"Spirit of the Anzacs" is the first single from

Lee Kernaghan Lee Kernaghan OAM (born 15 April 1964) is an Australian country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. Kernaghan has won four ARIA Awards and three APRA Awards, and has sold over two million albums, and as of 2021, has won 38 Golden Guitars at ...

's 2015 album of the same name. The

charity single A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's "Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the first ever purpose-made ...

features

Guy Sebastian Guy Theodore Sebastian (born 26 October 1981) is an Australian singer and songwriter who was the winner of the first ''Australian Idol'' in 2003, judge on Australia's ''The X Factor'' from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2015 to 2016, and coach ...

, Sheppard,

Jon Stevens Jon Stevens (born 8 October 1961) is a New Zealand singer, best known for his work with Noiseworks and ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. Biography 1980–1986: career beginnings and ''Jezebel'' Stevens was born in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, and is ...

Jessica Mauboy Jessica Hilda Mauboy (born 4 August 1989) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Darwin, Northern Territory, she rose to fame in 2006 on the fourth season of ''Australian Idol'', where she was runner-up and subseq ...

Shannon Noll Shannon Noll (born 16 September 1975) is an Australian singer-songwriter who first came to prominence as runner-up of the first season of ''Australian Idol'' in 2003, which led to him being signed to Sony BMG. He has released five top ten albu ...

and

Megan Washington Megan Alexanda Washington (born 7 January 1986) is an Australian musician and songwriter who has worked mononymously as Washington. Originally performing jazz music, her style shifted to indie pop and alternative rock. She has released three ...

. It was released on 22 January 2015 to raise funds for Legacy and Soldier On. "Spirit of the Anzacs" is the first taste of an album that has brought soldiers' letters to life in song. The project was inspired by Kernaghan's 2014 visit to the Australian War Memorial when he was shown archives of soldiers letters to family from the front lines. "Spirit of the Anzacs" is based on

Paul Keating Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...

's 1993 eulogy at the interment of the Unknown Soldier.

Music video

The official video was released on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

via ABC Music on 26 February 2015. The video shows the singers performing their parts of the song in a studio, overlapped with various pieces of war footage and photos. The Duncan Toombs directed music video was nominated for Best Video at the

ARIA Music Awards of 2015 The 29th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) are a series of award ceremonies which include the 2015 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine ...

.ARIA Award previous winners.

Charts

"Spirit of the Anzacs" peaked at No. 32 in Australia, giving Kernaghan his first single on the ARIA Singles Chart since his 2007 single "Spirit of the Bush" peaked at No. 11. It was No.3 on the Australian Artist Singles Chart. The song re-entered the ARIA Singles Chart at No. 38 on 3 May 2015, the sales week following ANZAC Day. The song was played at the

Reclaim Australia Reclaim Australia is a far-right Australian nationalist protest group which is associated with nationalist and neo-Nazi hate groups. The group was formed in 2015, holding street rallies in cities across Australia to protest against Islam. ...

anti-Islam rallies in 2015.

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spirit of the Anzacs 2015 songs 2015 singles APRA Award winners Sheppard (band) songs Guy Sebastian songs Jessica Mauboy songs Shannon Noll songs Jon Stevens songs Megan Washington songs Songs about World War I