Food Glorious Food is a song made famous the first time in Oliver Twist. Now, not a boy called Oliver, but girl called Olivia has created her own version of the classic, Food Fabulous Food. The young farmer behind the music is Olivia Akers, who produced that song from her family’s dairy farm in Northern Victoria.
Olivia has had the idyllic childhood, with one of her favourite pastimes riding her pony. At the age of 12, she decided to open a window into her world by creating the song which was entered into several competitions. Olivia spent months working on the piece – with some help from artificial intelligence. “We had to develop a song and find a recording studio. Mum had a friend that helped with that. We videoed every line of the song. There were hundreds of takes,” she shares. The nerves were high in the recording studio – but she got the job done.
“Working with the animals is tricky. The cows wanted to lick me in the paddock. The dogs wouldn’t stand still.”
The song was a hit, featuring in her school’s film festival and in an Ag Day competition. “My video made top 4 in the state. I had a presentation night where all the movies were played in the Melbourne ACMI, the Australian Centre for Moving Image.” Olivia has hopes of doing much more in that space with ambitions to become a singer and actor. She also plans to keep her advocacy work going. “I want to get my message out about farmers. If we didn’t have farmers, there wouldn’t be things at the supermarket.”
The young talent says she even settles misconceptions in the schoolyard. “There was a situation in my class where everyone was scared of a spider in the classroom. I’m like – calm down everyone – it’s just a spider – this happens everywhere on my farm.”
Olivia hasn’t let living in regional Australia hold her back from achieving her dreams – filming auditions in her living room. So, remember the name Olivia Akers – no doubt we’ll be hearing from her again.
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