Hamish and Andy label Canberra primary school song a national 'banger'

Fraser Primary School in the ACT has come out on top in a recent search for Australia’s coolest school song.

In the comedy duo’s hit podcast, Hamish and Andy asked listeners from right across the country to submit their own school’s ‘bangers’ for contention. In first place was Canberra’s own “song about having a good time and getting up and looking forward to a brighter day”.

“It’s so rare that they’ve got a song like that across the line because … they’re not trying to jam in giving back,” Hamish Blake said.

“They’ve just gone for, ‘hey, let’s make it feel good and let’s put some actions in’.”

The simply named ‘Fraser’s Song’ has racked up more than 1700 listens on Spotify and the music video version has had 12,000 views on YouTube since it was first performed in 2019 for the school’s 40th anniversary.

“We already knew we were incredibly lucky to have such an amazing school song gifted to us by the talented Amosa family for our 40th anniversary celebration but it’s now been confirmed in a nation-wide search by Hamish and Andy,” the school wrote on social media.

Far from the result of a kids’ music club, the school enlisted the help of experts.

Steve Amosa is lead singer and performer behind local band ‘TuchaSoul‘, and his family has been part of the Fraser Primary community for decades. His wife and their six children are all former students, with the eldest Kirrah starting in 1997 and youngest Jonty finishing last year.

“It was a recommendation from one of their amazing teachers, Jessica Potts, who suggested I write a new song for the school,” Steve says.

“As a family of performers, we have always given back to our community with performances at fetes, school musicals, and singing competitions, so we were very honoured to be asked.”

In 2000, Steve had written a song for the Western District Rugby Union club in Belconnen. Called ‘Lion’s Call’, it “captured the history of the club, and funny events from that year, as well as club milestones for players, coaches and volunteers”.

Steve says the song was an “absolute hit” and is still the club’s anthem to this day.

For Fraser Primary, Steve and his daughter Kirrah – a professional musician by then – wanted a simple and catchy melody that kids could “connect with and feel comfortable singing along to”, and also make it the first school song to feature a rap element.

“And we definitely wanted a ukulele as well to pay homage to our Samoan family ancestry,” Steve adds.

It was a real community effort. The school principal Mark Deeker was involved in various stages along the way, as was Jess Potts, and many other members of the staff, not to mention Steve and all six children Kirrah, Lahni, Ruben, Mayah, Kofi and Jonty.

The track was then recorded and produced by Aria nominated artist Kay Ansah, aka ‘Citizen Kay’.

To go with it, short-film producer Sioapo Screen created a music video on location at the school, including footage of all the key areas.

The undercover basketball area hosts the school’s fetes and end-of-year performances, and the junior playground includes the famous ‘Buddy Bench’, used by students feeling lonely or disconnected from peers so others can invite them to play and join their friendship groups.

“We wanted to capture the common play areas so it would bring back a lot of wonderful memories for students and families,” Steve says.

The song debuted during the school’s 40th birthday party in December 2019, attended by families of past students and ACT Education minister Yvette Berry. Steve says the reaction was “amazing”.

“Families have responded so positively to the song.”

The song is regularly piped out as the school bell and sung in their school assemblies. There was also a surprise in store for Jonty when he graduated Year 6 last year and marked the end of 26 years of Amosas at the school.

“We were farewelled by a surprise live performance by the Year 6 cohort which featured a lot of tears, fond reflection and, of course, the ukulele!”

Five years after Fraser’s Song was written, Steve is open to more.

“I love performing and writing music – it’s definitely something I enjoy, especially seeing people’s reaction and connection to the music and lyrics.”