Honorary Degrees for Topp Twins
New Zealand entertainers the Topp Twins will receive honorary degrees from Wintec (Waikato Institute of Technology). Lynda and Jools Topp will be awarded an honorary Master of Arts (Music) ‘in recognition of their enormous contribution to New Zealand, to music, to the region and as role models.’
Wintec chair Gordon Chesterman said the honorary awards will be conferred during graduation ceremonies in April next year.
The Topp Twins
The Topp Twins are New Zealand’s well-loved musical and comic duo. Twin sisters with their own primetime TV series and movie they are truly original entertainers and one of the few NZ acts which can undoubtedly be called a cultural institution.
Jools and Lynda Topp, were born in Huntly and raised on a small Waikato dairy farm in the North Island of New Zealand. They grew up singing to the cows and made their debut performance, "Walking in the Sunshine" with boaters and canes, at the tender age of five at a cousin's 21st party.
The Twins' rural upbringing explains their essentially country roots and mastery of yodelling. The first time Lynda heard a yodel she became obsessed about learning it. She used to ride to the nearby farm about 30 minutes up the road on horseback, listen to their old wind-up gramophone, jump back on her horse, race home, get out the guitar and desperately try and remember what she had just heard - it took her three years to learn to yodel.
After 16 years of rural isolation, the Twins joined the Territorial Army (not for patriotic reasons but to see the country) and quickly became the Vera Lynns of their battalion. But their Army careers were destined to be short-lived and they began busking and playing in small cafes. In their early twenties, they moved to Auckland and soon developed a cult-following as buskers.
The Topp Twins came of age as performers in the early '80s and relate to all kinds of people. They have a gift for humour and one of their unique qualities is that they have successfully crossed from the fringes to the mainstream.
With the help of the Students Arts Council, the Twins toured every corner of New Zealand during the 80’s producing sell-out theatre shows based on their life-stories and laced with political satire. The best of the Twins' stage shows were filmed for a Television Special for which they won several NZ Film & TV Awards including 1987 Entertainers of the Year, Best Entertainment Program and Best Original Music.
A decade later, the Topp Twins own primetime TV Series Do Not Adjust Your Twinset is one of TV3's top rating shows and has won the Topps' several more TV awards. Highly successful tours to Australia, Canada, the USA and Britain have met with exceptional reviews and extended their following globally.
They have been described internationally as New Zealand's "national treasures" have become "cultural ambassadors" and their country's "finest artistic export since lamb cutlets".
Their highly successful box office smash film 'Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls' has broken all records for a NZ documentary making it one of New Zealand’s Top 10 films ever - topping $1 million in just four weeks.
The documentary recently received the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival. It also won Best Feature Film (under 1 million dollar budget) as well as Best Original Music at the Qantas New Zealand Fiilm and TV Awards 2009.
