Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu is an Indigenous Australian folk singer and multi-instrumentalist from Galiwin'ku, Australia. He is associated with Yothu Yindi and Saltwater Band, and his work is identified with folk, acoustic, roots and World Music.

Career and musicianship

Gurrumul Yunupingu performs as a singer and multi-instrumentalist. He plays drums, keyboards, guitar and didgeridoo. He is left-handed but plays a right-handed guitar in the opposite orientation, and this becomes a distinctive part of his style. His singing voice attracts particular attention for its clarity.

He sings in Yolŋu languages, including Gälpu, Gumatj and Djambarrpuynu, as well as in English. His songs often tell stories connected to his land and culture. He is from the Gumatj clan of the Yolngu, and his mother is from the Galpu nation.

Early life

He is born in Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island, off the coast of Arnhem Land in northern Australia. He is the first of four sons born to Ganyinurra (Daisy) and Nyambi (Terry) Yunupingu. He is blind from birth, never learns Braille, and does not use a guide dog or white cane. He is also described as shy. As a child, he teaches himself to play a toy piano and accordion at four years old, and begins guitar a year later.

Groups and solo work

He is formerly a member of Yothu Yindi and later Saltwater Band. His solo career brings him wider recognition, and he becomes the most commercially successful Aboriginal Australian musician at the time of his death.

His first solo album, Gurrumul, enters the ARIA Charts and the independent chart, reaches number 3 on the ARIA Charts, and is certified triple platinum. Michael Hohnen produces the album and acts as his translator. His second album, Rrakala, later receives an AIR Award for Best Independent Blues and Roots Album. He also releases a live album, His Life and Music, recorded at the Sydney Opera House and issued through ABC Music. His third studio album, The Gospel Album, reaches number 3 on the ARIA Charts.

Awards and recognition

In 2008 he receives four ARIA Award nominations and wins Best World Music Album and Best Independent Release. He also wins three Deadly Awards: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year for Gurrumul, and Single of the Year for "Gurrumul History (I Was Born Blind)". In 2009 he is named Best New Independent Artist, while Gurrumul is named Best Independent Release and Best Independent Blues/Roots Release at the AIR Awards. In 2011 he again wins an AIR Award for Best Independent Blues and Roots Album for Rrakala. The Gospel Album later wins his third ARIA Award for Best World Music Album.

In 2009 a portrait of him by Guy Maestri wins the Archibald Prize. In 2012 he receives an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Sydney.

Other performances and collaborations

He is one of the vocalists on Gary Barlow's single "Sing" for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations and performs it live at the Diamond Jubilee Concert. In 2013 he appears with Delta Goodrem for a performance of "Bayini" on The Voice Australia. "Bayini" becomes the first track by an Indigenous musician to reach the top five of the Australian charts.

Death

He dies in 2017 at Royal Darwin Hospital in the Northern Territory after long-term liver and kidney disease. Tributes follow from Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett and the Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.