lit a candle 3h agoMy aunt died of the same thing two years ago, 68 years old too, and reading that this woman asked people not to call it a battle hit me hard. I only found the Topp Twins through a documentary that showed up on a late night stream here in Alabama, had never heard of them before that. Lost for an ocean away, but it stings all the same.
Their story
Dame Jools Topp (born Julie Bethridge Topp, 14 May 1958, died 23 May 2026) was a New Zealand singer, songwriter, guitarist, comedian and activist, and one half of the Topp Twins, the country and comedy duo she formed with her identical twin sister, Dame Lynda Topp. Over more than four…
Dame Jools Topp (born Julie Bethridge Topp, 14 May 1958, died 23 May 2026) was a New Zealand singer, songwriter, guitarist, comedian and activist, and one half of the Topp Twins, the country and comedy duo she formed with her identical twin sister, Dame Lynda Topp. Over more than four decades the sisters became two of New Zealand's best-loved entertainers, mixing close-harmony country and folk music, yodelling, unscripted character comedy and plain-spoken political protest.
Jools and Lynda were born in Huntly, in the Waikato, to Jean and Peter Topp, and grew up with their older brother Bruce on the family dairy farm. Jools was the elder twin by five minutes. The sisters sang together from the age of five, first performing at a cousin's 21st birthday, and their brother gave them a guitar when they were 11. They attended Ruawaro Combined School and Huntly College. After leaving school in 1976 they briefly joined the New Zealand Territorial Force and spent six weeks at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch.
In Christchurch the twins met a circle of radical lesbian feminists, and both came out as lesbians in the late 1970s, years before most public figures felt able to do so. They began busking in Christchurch and Auckland and soon toured university campuses. Their songs became a soundtrack for protest: they performed at the Bastion Point land occupation in 1978, the United Women's Convention in Hamilton in 1979, demonstrations against the 1981 Springbok rugby tour, nuclear-free rallies and the campaign for homosexual law reform. Jools also had poetry published in the feminist magazine Broadsheet. In 1989 a crowd watching them busk on Auckland's Queen Street was judged to be obstructing the footpath. The twins were arrested, spent the night in custody singing the blues, successfully defended the charge in court, and enjoyed the publicity.
Within the partnership Jools played guitar and led the songwriting and the music, while Lynda led the crowd work. Their recordings included the EPs Go Vinyl (1982) and Twinset and Pearls (1984) and the albums No War in My Heart (1986), Two Timing (1994), Grass Highway (2001), Flowergirls and Cowgirls (2005) and Honky Tonk Angel (2009). They were named performers of the year in 1984 and won Best Entertainer at the 1987 Listener Film and Television Awards.
The twins' comedy rested on a gallery of affectionately observed New Zealand characters, all performed without a script. Jools played the excitable Camp Leader, forever rebelling against Lynda's bossy Camp Mother, and one of Ken and Ken, the sideburned Kiwi blokes in 1970s suits. Other favourites included Ken Smythe, Raelene, Prue and the Bowling Ladies. Their television series The Topp Twins: Do Not Adjust Your Twinset (later simply The Topp Twins) ran for three seasons from 1996, won awards in New Zealand and screened in Australia. Later work included the quiz show Mr and Mrs (2000), The Topp Twins and the APO with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (2010) and the food series Topp Country (2014 to 2016).
In 2009 director Leanne Pooley's documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, produced by the twins' long-time manager Arani Cuthbert, broke New Zealand box-office records for a documentary and won audience awards at the Toronto, Melbourne and Gothenburg film festivals. A touring exhibition about the twins opened at the National Library of New Zealand in 2018. Their 2023 memoir, Untouchable Girls: The Topp Twins' Story, was the best-selling New Zealand book at the 2024 book industry awards.
Away from the stage Jools was a skilled horsewoman and farmer. For many years she and her partner Mary Massara ran a lifestyle block near Helensville, north of Auckland, where a horse rehabilitation service also operated. After the couple separated she moved to a smaller farm north of Auckland, sharing it with horses, dogs, cats and chickens.
Jools was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, had a mastectomy and chemotherapy, and folded her experience into a touring stage show that raised money for the Breast Cancer Foundation. In March 2022 the twins revealed that both had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. Jools asked that her illness never be called a battle or a fight; she lived with it for 22 years and chose to focus on living well, riding her horses and writing music.
Honours followed the twins throughout their career: appointment as Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004, induction into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2008, honorary degrees from Wintec and the University of Waikato, appointment as Dames Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018, a NEXT Woman of the Year lifetime achievement award in 2019 and an Arts Foundation Icon Award in 2026. On 22 May 2026 the twins were honoured at the Country Music Honours in Gore.
Jools Topp died at home on her farm on 23 May 2026, aged 68, with Lynda, their brother Bruce, close friends and her animals around her. Tributes came from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and former prime ministers Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern. More than 1,000 people attended a celebration of her life at Auckland's Viaduct Events Centre on 19 June 2026, which ended with the crowd on its feet singing Untouchable Girls.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (Jools Topp; Topp Twins); RNZ (25 May 2026, 17 and 19 June 2026); 1News (25 May 2026); Te Ara; NZ Herald; Now to Love; NZ On Screen. Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“We made ourselves look ridiculous ... we asked them to laugh at us, not to laugh at someone else's misfortune.”
Jools Topp on the twins' character comedy
“It was pure honesty about who we were. And if you didn't like it you didn't have to come and see the show. But New Zealand came with us.”
On being out lesbians when they became famous, RNZ Music 101, 2024
“My character, camp leader, she's sort of inside herself but she's so hard to control. I never know where she's going to go.”
The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, 2009
“The Queen must have said 'yes.' She had to tick the box. She must have said 'oh yeah ...give those lesbian twins a bloody medal.'”
On being made a Dame, 2018
“You can talk until you're blue in the face, until people just shut off and don't listen anymore. But a song... everyone can take that song and sing it with us.”
Seven Sharp interview with Hilary Barry, 2023
“We've had a charmed and beautiful life, and hopefully we've changed people's lives along the way.”
Interview with Kim Hill, RNZ, 2023
“I just really wake up every morning and say I've had a beautiful life. I have no regrets. We just say every day above ground is a good day.”
Seven Sharp, 2023
Photos
2The Topp Twins performing in 1981
Jan 1981 · by People Forever
Dame Jools Topp after her investiture as DNZM, 8 October 2018
Oct 2018 · by People Forever
sorry about your aunt. that line about not calling it a battle was so her