Rural Aid concert raises $2.4m to date, reaches 200K viewers on Nine

Nine’s Good OnYa Mate: Rural Aid Concert on Saturday (November 28) reached 205,000 overnight metro viewers and has hit $2.4 million in donations since last night.

The concert’s lineup included Jimmy Barnes, Birds Of Tokyo, Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy, Dami Im, Vera Blue and Kate Ceberano, among other acts. Nine personalities Richard Wilkins, Allison Langdon, Brooke Boney and Alex Cullen hosted the concert from Bella Vista Farm in Sydney.

The broadcast premiered two songs specifically written for the cause. Ceberano introduced her song ‘Hold On’ as paying tribute to people who have survived drought, bushfires, floods and COVID-19. Additionally, country music singer-songwriters Lee Kernaghan and Mick Lindsay wrote ‘Good Onya Mate’.

Lindsay said, “Aussies helping Aussies has always been the backbone of this nation – this song is about mateship and how that has always been the Australian way.”

Such sentiments were book-ended by Dami Im, Casey Donovan and Natalie Bassingthwaighte’s version of ‘Rise Up’ (“to all the women in the farming community”) and Vera Blue’s acoustic rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’.

Birds Of Tokyo’s new single ‘Weekend’ hit with lines as “Forget about the stress/I know it’s hard to find just a minute to rest”. Jimmy Barnes’ ‘Shutting Down Our Town’ began, “This used to be a place where a man could find some work.”

The music performances were just part of the concert. Nine’s cameras visited farmers to hear first-hand stories of a family that lost $450,000 of assets during a bushfire, another who had not seen rainfall for four years. Viewers also heard the tale of two daughters sent away to safety by their parents as they fought to save their house, and the trauma they continue to feel through the night worried for each others’ safety.

The funds raised on Saturday night will go towards Rural Aid’s Stronger Futures program to underpin its rural counselling services and community rebuilding initiatives.