Electric Fields honoured with Key to the City
Vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboard player and producer Michael Ross are the first to receive the Key to the City council honour since 2021 when Uncle Lewis Yarlupurka O’Brien AO was a recipient.
Electric Fields sing in Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and English, combining modern electronic-soul techniques with Aboriginal culture. They became the first-ever duo to represent Australia in Eurovision last year.
The Key to the City is the council’s highest honour to acknowledge and recognise outstanding contributions.
In a civic ceremony at Town Hall last night, Electric Fields gave a special performance with Sandra Pumani including a songline from Zaachariaha’s ancestral home of Mimili in the APY Lands.
“As one half of Electric Fields, that’s the only thing I came here into Adelaide with, was a memory that comes from Central Desert in Mimili community,” Zaachariaha, and InDaily 40 Under 40 alumnus, said.
You might like
“For it to be a part of Electric Fields and to showcase that here in this state, and be a part of trying to bridge that, has been one of the most beautiful journeys of my life here for South Australia and I thank this state, I’m very proud of this state and I’m very proud to do it with Michael.”
Michael said that although they “get all the credit” they have a dedicated team around them.
“Ever since Electric Fields’ energy was born, we’ve been family and our families are now family and it’s been incredible,” Michael said.
“That’s one of the things you have to pinch yourself at, you don’t pinch yourself about like, ‘oh my god, we’re doing, you know, a televised performance’.
Subscribe for updates
“You pinch yourself that these incredible geniuses and wildly talented people want to spend their time pushing your creativity and your ideas when they themselves are creatives and philosophers, so we are so blessed.”
For Electric Fields, Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the council wanted the key itself to be “contemporary, modern and exciting” so they commissioned a unique key from JamFactory for the duo.
Lomax-Smith said Electric Fields is a worthy recipient of the Adelaide honour, especially given its status as a UNESCO City of Music.
“It’s up to us to develop and celebrate emerging talent as well as honour the performers who have paved their way,” Lomax-Smith said.
“Electric Fields’ anthems, ballads and bangers, celebrating diversity and First Nations culture, have forged a new era in the Australian music scene and captured the hearts of Euro-pop fans globally.
“Adelaide, and the rest of the country, got behind our homegrown heroes when they took on the world at Eurovision, and that demonstrates the universal love for these performers.
“In this, the 10-year anniversary of Adelaide’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City, I can’t think of a more fitting Key to the City recipient than our very own Electric Fields.”
Zaachariaha performing during the duo’s set with the ASO at the ‘Floods of Fire’ concert in 2024. This picture: Enzo Frisini/Photostudio
Electric Fields’ discography includes ‘We the People’, the official theme song for the first World Pride in the Southern Hemisphere that was held in Sydney in 2023. The track is an anthem of queer pride, self-acceptance and individuality. The duo has appeared on Playschool and worked with orchestras across Australia.
Other Key to the City recipients include the 14th Dalai Lama, Adelaide Girls Choir, Barry Humphries, Mark Ricciuto, and the Adelaide Thunderbirds Netball Team.