Australian artists get valuable exposure, as Commonwealth Games opening ceremony draws 2m metro viewers

Australian musicians and songs got a huge exposure both in Australia and around the world with last night’s opening ceremony of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Two million metro viewers tuned in for the ceremony before an estimated 35,000 crowd at the Carrara Stadium.

Seven’s telecast, not surprisingly, topped the night and blitzed all the demos.

A further 1.3 million were watching the countdown to the games, while the edited highlights later in the evening drew a million.

The opening ceremony, big on high-tech visuals, colours and fireworks, provided a snapshot of Australian culture past and present.

In the lengthy and admirable indigenous culture section, Christine Anu’s ‘My Island Home’ was a counterpoint to Torres Strait rapper Mau Power’s rapid stream of phrases.

Delta Goodrem, Katie Noonan and Rickie Lee Coulter also performed.

A musical highlight was the orchestral medley of Australian classics as 4,450 athletes from 71 former British colonies made their entry into the stadium.

It was made up of members of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestra and Gold Coast Youth Orchestra, led by conductor John Foreman

These included INXS’s ‘Need You Tonight’, Men At Work’s ’Down Under’, The Church’s ‘Under The Milky Way’, John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’, LB’s ‘Reminiscing’, Alex Lloyd’s ‘Amazing’’, The Divinyls’ ‘I Touch Myself’, Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’, Australian Crawl’s ‘Reckless’ and Stevie Wright’s ‘Evie’.