Watching a reaction video to Clarkson’s performance is like feeling those emotions again. At some point she starts crying, the audience cries, Keith Urban cries and then I cry. She is heavily pregnant, singing a song about how her dad abandoned her. I clearly remember the first time I watched it, probably while PMSing.
Before you dismiss this, even putting aside that Clarkson is actually one of our greatest vocalists (my teeth are bared at you and I’m growling as I say this), it’s an intensely emotional video. To get into my feelings and cry, I watch people watch Kelly Clarkson perform Piece by Piece on American Idol. To feel awe and wonder and get goosebumps, I watch people watch Help. They aren’t all alike – there are reactions to all sorts of things, and they can make you feel different things, like a vending machine of hormones. Since Covid I have watched reaction videos fairly regularly, as a way to feel alive. I cry when I see Keith Urban cry, and when I see people cry at seeing Keith Urban crying. I now know quite a bit about how amazing Farnham’s “mouth shapes” are. Reaction videos run the gamut within the genre – there are reactions from all sorts of people but my favourites are those from vocal coaches or musicians who not only appreciate them, but can break down exactly what is happening. I have now moved from watching Farnham perform Help (which was an ENCORE performance, by the way), to watching people react to Farnham performing Help. Someone films themselves watching something, usually over the course of a few minutes and … reacting to it. If you haven’t come across this phenomenon, it’s just what it sounds like.
This particular performance has suddenly become popular among people who do “reaction videos”. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning After I’d finished watching, and my goosebumps had subsided, I agreed with them all, and I consider them family. Reading them, I felt a bit of the usual cultural cringe that can happen when Australians are talking about other Australians. I read some of the comments below the video before I watched it and they were exalting – breathlessly informing us that John is underrated and the best singer in the world, and that his performance of Help was the ENCORE, so he’d already performed for two hours when he got to this so he’s basically God. He looks magnificent, and he sounds equally good, performing his cover of Help by the Beatles – backed by the equally 80s hair of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He looks like Australia’s answer to Mills & Boon. The video opens with John standing there, long blond 80s hair flowing, his breezy shirt open to the third button, showcasing his sweat-shined chest. It was Farnham in 1989 performing to a massive crowd. My grandmother was a cleaner, my mother was a cleaner, and then I was too (also the song is terrible).īut none of that matters any longer, because the algorithm that knows me better than I know myself showed me an important video. It didn’t help that, growing up, the only song of Farnham’s I really knew was Sadie (The Cleaning Lady). Before now I’d always taken my dad’s side, unimpressed with Whispering Jack, more impressed by Willie Nelson. Namely, that John Farnham absolutely rocks. Now that I’m 40 I have discovered yet another thing my mother was right about.
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