Emma Donovan has given Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” a whole new life, turning the ballad into a tribute to family and language for triple j’s Like a Version.
Backed by a full band and backing vocalists, the Gumbaynggirr and Noongar singer shared the studio with Yolŋu singer and musician Drifting Clouds (real name Terry Guyula). Per triple j, the pair reworked Eilish’s hit into something that slipped between English and Noongar and Yolŋu Matha Language.
“‘Birds of a Feather’ is pretty much the go-to song in the car with my daughters,” Donovan said. “And I’ve got a lot of memories of singing with my mother. My mother taught me a lot of country music in the car. So it’s kind of a thing that I do with my daughters, and I have to really respect what they want to play.
“Honestly, I hope I get a few more mum points when they hear this.”
The bigger challenge, Donovan explained, was carrying the song’s meaning across languages that don’t always map onto English in the same order. “We’ve done the Yolŋu Matha verses that he [Terry] sings and then I’m singing the choruses in Noongar language, which is my grandmother’s language,” she said.
“This is a funny thing about translating Aboriginal songs to English or English to Aboriginal. We have Aboriginal English, and the way that we say things. We say things around the other way. Instead of saying ‘I love you’, we say ‘you I love’. It’s like a lot of languages, you know?
“I just love that I could sing in a song singing in Noongar language and having Yolŋu Matha. So, you know, Western Australia meets the Top End meets Billie Eilish.”
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While in the studio, Donovan also debuted her brand new track “Some Things Can Never be Bought”. Per triple j, the song dives into the idea of things coming back around, and how she’s teaching her kids that things return to us in ways that we don’t expect.
