Greg Champion
Singer, songwriter, musical comedian
Greg ‘Champs’ Champion is a multi-talented and versatile performer. He is a singer/songwriter, country and folk musician, corporate entertainer, musical comedian, radio personality – and event host. However, he is perhaps best known as the ‘’King of footy tunes” and is Australia’s leading writer of AFL and cricket songs, with several Aussie Rules hit songs to his name.
Greg Champion captures what it is to be Australian through his unique combination of comedy, sports parodies and country/folk music.
In the early 1980 Champs was front man with ground-breaking Melbourne rock bands The Fabulaires and The Young Homebuyers, performing with Australian legends Wayne Burt (Black Sorrows, JoJo Zep), JJ Hackett (Stars, Mondo Rock) and, later in the ’80s, with Wayne Duncan and Ross Hannaford, both of Daddy Cool.
In 1983, Champs drifted into radio with the now-legendary Coodabeen Champions, which has since become an institution on commercial and ABC radio over an amazing thirty years.
Parallel to his parody and comedy work and growing reputation as a radio personality and entertainer, Champs rose to national prominence in 1986 with the release of the single I Made a 100 In The Backyard At Mum’s. This song soon became a hit and was then chosen as the leading track on the first Australia All Over album compiled by ABC’s Ian McNamara, which sold over 150,000 copies.
In 1995, Channel 7 took up Greg’s anthem That’s The Thing About Football as a theme for their AFL broadcasts over several years.
Greg Champion has continued with many more iconic classics like Crickets On the Radio and his songs have become revered by sport lovers across the nation.
However, Greg’s musical diversity also extends beyond the sports fields to include a successful country music career full of moving and descriptive songs which capture the emotion of Australian life.
Greg Champion released his first album in 1990 and in 2013, he released his 25th album, A Whole Different Story.
Forging his own distinctive path through the Australian musical landscape, it’s been said of Champs that he has contributed to the fabric of Australian culture.