I guess, everybody involved and put a smile on people faces," Evans says. "Especially in a time, when everyone is stuck at home, everybody is fed up and they just can’t go to see their friends and the song came along and everybody can join in, sing along, you can stamp your feet, clap your hands, you can play an instrument to this song, you can sing along, you can show along if you like.
In a way, it reflects our collective hope to soon be freed from captivity in a locked-down world, whenever the tonguin' - or rather the pandemic - is over. Hoping for freedomīut knowing the meaning of the term was not essential to turn the song into a viral hit. Tonguing was the name given to the work of the tonguers, who were in charge of butchering the whale after it had been caught. One day, when the tonguin' is done / We'll take our leave and go." In the song, the Wellerman is the supply ship that is expected to be sent by the company.Īs the chorus goes: "Soon may the Wellerman come / To bring us sugar and tea and rum. The "Wellerman" in the song refers to an Australian shore-whaling company called The Weller Bros, which mainly ran its operations along the coast of New Zealand from 1830 to 1840.
I would never imagine that this was going to happen." "Seeing all these people do sea shanties and joining in, it is just incredible. Evans says he was speechless when he found out that Brian May joined in, as did Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ronan Keating and Gary Barlow.