Gurrumul (album) explained

Gurrumul
Type:studio
Artist:Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
Cover:Gurrumul_Gurrumul_album.jpg
Released:April 2008
Genre:Folk/World
Length:61:18
Label:Skinnyfish Music
Next Title:Live in Darwin, Australia
Next Year:2010

Gurrumul is the debut solo album for Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. It is performed in a mixture of both Yolngu and English. The album has received praise for connecting on a deeply emotional level, as it tells the story of a persecuted people group (aboriginal Australians) as well as the singer's own suffering with both racial persecution and his visual impairment.[1]

It reached number three on the ARIA charts,[2] won ARIA awards for Best World Music Album[3] and Best Independent Release[4] and won a Deadly for Album of the Year. The track "Gurrumul History (I Was Born Blind)" also won a Deadly for Single of the Year.[5]

The album reached 3× Platinum sales in excess of 210,000.[6] In October 2010, it was listed in the top 30 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.[7] On November 23, 2012, the album was certified Silver in the United Kingdom for sales of 60,000 copies.[8] It is the best-selling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music album in Australian history, launching Yunupingu's international solo career and establishing him as one of Australia's most significant musical artists.

In 2018, the album was inducted into the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia collection of historic recordings,[9] the first recording selected in its first year of eligibility. In December 2021, the album was listed at no. 20 in Rolling Stone Australia’s ‘200 Greatest Albums of All Time’ countdown.[10]

Track listing

All tracks written by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.

Charts

Year-end charts

Chart (2008)Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] 21
Australian Arisrt Albums (ARIA)[12] 5
Chart (2009)Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[13] 53
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[14] 92

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dwek . Joel . 2020-11-09 . AUSTRALIA: Gurrumul - Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu . 2023-10-21 . 200worldalbums.com . en.
  2. https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20091004130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/23790/20091005-0000/issue1021.pdf The ARIA Report issue 1021
  3. http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/arnhem_land39s_gurrumul_wins_aria_award_558782 SBS news
  4. http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,24510481-5016432,00.html News.com.au
  5. http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/10/10/8665_ntentertainment.html Northern Territory News
  6. Web site: ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2011 Albums. ARIA. 26 March 2018.
  7. Book: . O'Donnell . John . John O'Donnell (music journalist) . Creswell . Toby . Toby Creswell . Mathieson . Craig . Craig Mathieson . Hardie Grant Books . October 2010 . . 978-1-74066-955-9.
  8. Web site: Certified Awards Search . dead . 2012-12-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110511120001/http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx . 2011-05-11 .
  9. Web site: Gurrumul, Powderfinger and Goanna celebrated in this year's Sounds of Australia. 29 October 2018. NFSA. 3 November 2018.
  10. https://au.rollingstone.com/rolling-stones-200-greatest-australian-albums-of-all-time Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time
  11. Web site: ARIA Top 100 Albums Chart.
  12. Web site: ARIA Top 50 Australian Artist Albums Chart.
  13. Web site: ARIA Top 100 Albums for 2009. Australian Recording Industry Association. 11 April 2021.
  14. Web site: Swiss Year-End Charts 2009 . . Hung Medien . 6 February 2009.