Christine Anu’s greatest hits catalog is one of the most quietly influential runs in Australian pop history, blending Torres Strait Islander language and storytelling with radio-ready melody. From her 1993 debut duet through her 2025 lullaby single, Anu’s discography rewards a close listen on a good pair of headphones, where the layered percussion and island harmonies really open up. This list moves chronologically through the songs that built her legacy and the newer work that keeps extending it.
Last Train (with Paul Kelly)
Anu’s debut single, released in September 1993, is a dance-leaning remix of Paul Kelly’s “Last Train to Heaven,” produced by Angelique Cooper and Peter Crosbie. The chemistry between Anu’s clear, urgent vocal and Kelly’s weathered baritone gives the track a call-and-response tension that still sounds fresh over three decades later. It’s a fascinating entry point into her catalog precisely because it doesn’t sound like anything else she’d release afterward, all dub bass and downtempo groove rather than the pop shine to come. On headphones you catch how much space the mix leaves around her voice, a production choice that would become something of a signature.
Island Home
Anu’s cover of the Warumpi Band’s “My Island Home” is the song most people know her for, and rightly so. Her 1995 version reframes the lyric through her own Torres Strait Islander identity, opening with field-recorded water sounds from the passage between Thursday Island and Prince of Wales Island. The arrangement builds patiently from that intimate opening into a soaring, string-laced chorus that turned it into an unofficial national anthem for Indigenous Australians. She’d go on to perform it at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, cementing its place as a defining Australian pop moment.
Party
Released in June 1995, “Party” remains Anu’s highest-charting single, peaking at number 20 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Co-written with producer David Bridie, it’s pure mid-90s radio pop, all bright synth stabs and an instantly hummable chorus built for summer drives with the windows down. What keeps it from feeling dated is the rhythmic confidence underneath the gloss; the groove never lets up, and Anu’s phrasing rides ahead of the beat in a way that gives even the simplest lines a sense of momentum. It’s the song that proved she could cross over from cultural storyteller to mainstream chart artist without losing either side of that identity.
Monkey and the Turtle
One of the more traditional pieces on her debut album, “Monkey and the Turtle” incorporates language from Anu’s mother’s heritage on Saibai Island directly into the lyric. Released as a single in October 1994, it predates “Party” and “Island Home” as her true introduction to Australian audiences. The arrangement leans into percussion and vocal layering rather than pop hooks, letting the storytelling breathe in a way that feels almost ceremonial. It’s a good reminder that Anu was blending genres and cultural traditions from the very start of her recording career, not after she’d already established a pop foothold.
Come On
The fourth and final single from “Stylin’ Up,” released in October 1995, “Come On” swept two ARIA Awards including Best Female Artist. Musically it’s tighter and more dancefloor-focused than her earlier singles, with a punchy bassline and a chorus built for repetition rather than nuance. Anu’s vocal takes on a playful, almost teasing quality here that contrasts nicely with the more reflective material elsewhere on the record. In the car with the volume up, it’s one of the most immediately satisfying songs in her catalog.
Wanem Time
Written by Neil Murray, “Wanem Time” opens “Stylin’ Up” and sets the album’s tone immediately, mixing gentle acoustic textures with Anu’s warm, conversational delivery. The title translates roughly from Torres Strait Creole, and the song’s loping, unhurried tempo mirrors its meaning. It’s a quieter moment compared to the singles, but it showcases Anu’s range as an interpreter of other songwriters’ material, a skill that would define much of her early career alongside her original work with Bridie.
San E Wireless
Co-written with Jeanette “Opi” Nelson, “San E Wireless” is one of the deeper, less commercial cuts from the debut record, and it rewards patient listening. The production is spacious and slightly moody, giving Anu room to explore a lower, more textured part of her vocal range than the radio singles typically allowed. Anu later revisited the track for a “track by track” retrospective around her 2015 live album “ReStylin’ Up 20 Years,” suggesting it holds particular personal significance for her among the album’s thirteen songs.
Tama Oma
A brisk, percussion-forward track clocking in at just over two minutes, “Tama Oma” is one of the shortest and most rhythmically direct songs on “Stylin’ Up.” There’s an urgency to the arrangement, hand drums and vocal chants pushing the track forward without much room for a traditional pop structure to settle in. It functions almost like a palate cleanser on the album, a burst of pure rhythmic energy between the more melodic singles.
Dive
“Dive” stretches out to over four minutes, the longest track on the debut record, and uses that space to build a moodier, more atmospheric groove than the album’s singles. The production feels more downtempo and club-adjacent, closer in spirit to “Last Train” than to “Party.” Anu’s vocal is more restrained here, working with the mix rather than against it, which gives the track a hypnotic quality that makes it a favorite among fans who go deep into the album beyond the hits.
Stylin’ Up
The title track, co-written by Anu, David Bridie, and drummer Peter Luscombe, distills the album’s whole ethos into two and a half minutes. It’s confident, groove-led pop with a chorus built around the phrase that gave the record its name, and it works as a kind of mission statement for the whole project: contemporary Australian pop that never separates itself from its Torres Strait Islander roots. As a title track it does exactly what title tracks should, tying the record’s disparate sounds together into one accessible package.
Love That Heals
Written by Neil Murray, “Love That Heals” closes out the standard edition of “Stylin’ Up” with a warmer, more ballad-leaning arrangement than much of what precedes it. Anu’s vocal performance here is notably more vulnerable, favoring sustained notes and gentle dynamics over the punchier delivery of the singles. It’s the kind of closing track that rewards a full album listen, offering emotional resolution after the higher-energy material that dominates the record’s first half.
Sik O
Co-written by David Bridie drawing on traditional source material, “Sik O” leans into the album’s more experimental, world-music-adjacent textures. The arrangement blends traditional instrumentation with Bridie’s atmospheric production sensibilities, a combination that also defined his work with My Friend the Chocolate Cake around the same period. It’s a track that signals just how much creative control and cultural specificity Anu brought to her debut, refusing to smooth every corner into radio-friendly pop.
Kulba Yaday
Originally the B-side to “Party” in 1995, “Kulba Yaday” has had a long afterlife, resurfacing as a standalone single reissue in later years. The track’s rolling rhythm and call-and-response vocal structure give it a communal, almost live-performance energy even in its studio form. That it keeps getting reissued and rediscovered speaks to how well the song’s groove has aged compared to some of the more era-specific production choices on the rest of the album.
Sunshine on a Rainy Day
Released in May 2000, “Sunshine on a Rainy Day” marked Anu’s return to the charts after a five-year gap spent largely on acting work, including her stage run in “Rent.” Produced by Stuart Crichton in a noticeably more polished, UK-influenced pop-dance style, the single won Anu ARIA Awards for both Best Female Artist and Engineer of the Year. The mix is bright and layered, built for big speakers, with a chorus melody that climbs rather than settling, giving the whole track a genuinely uplifting lift-off feeling that matches its title.
Jump to Love
Co-written with Paul Kelly and Stuart Crichton, “Jump to Love” became the second single from “Come My Way” in September 2000 and stayed on the ARIA chart for sixteen weeks. A limited double A-side reissue paired it with “Island Home (Earth Beat)” following Anu’s performance at the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony, which tells you how tightly her career and that moment in Australian cultural history were intertwined. Musically it’s confident dance-pop, built around a driving four-on-the-floor pulse that suits club remixes as easily as radio play.
‘Coz I’m Free
The third and final single from “Come My Way,” released in April 2001, “‘Coz I’m Free” was directly inspired by watching Cathy Freeman race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Co-written with Stuart Crichton and Andy White, the song channels that sense of triumphant release into its melody, with a chorus that opens up wide rather than staying tightly compressed. It’s one of the clearer examples in her catalog of a song built from a specific real-world moment of national pride, and the lyric carries that weight without becoming heavy-handed.
Talk About Love
The lone single from 2003’s “45 Degrees,” “Talk About Love” pushed Anu’s sound further into funk and pop-rock territory, produced by Jarrad Rogers. Lyrically it’s confrontational in a way earlier singles rarely were, calling out empty declarations of affection with a directness that suits the sharper, guitar-inflected production. It peaked modestly on the ARIA chart but marks an interesting stylistic pivot point, showing Anu experimenting with a rockier edge a full decade into her recording career.
Taba Naba Style! (feat. The Wiggles)
Technically credited to The Wiggles featuring Christine Anu, “Taba Naba Style!” deserves a spot here because Anu co-wrote the composition and her recurring guest appearances on this traditional Torres Strait Islands song have made it one of her most widely heard vocal performances, reaching generations of Australian kids through multiple Wiggles albums since 2000. The 2017 version, from “The Wiggles Duets,” is a lovely piece of intergenerational cultural transmission, introducing a genuine Meriam Mir folk song to a massive children’s audience. It’s worth queuing up alongside her solo catalog on your favorite songs playlist for a fuller picture of her reach.
Waku: Minaral a Minalay
Released in August 2024 as both a single and the title track of her eighth studio album, “Waku: Minaral a Minalay” is a deeply personal late-career statement, built around family songwriting contributions from Anu’s grandfather Nadi and her daughter Zipporah. Produced by David Bridie, reuniting the pair nearly three decades after “Stylin’ Up,” the track received a Song of the Year nomination at the 2024 National Indigenous Music Awards. “Waku” means “the mat” in Anu’s language, and the arrangement has a woven, layered quality that matches that image, threading field recordings from Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands through the melody.
Piki Lullaby
Anu’s most recent release, “Piki Lullaby” arrived as a standalone single in 2025 and shows an artist still comfortable stretching into new emotional territory more than three decades into her career. The gentler, more intimate arrangement suits the lullaby framing, favoring sparse instrumentation and close, warm vocal miking over the fuller pop production of her earlier hits. If you’re building a wind-down or bedtime playlist, this one earns a spot for how naturally it closes out a listening session, especially through a comfortable set of earbuds where the softer dynamics come through clearly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Christine Anu’s most famous song?
“Island Home,” her 1995 cover of the Warumpi Band’s “My Island Home,” is widely considered her signature song and the one most closely tied to her public identity, especially after her performance of it at the 2000 Sydney Olympics closing ceremony.
What genre does Christine Anu sing?
Anu’s music spans pop, pop-rock, dance-pop, and acoustic styles, almost always woven together with Torres Strait Islander language, instrumentation, and storytelling traditions.
Has Christine Anu released new music recently?
Yes. She released the album and single “Waku: Minaral a Minalay” in August 2024, followed by the standalone single “Piki Lullaby” in 2025.
Did Christine Anu collaborate with other artists?
Yes, notably with Paul Kelly on her 1993 debut single “Last Train,” and with The Wiggles on multiple recordings of “Taba Naba,” a traditional Torres Strait Islands song she co-wrote and performs as a guest vocalist.
What was Christine Anu’s highest-charting single?
“Party,” released in 1995 from her debut album “Stylin’ Up,” remains her highest-charting single, peaking at number 20 on the ARIA Singles Chart.