Neighbours theme to become ‘a duet’

Home and Away of course used to have a male and female vocal theme with Mark Williams and Karen Boddington harmonsing together, now for the first time in its 28-year history Neighbours is to make its cheezy old lyrics a duet too.

Daniel Boys and Stephanie Angelini are to perform the Tony Hatch penned theme after a competition saw them picked from hundreds of singers. Boys will be the first British vocalist to perform the theme, alongside Australian Angelini.

On making the decision Barry Crocker, singer of the original theme, said: “Both Daniel and Stephanie are delightful ambassadors for their respective countries, not to mention terrific singers. I think the duet is a wonderful rendition to the Neighbours theme and harks back to the original I recorded 28 years ago,” Barry said.

The Neighbours: Remixed Competition pitted the Brits against the Aussies in a search for a new vocalist to record a revamped version of the famous Neighbours song.

Daniel won the British heat of the competition with 37% of the overall vote and flew to Melbourne, Australia to face a head-to-head sing-off with Stephanie Angelini who won the Australian heat of the competition.

The judging panel, comprised of the original singer of the Neighbours theme song, Barry Crocker, Neighbours Executive Producer, Richard Jasek and Chris Pettifer, Neighbours musical director and screen composer, had the difficult decision of choosing which of the two finalists they thought was best for the show. So torn were the judges by the two finalists extraordinary renditions of the Neighbours song, which is one of the most recognised television themes in the world, they unanimously agreed both Boys and Angelini would feature as a duet.

On hearing he’d won Daniel, 34, from Yately, Hampshire said: “I’m so happy right now. This whole competition and trip here has been amazing. Stephanie is such a lovely girl and the outcome could not have been better. I can’t wait for the public to hear the new theme sung by us.”

Neighbours switched to Channel 5 in 2008, after a long run on BBC One. It airs twice daily at 1.45pm and 5.30pm, weekdays.