Aussie music superstars reborn ‘like an octopus’ with dance DJs

Some of Australia’s biggest voices are being remixed with Aussie DJs to create instant summer dance classics.

National music treasure Marcia Hines has wanted to collaborate with Australia’s biggest electronic and dance producers for decades.

Perhaps some of them were too awe-struck to dare to ask her to sing on their tracks, or seek permission to give one of her iconic hits the remix treatment.

Or more likely, it was a hangover from the era when the industry gatekeepers demanded artists “stay in their lane” rather than band together across different genres and record labels.

But no more.

Hines is poised to own the summer airwaves with the Sgt Slick remix of I’ve Got The Music In Me, a song which featured on her 1976 album Shining but was never released as a single.

Marcia Hines is back on the club charts with her new collaboration. Picture: Robert Catto / Supplied.

It’s already lobbed into the top 10 of the Australian club chart.

“It’s opening up now and these producers are all about the ‘collabs’. There are many people I would love to work with,” Hines said.

“I don’t think it happened as much before because of the ‘stay in your lane’ thing. It wasn’t a matter of respect – as musicians we all respect each other because we know we can all bring something different to the table.

“Maybe people just thought I didn’t want to work with them.

“Now, the idea of collaboration is like an octopus and you can put your tentacles out in all directions.”

Revered Australian DJ and producer Sgt Slick gave Hines’ hit a fresh take. Picture: Supplied

The 2024 remix, which also features on the Seven promo video for the 2025 Australian Idol season, joins a raft of new collaborations between our most loved singers and dance producers.

Hines looks smoking hot in bright pink sequined top and pants as she dances around inner Sydney in the video, suffering from “Idol fever.” She has been fielding plenty of love about her dancing queen moves.

“All I can do is laugh,” she says with a classic Marcia cackle.

“All I do is I walk, I box with a guy called (Mark) Spudd Carroll – he was a rugby league player and when I tour, he hooks me up with other NRL players interstate to box with.

“And I’ve just been on an 18-week tour, honey.”

The big bang moment for this era of surprise musical unions came three years ago when Gold Coast electronic music producer Luude took one of the biggest Australian songs of all time and reworked it as a drum and bass track.

Luude’s reinvention of Men at Work’s Down Under, with the blessing of its singer and co-writer Colin Hay, reached the top 5 in the UK and top 10 in Australia and has had more than 340 million plays on Spotify alone and remains a moment in his DJ sets.

Darwin and now Amsterdam-based producer Cyril Riley has also enjoyed phenomenal global success with his remakes of retro classics.

Under the artist name Cyril. his run of hits kicked off last year with his update of Stumblin’ In, the 1978 hit for Smokie’s Chris Norman and rock legend Suzi Quatro, which went viral on TikTok and then migrated to streaming, generating more than half a billion plays.

Tina Arena gave Chains a touch-up.

Shouse made the Aussie classic a banger.

He has also given the beloved Crowded House song Fall At Your Feet a 2024 makeover with Dean Lewis on vocals.

Tina Arena teamed with hit duo Shouse to reimagine her 1994 hit Chains this year for its anniversary celebrations

Daryl Braithwaite will be a fixture this summer with the MURRAY remix of his 1989 hit One Summer, 35 years after its initial release.

The song has been given a dance update by none other than the OG Red Wiggle Murray Cook.

Braithwaite, whose version of The Horses, originally recorded by Ricki Lee Jones, has had countless dance treatments including one by Cyril, made Cook give it a few gos before he was happy with the 2024 version.

Daryl Braithwaite with original red Wiggle Murray Cook at Coogee Surf Life Saving Club for launch of the One Summer remix. Picture: Jess Gleeson

“The label said Murray from the Wiggles wanted to remix the song and he did about four attempts. I kept knocking them back because they didn’t sound right but the last one ended up being all right, so that’s it,” he said.

Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles has finally realised his dream of getting Jimmy Barnes to sing on one of his tracks, with his side project Y.O.G.A.

The pair first crossed paths at an awards night in Sydney eight years ago when the rocker told the producer something along the lines of “let’s make some f … in’ bangers.”

Barnes is no stranger to the melding of the rock and dance worlds having gone viral as an internet meme in 2017 with his signature scream on Big Enough, a single from Sydney artist Kirin J. Callinan.

When Styles and his country music star co-writer Blake O’Connor came up with their new cow-tech banger Comin’ Up, they knew instantly they had finally written a track worthy of Barnes’ vocal.

Reuben Styles (Y.O.G.A.) enlists Jimmy Barnes for new “cow-tech” single Comin' Up.

The connection deepened when the track was completed by producers MSquared; one half of that duo is Michael Paynter who plays guitar in Barnes’ band.

Styles cold emailed Barnes the track and the rocker said yes immediately.

“He sent back an email saying ‘I love the track; if you dream it, I’ll scream it!’ I need to frame that email,” Styles said.

Styles and his Peking Duk partner Adam Hyde also linked up with Darren Hayes last year to give the Savage Garden hit I Want You a new spin.

“That stay in your lane situation in Australia has been so weird. What I love about the Americans with this kind of thing, is they really love you going for it. And we want Darren Hayes to take over the world again,” he said.

“There are just so many sick Aussie singers, how lucky are we? INXS blow up every few years with their music. I love Peter Garrett and just imagine doing a song with the Gaz.”

As Hines prepares to return to our screens next year back at the Australian Idol judge’s table, she has her ears on who in the next crop of singers could be her next collaborator to make music across the generations and genres.

“We’ve found some great kids this year for Idol, they’re really different, they’re very now,” she said.