At a glance…
- Vika and Linda Bull are one of Australia’s most celebrated vocal duos, and they are back on tour in 2026.
- They’ve received major honours, including induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2026.
- The Melbourne-born sisters of Tongan and Australian heritage first rose to fame with The Black Sorrows and went on to have their own career as a duo.
- In 2026, they released an album Where Do You Come From? Which explores identity, family, ageing and their Tongan heritage.
For almost 40 years, Vika and Linda Bull have shared a stage, a career and an extraordinary sisterhood, and now they are once again going on tour.
The sisters joined Tiffany Dunk on an episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast to share stories from growing up in a home filled with music, touring with The Black Sorrows and Paul Kelly, navigating the music industry as women, becoming mothers while living on the road, and the conflict that nearly ended their partnership.
Listen to the episode:
The sisters have been touring their latest album around Australia since June and have tour dates scheduled until February 2027.
“I love touring now way more than I used to,” Vika shares on the podcast. “Touring’s gruelling. It’s really hard, but that adrenaline kicks in. You form this bond. It’s like, this is your family, your group.”
“Very different to the olden days,” adds Linda. “There’s no alcohol on the rider.”
But they have a lot more control over what they choose to do compared to those earlier days.
“We decide that instead of six shows a week, we’ll do three. And we decide where to go and how to get there,” Linda tells Tiffany. “I love touring now way more than I used to.”
But even now, decades after they first got into music, their partnership remains strong and impactful.
“The bond is stronger now,” Vika explains. “I think that we’re making the best music that we, we’ve ever made, I think, now, later on in our life.”
They launched their own career in 1994 with their self-titled debut album, which went double platinum in Australia. Since then, they’ve released a string of acclaimed albums spanning soul, gospel, blues, country and rock.
In their latest album, Where Do You Come From?, Vika and Linda explore multiple themes, including their Tongan heritage and identity, family and ageing. And it is also resonating with their fans.
“People coming up after the show and telling us that, ‘I don’t know why, but I just cried through the whole thing’,” Linda tells Tiffany of the response to their performances on tour. “It’s resonating in some way, and we’re really, really happy about that.”
Their heritage is central to their music. Their mother emigrated from Tonga, and the sisters grew up singing in church and performing traditional Tongan songs, influences that continue to shape their sound.
“It’s personal. It’s a very personal record,” Vika adds. “We wanted to tell our own story finally. It’s time to sing our own songs now.”
The sisters are having a banger of a year thus far; in addition to their tour and new album, Vika and Linda were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2026.
“We’ve never quit,” Linda says of their enduring career. “We’ve never given up the love of singing, the love of each other. Never given up the idea that we could succeed.”
Watch the episode:
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