Gurrumul (album)

Gurrumul
Studio album by
ReleasedApril 2008
GenreFolk/World
Length61:18
LabelSkinnyfish Music
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu chronology
Gurrumul
(2008)
Live in Darwin, Australia
(2010)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
The Sydney Morning Herald(favourable)[1]
Allmusic[2]

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.[3]

It reached number three on the ARIA charts,[4] won ARIA awards for Best World Music Album[5] and Best Independent Release[6] 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.[7]

The album reached 3× Platinum sales in excess of 210,000.[8] In October 2010, it was listed in the top 30 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.[9] On November 23, 2012, the album was certified Silver in the United Kingdom for sales of 60,000 copies.[10] 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,[11] 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.[12]

  1. ^ Elder, Bruce (2009-04-11). Gurrumul - CD review. The Sydney Morning Herald.
  2. ^ Greenberg, Adam. Gurrumul - Review. Allmusic.com.
  3. ^ Dwek, Joel (9 November 2020). "AUSTRALIA: Gurrumul - Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu". 200worldalbums.com. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  4. ^ The ARIA Report issue 1021
  5. ^ SBS news Archived 2008-10-22 at the Wayback Machine Arnhem Land's Gurrumul wins ARIA award
  6. ^ News.com.au Archived 2009-02-20 at the Wayback Machine 2008 Aria Award Winners
  7. ^ Northern Territory News[permanent dead link] Gurrumul Deadly at Awards
  8. ^ "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2011 Albums". ARIA. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  9. ^ O'Donnell, John; Creswell, Toby; Mathieson, Craig (October 2010). 100 Best Australian Albums. Prahran, Vic: Hardie Grant Books. ISBN 978-1-74066-955-9.
  10. ^ "Certified Awards Search". Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  11. ^ "Gurrumul, Powderfinger and Goanna celebrated in this year's Sounds of Australia". NFSA. 29 October 2018. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  12. ^ Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone Australia, Rolling Stone Australia, 06 December 2021. Retrieved 06 December 2021.