Amy Shark ProfileAfter weeks of speculation, the pre-game entertainment for this year’s NRL Grand Final did happen – but it didn’t look like it usually does: a major star on a huge stage with pyrotechnics and other rock star antics. Instead, it was a smaller-scale tribute.
South Sydney star Jai Arrow and former Wallaby Nathan Charles were driven around Stadium Australia for a lap of honour last night (4 October), ahead of the game beginning, with Amy Shark singing You’ll Never Walk Alone a cappella as the pair’s lap began. The two rugby stars were diagnosed with motor neurone disease earlier this year.
Following Shark’s rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, The Screaming Jets’ Dave Gleeson took to the stage for a cover of What’s Up? by 4 Non Blondes – soon making their Australian debut at next year’s Lookout Festival.
Grinspoon’s Phil Jamieson appeared next, closing the tribute performance with a version of Tina Turner’s The Best, an anthem of rugby league.
The group of singers were joined by Neve van Boxsel, drummer of Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, and Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles on guitar, the latter making a surprise appearance after the electronic duo said they wouldn’t perform at the NRL Grand Final earlier in the day.
Check out video footage of the performance below.
Late last month, reports emerged that negotiations with Tones And I to perform at the NRL Grand Final had apparently fallen through, leaving the main event without a pre-match entertainment headliner.
Sources claimed the negotiations broke down because the NRL insisted she play her 2019 hit, Dance Monkey. However, her team confirmed that prior commitments touring with Macklemore in the US left her unable to accept the offer when it was made in September.
Last week, NRL boss Peter V’landys teased a mystery act to perform for eleven minutes at Sydney’s Accor Stadium ahead of the Grand Final match.
“I’ve got to tell you – it’ll be the highest-rating 11 minutes you will ever see, because no one knows what it is, and we won’t tell until the night,” V’landys told journalists.
He added, “And a lot of people will be surprised. There will be something, but I am not saying what it is. Stay tuned.”
Those comments followed remarks he made previously, in which he said there’d be no pre-game entertainment performance and that fans had plenty of entertainment in NRL.
