Who Needs Hawaii by Cass Hopetoun - Premiere

Elated doesn’t begin to describe how we feel about premiering the latest track by one of our Countrytown favourites, Cass Hopetoun. Fresh from the success of her first three singles as well as her Golden Guitar nomination for ‘New Talent of the Year’, the singer-songwriter returns with a song that is born from pure joyous escapism: Who Needs Hawaii.

Written during the pandemic of 2020 and produced by Matt Fell at Love Hz Studios, Who Needs Hawaii was composed with Cass’ fiancée and fellow country music artist, Blake Dantier – who you might just recognise in the music video ...

Cass 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. 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.”

To continue the song’s overall chilled and fun vibe, the music video was directed as one continuous shot by Laurence Lim of Tribal Ape Productions, drawn from a concept from Cass’ creative eye.

Cass 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.”

She adds, “To make sure it felt fresh and 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.”

Cass grew up in the Blue Mountains, and was inspired by female vocalist Delta Goodrem. Idolising her voice and stage persona, Cass began to learn to play the piano and take up regular singing lessons before venturing into musical theatre. She released her catchy, coming-of-age debut single, Shots, which spent 17 weeks in The Music Network’s Country Hot 50 airplay charts, peaking at #4. She followed that up with Typical Bride, which reached number one.

Cass was recently awarded ‘Best New Talent’ and ‘Best Ballad’ with Blake at the 2021 Tamworth Songwriter Association Awards. She is set to perform at the NQ’s Rockin’ Country Festival in Mackay in August, and will tour with Hurricane Fall throughout April.

Keep up to date with everything Cass Hopetoun and follow her on Facebook here.

For more premieres on CountryTown, check out here.

Image: Supplied