Cass Hopetoun Who Needs Hawaii

Fresh from the success of her first three singles, Golden Guitar nominated singer songwriter Cass Hopetoun returns with a song that is born from pure joyous escapism: 'Who Needs Hawaii'. Previous releases 'Shots', 'Typical Bride' and 'Fortune Teller' all gathered huge success in the TMN Country Hot 50 Airplay charts, and 'Who Needs Hawaii' is bound to do the same.

The pandemic of 2020 effectively forced everyone to slow down and take in the scenery. Of the inspiration for the song, Hopetoun says: "This is definitely my COVID-19 song! With an international travel ban, I'm itching to get out of the country more than ever. I spent 2020 trying to make our house feel as much like a holiday destination as possible." Produced by multi award winning Matt Fell at Love HZ Studios, 'Who Needs Hawaii' was composed with Hopetoun's fiancée Blake Dantier. She says: "Blake and I wrote this song after he'd been picking my brain for ideas.  He asked, 'What's going on in your life?' And I believe I said, 'I want to go on a holiday soooo bad' and that's where the inspiration came from."

The video for 'Who Needs Hawaii' was directed by Lawrence Lim of Tribal Apes Productions and co-produced by Hopetoun with Lim, drawn from a concept from Hopetoun's creative eye. She says: "The video was shot in an AirBnB in the Blue Mountains in NSW. The concept is essentially staying true to the lyrics of the song – finding a positive in COVID living and recognising that you don't need to head halfway across the world to have a good time. Plus, I really wanted to do a one shot take, where we use one continuous take for the whole video. No edits or cuts. We meshed these two ideas together."

The flow of the one take approach to the video fits the song perfectly. "To make sure it felt fresh & original I wanted one continuous shot and keep a really quirky vibe… to take a dive at something different, where it wasn't all about the glam and the glitz. To capture that chilled, fun vibe that the song has. My band mates came along for the day and we literally had the most relaxed day of shooting ever. The song is celebrating having a good time and I wanted to do this with a bunch of friends."

Hopetoun's career has definitely started with a bang, with her debut single 'Shots' streamed over 150,000 times on Spotify & Apple Music and a #4 spot on the TMN Country Hot 50 Airplay charts, staying in the top 20 for 11 weeks. Her follow up single 'Typical Bride' hit #1 on the TMN Country Hot 50 Airplay charts and stayed in the top 20 for 12 weeks. 'Typical Bride' earned Hopetoun a Golden Guitar nomination for "New Talent of the Year" at the 2021 Tamworth Country Music Awards, and she was voted "Best New Songwriter" at the 2021 Tamworth Songwriter Association Awards.

Hopetoun has toured with some of the industry's finest, including multiple ARIA Award and Golden Guitar winner Shane Nicholson, and she will be showcasing her songwriting excellence at the NQ's Rockin' Country Festival in Mackay in August, and on tour with Hurricane Fall throughout April.

Hopetoun's single 'Who Needs Hawaii' is a salient reminder to everyone with busy lives to slow down and take a deep breath once in a while. She says: "For me, 'Who Needs Hawaii' is also a reminder that we don't need to wait till we get time off work to relax. Society these days is obsessed with being busy -me included! I think it's super important to find some 'me' time amongst all the chaos, which you don't need to fly halfway around the world for."

Take a listen to 'Who Needs Hawaii' and take a deep breath. You deserve it!