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Dumb Ways To Die singer: ‘I don’t usually do ad work, but I’ve got bills to pay’

TinPan Orange singer Emily Lubitz

The singer of the song on the Dumb Ways To Die viral video, who tried to keep her identity a secret because she did not want to be associated with advertising, has said she performed the song because she had “bills to pay”.

Emily Lubitz, lead singer of Melbourne indie band TinPan Orange, told Triple J: “I don’t usually do advertising work. But Ollie [McGill of The Cat Empire] and I are old friends. He called and said he had some session work. We’ve done creative stuff together in the past.”

“I’ve got bills to pay,” she said.

“I didn’t particularly want to put my name to it. Advertising is not what I sing about usually. But when the video went viral, I thought that if this can help people get behind the other work I’ve done, then why not.”

Lubitz said she probably would not use Dumb Ways To Die in her live performances, but “maybe a 30-second hint of it”.

Tangerine Kitty, the band name created for Dumb Ways To Die, was a play on the collaborators behind the track, The Cat Empire and TinPan Orange.

John Mescall, the ECD of McCann Melbourne, which created the viral, told Mumbrella: “Because we wanted the Dumb Ways to Die song to sound nothing like an ad, it was hugely important that we involve people who don’t normally do advertising stuff. This needed to work as a song in its own right.”

“Emily was more than happy to work on the project, but because she’d never done commercial work before was understandably hesitant about attaching her name to it. But I guess as a singer when something you’ve done immediately earns more worldwide shares than Rhianna, you don’t have much of a choice but to come clean.”

The viral video has amassed 14.5m views on YouTube at the time of writing.

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