Kamahl celebrity print 1974

Summary

This concrete handprint was formerly located as a part of the iconic McEwans celebrity pavement. Between 1972 and 1994, scores of celebrities had their handprints and footprints immortalised in cement at the entrance to the McEwans hardware store on Bourke Street. The City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection acquired a number of these impressed concrete slabs from the original celebrity pavement in 2005.

"Kandiah Kamalesvaran (born Malaysia, 1934) is better known by his stage name, Kamahl. Initially through the patronage of Rupert Murdoch, Kamahl rose to prominence in the Australian popular music scene. His 1969 single, ‘Sounds of Goodbye’ was a Top 20 hit. Kamahl was one of the first artists to appear at the Sydney Opera House in 1973, and through the 1970s and beyond was a fixture on TV variety shows and on the concert and club circuit, in Australia and internationally. He released sixteen albums during the 1970s, whose popularity with the easy-listening crowd is apparent from their ubiquity in op shop record racks." - Robyn Annear, 2023