Some artists spend their careers chasing a second act. Daryl Braithwaite accidentally found one when ‘The Horses’ stopped being a hit song and became an Australian institution.
When Daryl Braithwaite announced his retirement from live performance this week, the reaction wasn’t sadness so much as gratitude.
After nearly six decades on stage, Braithwaite has earned the right to walk away. But his retirement also marks the end of one of the strangest and most heartwarming second acts in Australian music history.
Most artists spend their careers chasing relevance. Very few accidentally stumble into it.
Somewhere along the way, ‘The Horses’ stopped being a hit song and became something else entirely.
Released in 1990, the track was never supposed to become Australia’s unofficial national anthem. Yet over the past two decades, it transformed from a beloved classic into a cultural ritual. It escaped radio playlists and greatest hits compilations and found a second life in pubs, festivals, weddings, sporting clubs, road trips and late-night singalongs.
The song became bigger than nostalgia.
It became a shared experience.
Watch: Daryl Braithwaite at Falls Festival, Dec 2017
What makes Braithwaite’s story unique is that he never fought it.
Many artists resent being defined by a single song. Others spend years trying to distance themselves from the track that made them famous. Braithwaite did the opposite. He embraced the joke, embraced the memes and embraced the generations of Australians who adopted ‘The Horses’ as their own.
In doing so, he achieved something incredibly rare.
He became more culturally relevant in his seventies than many artists half his age.
The phenomenon wasn’t entirely unlike Rick Astley’s internet-fuelled resurgence. Except Australia’s relationship with Braithwaite felt less ironic and more affectionate. The joke eventually faded, but the love remained.
By the time he walked on stage in recent years, audiences weren’t simply watching a performer.
They were participating in a tradition.
The crowd knew every word. Sometimes it felt like they were carrying the song as much as he was.
Which is why Braithwaite’s retirement feels less like an ending than a handover.
The artist may be stepping away from the stage, but the song has already taken on a life of its own.
If the past 20 years have proven anything, it’s that ‘The Horses’ no longer belongs solely to Daryl Braithwaite.
It belongs to Australia.
And judging by the thousands of voices that still instinctively join in every time those opening notes begin, the crowd has already accepted a promotion.
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