Dame Lynda Topp has made a special appearance at the Aotearoa Music Awards on Thursday night, honouring her late sister Jools, and making an impassioned speech about the Government’s newly released budget. 

The Topp Twins star urged Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith to support Kiwi musicians. 

“We need support for artists in this country. We need a government that says the arts is more important than the defence budget,” Lynda said. 

It’s the first public event the legendary Kiwi performer has attended since her sister Jools died on Saturday, aged 68, surrounded by her friends, family, and pets. 

Lynda walked the red carpet with fellow folk and country singers Tami Neilson, Kaylee Bell, and Mel Parsons, wearing her sister’s pounamu pendant and a black suit. 

After Neilson’s performance of the Topp Twins’ song Untouchable Girls, Lynda gave an emotional speech. 

“I‘ve cried for a whole week and a year before that, and another year to come. Being a twin is such a beautiful thing to be. 

“When we performed 40 years ago, there were hundreds of venues in this country. We played in cafes, in pubs, rural halls, woolsheds, house parties. And now we’ve lost so many of those places for young artists to perform.” 

She then went on to directly address Goldsmith, who was in the crowd, just hours after the Government announced its election year budget. 

“We are not defined by a government. We are not defined by politicians. We are defined by people, and our culture, and our art,” Topp said. 

“I’ve got a message Paul, if you listen up for a little minute, I’d like you to take a message back to Wellington. I did a speed read on the budget this afternoon. There doesn’t appear to be any money for music. But in big, big letters at the top of the news, 2.1 billion for defence. What the f***?” 

In typical Topp Twin humour, she said New Zealand had “three tanks and two of those are set in concrete in Waiouru.” 

If the Government were to put Kiwi artists on the frontline, she said, “ain’t nobody going to get through us, baby”. 

She continued with a further tribute to Jools. 

“I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of the live artists here tonight. Right now, it feels like the whole country is grieving for my beautiful twin sister. And I thank Aotearoa for that, for that beautiful support that we have. And maybe governments and future governments can take a leaf out of our book. Because if you give back, you get back 110%. 

“So tonight, in the honour of my beautiful twin sister, who I will never ever stop missing, be strong, never give up, play your instrument loud and sing at the top of your lungs and remember that music makes us human.” 

Earlier, Neilson, who won the Best Country Artist Award, paid tribute to the twins in an emotional speech. 

She thanked the pair for their “activism, their fearlessness, and their deep sense of justice.” 

Dame Lynda Topp made her first public appearance since her sister, Jools, died from breast cancer, walking the red carpet for the Aotearoa Music Awards at Auckland's Civic, with Tami Neilson and a host of other Kiwi country music stars. Photo / Sylvie Whinray 

“The first time I met Jools Topp, she was standing on the front lawn of the Founders Theatre in Hamilton, in the middle of the city, with a calf,” Neilson recalled. 

“It was actually Lynda’s calf. The mother had died, and so Lynda had driven it all the way up from Christchurch because it needed to be bottle fed, and that’s what Jools was doing. If that’s not the most Topp Twins story you’ve ever heard.” 

Neilson said it was just one example of the kindness and the generosity the pair held. 

“In one of their acceptance speeches for being legends, Jools said, when there’s even a little crack in the door that opens for you in this music business, especially as a woman, make sure you stick your foot in that door and kick it wide open and hold it open for others to come through behind you. That’s exactly what they did for me. 

“Dame Jools Topp, you may have had to lay down your sword, but you taught me and countless other New Zealanders to fight. So we will continue the good fight.” 

Neilson told the Herald she wanted to use her performance to honour Jools. 

“There’s no way I can repay them for what they’ve given me, but I can try. I wanted to turn my performance into a tribute to the Topps. It’s really important right now that we embrace Lynda and make her feel surrounded and supported,” she said. 

“Everything I do from the time I met them onward has been shaped by them. As I said in my speech, they laid the foundation that I stand on today, and they have shown me by example. Getting to tour with them was a masterclass in how to treat other people.” 

Tami Neilson paid tribute to Lynda and Jools Topp at the Aotearoa Music Awards. Photo / Sylvie Whinray 

On the red carpet earlier in the evening, Lynda Topp told Stuff, “We’ve been kicking ass for many years in New Zealand, and this new generation is going to carry it on”. 

“It’s really important there are women here acknowledged by the media, by the industry, because we never go away,” she said. 

Fans, friends and public figures, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, have shared tributes for the late singer throughout the week. 

Luxon called Dame Jools Topp a “New Zealand icon” who brought “laughter and music into our homes for decades”. 

In an interview with 1News earlier this week, Dame Lynda said her sister had left an envelope instructing her to thank the people of New Zealand for “being there for us” over the last 40 years. 

“I thought it would be something really special for me, to tell me how much she loved and cherished me,” she said of the envelope, but, instead, Jools had a simple message. 

“We couldn’t have done it without you. You made us who we are, you made us the Topp Twins.”