"Sydney to Me" is a song performed by Australian duo

Jess & Matt Jess & Matt are a pop music duo consisting of husband and wife Jess Dunbar and Matt Price. They started out as solo artists but became a duo in 2014. Career 2015: ''The X Factor'' In 2015, Jess & Matt auditioned for season seven of ''The X Fact ...

, released on 25 January 2017 to coincide with their performance at the Australia Day concert. The song was commissioned by

Destination NSW Destination NSW is a New South Wales state government executive agency established in 2011 to support growth of tourism and events in New South Wales, Australia. The agency falls within the Enterprise, Investment and Trade cluster of New South ...

as their new campaign tune. "Sydney to Me" is the lead and only single from the duo's

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

, '' Belmont Street''. Matt Price told the Daily Telegraph “We got this amazing opportunity, we were invited to collaborate on the song, its our home town so it is an honour to put our feeling about Sydney in to a song” with Jess Dunbar adding “The song is a marriage between our love for the city and our relationship. It is based on all the memories of our relationship around New South Wales.” In May, the duo performed the song for an episode of American series ''

Bold and the Beautiful ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The ...

'' during the casts' tour of Australia. In October, the song was recorded in Mandarin, becoming the first Australian artist to record and release a song in Mandarin in Asia. Via Instagram on 25 October, the duo announced they were invited by the Australian Government and Tourism Body Destination NSW to represent the country at a number of Asian locations and travelled to China to promote the track. In December, Matt and Jess performed the song in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, in front of a packed crowd of delegates including NSW Premier

Gladys Berejiklian Gladys Berejiklian (born 22 September 1970) is an Australian former politician who served as the 45th premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party from 2017 to 2021. Berejiklian became a member ...

. On 16 December 2017, the duo received a plaque for 1.8 million combined steams. On 15 February 2018, the duo performed a bilingual version of the song at

Madame Tussauds Sydney Madame Tussauds Sydney is a wax museum located in Darling Harbour in Sydney, Australia and is situated on the Aquarium Wharf. Madame Tussauds is part of Merlin Entertainments which owns and operates attractions globally. History Madame Tussau ...

in Sydney for the

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celebrations. Mark Connolly, General Manager of Madame Tussauds Sydney said “Jess and Matt have been a pleasure to work with and are highly favourable amongst our Asian guests from both domestic and international markets – as evident in the turnout last night. Their bilingual performance of Sydney To Me was definitely a highlight of the evening,”

Reception

In a review of the EP, David from auspOp said “"Sydney to Me" is a nice ode to a city they love... It's a great sentiment for a great city.” Andrew P Street from

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

was critical of the song saying " t'sa song that sounds like it was looped on a laptop in someone's bedroom" adding "In short, "Sydney to Me" beautifully reflects up the soul of the city right now: vapid, unengaging, and forged entirely by the forces of naked commerce. It's not a song anyone could love, but it's unambiguously the song that we deserve." Zanda Wilson described the video as a "shockingly insular, cringeworthy, one-dimensional view of Sydney" adding "the overly synthetic, instrument-free song itself is hardly a redeeming factor".

Track listings

*Digital download # "Sydney to Me" (original) – 3:24 *Digital download # "Sydney to Me" (studio acoustic) – 1:05 *Digital download # "Sydney to Me (싱글)" (Mandarin version) – 3:31

Release history

References

{{Jess & Matt 2017 songs 2017 singles Sony Music Australia singles