Kamahl Celebrates Australia Day With Re-Release of My Home Album

Australia's much loved cultural icon, the legendary singer Kamahl, celebrates 30 years since the songs My Home and Australia came out with a re-release on iTunes and Spotify through MGM.

There's a twist: It's also 30 years since the songs were turned down by the Bicentennial Authority! Kamahl offered the songs and a performance for the official Bicentennial concert yet received a most unkind rejection. Kamahl was vindicated, though, when invited to perform the songs before Prince Edward and entourage at the Duke of Edinburgh's Award event on the eve of Expo 88 in Brisbane.

Kamahl said today: "If there was one wish I could have on Australia Day, it would be that every FBA would hear My Home. I recorded the song as an 'anthem' for Foreign Born Australians hoping they would embrace it and feel even more a part of this great country. But with its rejection by the authority, my fellow FBAs missed out too."

In 2016, 28.5% of Australia's resident population was born overseas (ABS) so this means Kamahl's 'My Home' is dedicated to more than 1 in 4 Australians.

When Kamahl arrived in Adelaide from Malaysia as a Tamil Hindu schoolboy in 1953, after a childhood under Japanese occupation, he was in an alien white country. A lone teenager with limited English, he faced racism often. But Australia has changed since then with racism taking a more cruel turn in the last decade.

Kamahl says: "At this time, with such chaos and suffering in many parts of the world, it's a time when all Australians should be united. I have been an Australian for 50 years now and I feel we should celebrate the many things we have in common, not look for, or argue about differences.