For Sarah Blasko, this must be the time, and the place, to sing about home

With her performance of a classic Talking Heads single, Sarah Blasko is the latest star to grace our Isolation Room video series.

Music is ‘such a healing force’, singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko says. Picture: Monique Harmer

When Sarah Blasko was searching for a song that felt right for our time, it wasn’t long before she ­settled on This Must Be the Place, the uplifting and tear-jerking 1983 single by US new wave band Talking Heads.

“I can never listen to it without weeping,” the Sydney-based singer-songwriter says. “It’s one of my favourite songs of all time, but I also feel like it suited the sentiment of the moment, in terms of everybody being at home.”

Performed at a piano in her lounge room for The Australian’s Isolation Room video series, Blasko’s cover slows the tempo to emphasise the beautiful universality of David Byrne’s love-struck lyrics.

“Home is where I want to be, but I guess I’m already there,” she sings in its second verse. “I come home, she lifted up her wings / I guess that this must be the place.”

If the song makes her weep as a listener, how is it to play? “I usually get a lip tremble when I perform it,” she says with a laugh. “There’s a couple of lines that I always choke on because they’re so beautiful.”

With her moving contribution to Isolation Room, Blasko joins artists such as Missy Higgins, John Williamson, The Living End frontman Chris Cheney and singing ­sisters Vika and Linda Bull.

Later this week, Birds of Tokyo singer Ian Kenny will perform one of the Perth band’s best-known singles, and Men at Work’s Colin Hay offers an optimistic song from his home near Los Angeles.

Many musicians have found the past five weeks stressful as they watched the live performance sector go into shutdown, but Blasko’s concerns were even more acute. “I’m 37 weeks pregnant at the moment,” she says. “I was really panicking about where things were going to head. It was quite paralysing, and I couldn’t sleep. I feel like that has eased a lot now, and I think reflection time is really a godsend, at the same time as being really difficult for so many people.”

As she and her partner await the arrival of their second son, Blasko has found that her love for music is stronger than ever.

“It sounds corny, but it’s such a healing force,” she says.

“To be able to perform has actually been very important for me because it’s such a beautiful thing to be able to do and be a part of.”