Tiddas

Tiddas

After the success of their 1993 debut Sing About Life, Tiddas—composed of Gunditjmara woman Amy Saunders, Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Lou Bennett and Sally Dastey— toured overseas. Decades later, Saunders reflected that Tiddas was one of the few female groups embodying fearless musical autonomy in the early 1990s; the group regularly encountered heckling at home but also ran into it abroad. It’s reputed that one particularly heated exchange with Bob Geldof inspired the first single, the transparently titled “Ignorance Is Bliss”, on their second record, Tiddas. The album’s lead single was selected as much for its tone-setting as its tunefulness; Tiddas represented the trio at their most reactionary, and . Its acoustic folk is frequently shattered by lyrical exposés of hardship and prejudice. The upbeat-sounding but strongly anti-colonial “Anthem” is the finest, most furious and, sadly, still most relevant moment of catharsis underpinning all 12 tracks—with Tiddas ultimately deciding that the words of Australia’s official national anthem “are hard to remember/When they mean nothing at all/To the hearts who’re still waiting/For their voice to be heard.”

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada