Gurrumul yunupingu yothu yindi biography

A multi-instrumentalist, he played drums, keyboards, guitar a right-hand-strung guitar played left-handed and didgeridoo , but it was the clarity of his singing voice that attracted rave reviews. Although his solo career brought him wider acclaim, he was also formerly a member of Yothu Yindi and later of Saltwater Band. He was the most commercially successful Aboriginal Australian musician at the time of his death.

As of , it is estimated that Yunupingu has sold half a million records globally. The first of four sons born to Ganyinurra Daisy , of the Gumal clan, and Nyambi "Terry" Yunupingu, a Gumatj clansman, Yunupingu was born blind in Galiwin'ku, Elcho Island , in , situated off the coast of Arnhem Land in northern Australia, about kilometres mi east of Darwin.

Yothu yindi lead singer

When he was four years old, he taught himself how to play a toy piano and an accordion. A year later he began to play a guitar; despite being a left-hander, he played a right-handed guitar, holding it upside down, which he would continue to do throughout his career. His friend, spokesperson, and collaborator Michael Hohnen described his early musical experiences as follows: "Gurrumul was educated by immersion, cultural immersion—from his aunties, parents and grandmothers, with love and lullabies; from his uncles, fathers and grandfathers through ceremony songs and storytelling, much of it through music.

Throughout his childhood, he was built, given or bought tin cans, sticks, toy keyboards, piano accordions, nylon string guitars, and, later, clap sticks bilma and didgeridoos yidaki. He learned foot stomping calling and whooping, vocalisations of traditional songs and their different sounds, and so much more. An adventurous child, he was taught how to play basketball and ride a push-bike around his community.

Yunupingu family tree

He left school at the age of 12, having attended his local school, Shepherdson College, along with a brief stint at an institute in the Victorian city of Geelong for instruction in Braille, which did not interest him. In , at the age of 18, Yunupingu joined Yothu Yindi as a multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist, notably contributing to their album, Tribal Voice.

He left the group in to live full-time on Elcho Island and later co-founded and co-led the Saltwater Band , which was active from to His first solo album, Gurrumul , was released in , debuting at No.