The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

If you haven’t heard of the Topp Twins, it’s not too late to join the party. It is a party – make no mistake – and they are the life of it. The singers, satirists, cowgirls, activists and lesbians are not one of us, they are all of us.

And the only reason you may not have heard of them is that they are from New Zealand, where they and the characters they play are iconic.

Lynda and Jools Topp are farmer’s daughters turned buskers, rabble-rousers – on behalf of Maori rights and nuclear-free issues – and stars of a TV series who perform their old-fashioned and old-timey routines before rapturous mainstream crowds in arenas and county fairs. They poke fun of and personify all shades of the national character, while staying accessible and inclusive.

They are gay role models, but are more than their sexual preference. One observer notes their act is the sum total of what they are not: not gender-specific, not folk music and not country, not improvisational but not the same as last night. ‘They are two very naughty girls,” someone concludes. And the delight they find in each other’s company is obvious and contagious.

Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls – the title of one of their enduring songs, which we see them singing over several decades – is generously illustrated by performance and news footage of the pair. But it also is a contemporary concert film, in which they reflect on their lives and career, and the songs trigger archival footage, and comments from their comic alter egos.

They don’t harmonize so much as sound like the same voice in stereo, someone notes, and their stage personas are like a hybrid of ‘Hee Haw,’ Minnie Pearl and k.d. lang, although the latter may have been influenced by them. Untouchable Girls is a remarkable, moving and inspirational account of their cheerfully subversive lives.

– Duane Dudek, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel