love again for the OH, I’m sure Australia will too.
Love it… Made me proud to be a Sydney Sider. Well done all involved.
Such an agency person thing to say.
I smell rats amongst the industry ranks. Stop bowing down to the Monkeys and feeding them hard fought ideas from other places.
I agree with some of the others here. It has had a lot of time and good money thrown at it. Always a good start. The Monkeys get a good dose of good budgets and like a lot of others, I am jealous. It was a good choice to use Tim Minchin. Good craft. It’s a good song. It is a bit repetitive but still good. But it would be good if it was great.
… when The Monkeys do work like this rather than anything that has to have any kind of real world impact.
Long winded.
It smells like an agency that’s confident enough to dabble with originality.
The Sydney Opera House still makes me feel a sense of wonder and creative excitement. This ad makes me feel absolutely nothing at all.
I can see what the strategy was and what the idea looked like on paper, but for whatever reason the end result is decidedly flat and lacking any real spark of joy or excitement.
A noble effort, but a fail. Sadly.
As someone who takes massive pride in being able to say they come from Sydney, this gave me goosebumps.
Originality would go further than a love song about open minds. This is base camp at best.
No wonder the advertising industry in Australia is full of the mediocre middle. All the haters wanting to cut things down instead of celebrating creativity. Brilliant work by The Monkeys, the Opera House team, Revolver, Tim Minchin and everyone else involved. All you haters go get some therapy or continue being your miserable mediocre selves.
As much as it brings a smile to my face reading the plethora of varying degrees of intellect and crudeness, maybe its high time the team Campaign Brief complete a review of the comments section and how it works.
Would love to see the anonymity disappear, however more than half the dimwits with nothing intelligent to bring to the table would vanish and that wouldn’t make me smile.
People need to chill and grow some thicker skin…and by the way, this is spot is rather dull and boring TBH.
Got bored at the 2 minute mark
Was expecting to hate this based on the comments above, but loved it. For anyone complaining about the duration, you’ve clearly got the attention span of a goldfish. This ain’t an ad, or a TikTok, it’s a piece of content. Just like watching a music video on YouTube.
Not shaming the ad. Not shaming Tim Minchin, Kim or the agency. Very noble effort. But what’s the brief? Ignoring the amazing architecture, which we can all enjoy from the outside, The Opera House would never have played Tim way back when he was in Melbourne, before he left for London. It is the ‘safest’ institution we have, there’s nothing bold or cutting edge about it. You need to be platinum before even being considered for the courtyard as a cover band. It’s a committee run by a committee with ‘Yaama’ thrown in, even though it’s on Gadigal land. Ask your cultural sensitivity officer about that one. But it gives me no reason to go there, and I’m not sure what it’s selling? Are you encouraging people to be different, like Tim, and eventually when you’re mainstream the Opera house will get you involved? I don’t know what it’s selling – which – as much as it might be a nice piece of film, it’s a terrible ad if an ad professional can’t work out what it’s trying to communicate to me. There’s literally no brief.
Please can’t you acknowledge good work rather throw crap on everything.What has the creative community in this country become.It is so disappointing people.
No need to be so defensive. It just doesn’t do it for me. Judging my creativity on what you like is very closed minded for a so called creative. Anyway, I took your advice and had a look at some of the YouTube comments from the people you labeled peasants. Most compliment Tim Minchin’s performance. There was also this one.
“Why does it have to be so self effacing and cling to being so contemporary. It is musically dull, shrill, earnest… but every line is a wink. There’s no poetry here. Meh. Feels like a Qantas Airline safety video transposed. Not my house. soz.”
YouTube audience speaks. Haters missed the mark.
NotMyHouse is perfect. It’s the Australia Day of houses.
So good – I absolutely loved it, great to see something other than an outback family/footy team etc driving somewhere unknown in a car/bus/self driving vehicle. thanks for something different.
Do wonder if you are overthinking this just a tad?
If the Monkeys had PR’d this as a song for the Sydney Opera House’s 50 years instead of an ad like musical, they wouldn’t get so much backlash.
2023 is the year of Alex and Jake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gArU-BAO7Kw
monkey party is sadly over
Or maybe the party is just getting started.
That commercial actually makes more sense.
It should have been ‘Nick Cave’, not me.
@Codee Mac agree
This is an original song, calling for people to be brave creatively.
It features Australia’s best creative artists who…. create actual art and don’t sit on a safe salary.
Yet people in the ad industry are being snarky about it? Good grief. You’re embarrassing yourself.
For a musical genre TV ad, (and let’s face it, if you’re going to do it, this is the brief) — it’s awesome!
This is MAGNIFICENT.
Love the line “leave the weird ideas to the Danish” seems so apt about australian mentality of the past and sometimes the now.
Joyous. Monumental. Inspirational creative!! Bravo Monkeys and SOH