At a glance…
- The ‘Eastern Rosellas’ song has taken over the internet.
- The Weekly sat down with its seven-year-old creator, Miles Phillips and his family to talk about the song and birds and what it’s like to go viral.
Seven-year-old Miles Phillips was feeding the birds at his grandparents’ house when inspiration hit. Now ‘Eastern Rosellas’ has made him social media’s favourite songbird.
His song is on the radio in Ireland and all over BBC TV, and the music video has racked up millions of views. Its catchiness has been likened to Taylor Swift and The Strokes. Plus, it’s a favourite for the 2026 Hot 100 Song of the Year.
But ask Miles Phillips what it’s like to be a viral rock star, and he answers like any seven-year-old: “A bit weird… and really tiring.”
Miles’ song ‘Eastern Rosellas’ has, like the bird it celebrates, taken flight across the world. Since posting the “full band” version earlier this month, the 80-second tune has become the biggest earworm in Australia.
“Now I’m hearing people singing it and radios cranking it,” Miles tells The Weekly. “Last week my song was the school bell!”
Miles’ school in north-west Sydney isn’t the only one. Schools all over Australia have adopted the pint-sized banger as both a call to class and a joyous cue for playtime. And that’s another reason the song has won hearts: in a weary world it proves that kids can create magic when they’re unshackled from screens and reconnected to nature.
The Phillips’ home is proof that the family that plays together stays together. There’s a piano in the corner, a guitar and ukulele lying nearby. Out back, in Joel’s studio, sits a drum kit. “Hannah sings, and I play, but music isn’t work, it’s just expression,” says father Joel. “We’ve always got instruments lying around as intentional nudges for the kids to try.”
‘Eastern Rosellas’ began as a pure flight of fancy. “I was at my grandparents’ place, and I was feeding the birds seed on the verandah,” remembers Miles. “There was lorikeets, rosellas, pigeons. But the bird that stood out was the eastern rosella, and I came up with a catchy chorus, and Dad and I started workshopping on it. When we got back to Sydney, we had a songwriting Saturday and finished the song. Then we launched it.”
Mum Hannah, a primary schoolteacher, thought twice about putting Miles’ song public. “But I was looking at his little baby book the other day, and in my journal, I found I’d written about finding a middle name for him that would resonate with who he’ll be in life, and we ended up calling him Miles Jay, and Jay means songbird. So, it was kinda meant to be.”
Even so, sharing the song with the world almost didn’t happen. “I posted the song to friends and family,” says Joel. “But after it expired, I had so many texts saying, ‘Where’s that video? My kids are addicted to that song.’ So instead of texting everyone again, we talked about it and said: ‘Let’s just post it.’ I still can’t believe what happened after that.”
The homemade video of Miles and Joel singing away in the backyard rapidly went viral. Radio stations started calling. TV crews descended. ARIA award-winners Ben Lee and Megan Washington recorded a cover version. Miles did 22 interviews in one day. Two million social media views on, Miles now has his own teachers wanting autographs.
“I don’t really like being famous,” he admits to The Weekly. “Like, there’s so many people just coming up to me, saying ‘Is this your song?’ and it’s actually really annoying.” Big sigh. “But I feel a bit special too. My song is touching people and making them happy.”
Although ‘Eastern Rosellas’ is the first song Miles has written, it sure won’t be the last. “My school friends Henry, Max and Jack have a band called The Spike Heads cos we’ve all got spiky heads,” he tells me. “We play rock because School of Rock is my favourite movie. It got me into AC/DC and Jack Black. I also love the Back to the Future musical.”
Despite bottling the lightning once, the Phillips won’t push Miles for another hit.
“We’re not managers, we’re parents,” says Joel. “Creativity and imagination in kids has to be protected because I think there’s something in every adult that longs to see the world as children see it, where anything’s possible. We all grow up fast, and we soon get jaded.”
Miles isn’t there yet. With three older siblings singing and strumming around him, music is still mayhem and for a seven-year-old the best songs are still found outside. “There’s lots of kookaburras and cockatoos and pigeons around here,” he says, clamouring up a tree. “Sometimes I throw them a little seed, they gather around, and we sing together.”
